Let Sareem Poems Beat You Over The Head Making You “Black and Read All Over”

Sareem Brings the heat with his latest effort "Black and Read All Over"

Sharlock Poems, Sharlok Poems, Poems, Sareem Poems whatever you wanna call him (I prefer Sharlok Poems), the guy can rhyme. The former L.A Symphony member has become a solid solo artist, releasing three albums in the past (The Movement, Left and the most recent Blooming Sounds). This time around the emcee goes by the name of Sareem Poems and has teamed with Scribbling Idiots member Theory Hazit and Oddisee to handle the production on the album. What do you get when combine these in one album?

 

Now as most of you know guests are really big for me when picking up an album (no it’s not the only thing). Looking at the tracklisting you see there are guests from everywhere and some that we haven’t heard from in a while. LMNO (from the Visionaries) Scarub (Living Legends) Pigeon John (L.A Symphony) and many others assist Sharlok with the lyrics on this record.

 

From the start of the album your ears a blessed with the intro track “Enter” which sets the tone for the entire album, it’s bangin’. The introduction to the track is followed by the track “Come Get It” which features one of the producers of the album Theory Hazit. It’s a track that pretty much says we’re two of the best emcees around and you’re crew is garbage. It’s sets the tone for this album very well and should get the listener psyched to hear the rest of the album.

 

“Hard Labor” continues the trend of banging tracks with features by LMNO and Scarub. The production on the track can only make you move your head up and down; I personally replay this track over and over while I’m jogging because it gets me pumped. Each emcee covers a different topic but I think the overall topic of the song is life is hard work, but we must push on regardless.

 

Like I said earlier the big difference between Sharlok’s last album Blooming Sounds and this one is the guests on the tracks. Most Christian Hip Hop tracks have the serious vibe to it, but if you need an emcee to spice up your tracks you call Pigeon John and he’ll give you a verse and background vocals you’ll never forget and that’s exactly what “Lower the Boom” is. A song that you play at parties to get the people to the dance floor, this song is energetic and you get a guest verse Akil from Jurassic 5.

 

“Shake It Up” is another track where Theory destroys the beat and Sharlok kills the rhymes. One gripe I kind of had with the album is that hooks aren’t really that creative, which I suppose isn’t that big of a deal, but I wasn’t feeling most of them. I think Sharlok kind of mixes up verse topics on this one which has him hitting you with numerous messages in one song.

 

One of my favorite songs on this record is “Impossible” for numerous reasons, first it features Stro the 89^th Key who we haven’t seen or heard from in a while, second we get another gest appearance from Othello from Lightheaded and last the topic of the song is amazing. It’s pretty much that nothing is impossible in life even though life can get rough and we might feel like we’re going to quit. Othello’s verse I think stands out the most on this.

 

“I can’t. Won’t stop nah. Push it forward, gotta crawl.

If I can’t stand tall, I’m a still make it all,

the way to where I gotta be.”

 

Now Theory Hazit handled most of the production on this album, but Oddisee of Diamond District handled the production on two tracks. “Tell It” and another favorite of mine “She’s So So”. I think everyone can relate to this song, basically it’s the whole boy meets girl, is too nervous to talk to girl, contemplates talking to her and then finally does realizes she was feeling him too. This is one of those tracks that just flow and have a nice vibe to them.

 

While I have only listened to 2 of Sharlok’s albums, Black and Read All Over improves on what Blooming Sounds sort of lacked. The production is superb on all levels, Theory Hazit and Oddisee did work on this one and it shows. Every guest on this album from Propaganda to Othello, from Georgia Anne Muldrow to Ragen Fykes all of them brought the heat on their performance. And to top it off Sharlok complimented the beats to perfection, with the exception of a few tracks where Sharlok seems to get lost in the beat (in other words the beat overpowered the lyrics if that makes any sense).

 

Sharlok is honestly on a roll right now with this release and with him and Dust releasing an album sometime before the world explodes it should be a great year for the former L.A Symphony member. A couple words of advice to the reader first go check out Sharlok and Dust’s myspace page for a music video a four tracks that duo has done together (trust me they’re all awesome). Second if you have not picked up the album yet; wait until the deluxe edition comes out on December 1^st because you get the album that I just reviewed here, the instrumentals to the entire album and some remixes. I know I will asking for the Deluxe Edition for my birthday. So pick it up!!!!!

 

Good

 

Beats are banging

 

Guests!!! (LMNO, Ohmega Watts, Othello, Stro, Ragen Fykes, Theory Hazit, Propaganda, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Pigeon John and more)

 

Sharlok brings the rhymes to compliment the beats

 

Bad

 

The beats sometimes overpower Sharlok’s lyrics causing the lyrics to be overlooked.

 

Rating: 4.5/5 (Get this Album Or You’re Missing Out)

 

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

1. Hard Labor feat. LMNO and Scarub

2. Unless You Do

3. She So So

4. Impossible feat. Stro and Othello

5. Shake it Up

 

 

 

Ozark Empire New Video

Now I don’t know too much about Ozark Empire past the fact that Listener of DeepSpace5 is the solo emcee in the group and I believe the other half is a DJ. Here’s their last video for their new album the song is called “Ozark Empire, or a snake oil salesman comes to your town”

Gallery Drive is Here!!!

Ruslan of thebreax, Nomis of Forgotten Heroes, Insufficient Funds (Truthbtold, Sinai and Benjamin Doc), and Afaar have come together to make the supergroup Gallery Drive. The crew has done songs together like “Bragadocious” and “Gallery Drive” but they did an official release under the title Gallery Drive until now. “Psycho” is the single for their upcoming album and let me tell you now it’s banging! Check out the Music Video for their single.

Proverb the Poet Rhymes “For the Kids”

Buy Here

Proverb the Poet has actually been around for longer than people realize. I first heard him on “Success” by TheBreax, then again on “I Got It” also by TheBreax. Every time I listened to him I was always intrigued by his lyricism and thought he sounded amazing with the mike in his hand. Over the summer I was listening to the Sphere of Hip Hop Podcast and one of the songs that came up was “The If” and I kept playing it over and over again for like 2 weeks. Eventually the light bulb went off in my head and realized this was the same Proverb the Poet that did music with TheBreax, I immediately needed to listen to his solo record.

Now before I picked up his solo record For the Kids, Sphere of Hip Hop released “Sunday Thoughts” for a free download and that song honestly sealed the deal for me. Tactik produced the track and he actually samples the 9^th Wonder produced beat “Honey” from Erykah Badu’s album. The song seems to cover Proverb’s Sunday, going to church with Beleaf (from TheBreax) and many other things. Proverb’s voice seems to fit the beat perfectly leaving the listener amazed by his talent.

“The If” was the first track promoted on the Sphere of Hip Hop Podcast the beat was produced by MotionPlus of the Scribbling Idiots. The format of the track was what was interesting to me, in the first verse he talks about what a perfect world would be like. In the second verse he talks how the world truly is and in the last verse he talks about a possible solution to “fix” the world.

Some people kind of assumed that when Proverb made this album that it would automatically assume the sound that TheBreax have (slightly more mainstream sounding), but the record is more boom bap sounding. “Right Now” is produced by Nathan Soultrain who produced some hits for TheBreax like “For What” and “Ready to Sell Out”. The track is a banger and features Beleaf (of TheBreax) again for is a track that will have your head banging and your stereo turned up to 11.

“From the Window Pane” is another track that kept me tided over till I received the full record. It’s a track that talks about how rap and hip hop used to be when lyrics mattered and that was what gave you the credit you deserved. Tactik again produces a solid track and one of the things that I love about the production of this album in general is the utilization of the saxophone (which comes in second to my love for the piano). At the end he names some of the groups and artists that influence the music he makes (A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, Mos Def) and others.

“The If” is my favorite songs with a lot the other ones coming in close second one of those songs is “Mother Like You”. The production is amazing and done by DJ Jazzy Jeff it just kind of has an EPIC feel to it, Proverb takes the role of storyteller in this one and this is actually a track that I’ve listened to multiple times and am still trying to get the grasp on (no this is not his fault it’s mine for being a bad reviewerJ).

“Sarah Blessman” is the feel good track of the album and should give anybody who listens to it the feeling that they can do anything in this world as long as we have Christ on our side. Proverb raps this song showing his love for life and hip hop and is a great way to round out the album.

Proverb is 18 years old and a Freshman in college (to put that in perspective I too am a freshman in college and I rap nothing like he does) and has so much time ahead of him to further perfect his craft, which is scary by the way. He’s like the LeBron James of Christian Hip Hop! Pick up this album the only real gripe I had with it was the lack of guests you get Beleaf, Ruslan and another guest who’s name escapes me and isn’t on the track list on Sphere.

Good

Proverb is ill with the mike and he’s just getting started

Production is by a lot of people but it still meshes well together

Bad

Lack of guests

Rating: 4.5/5 (Almost Classic, GET IT NOW!!!)

If You Can’t Get The Album Download These Tracks

1. The If
2. Mother Like You
3. Let’s Go Outside
4. Sunday Thoughts
5. From A Window Pane

Slight Hiatus…..College

I wanted to apologize to all my readers because of my lack of updates from the blog (reviews and podcasts alike). There’s a couple of albums that I still need to listen to and review. The only reason I haven’t been updating the blog is because I just moved into college a last week and I’ve been incredibly busy trying to get the podcast on the radio stations down in Athens, Ohio (I go to Ohio University). And I honestly haven’t had time to sit down and go through albums. The one I’m really trying to go through is Proverb the Poets “For the Kids” album so that’s what I intend to review next. So please be patient and continue to make requests!

Mouf Warren and Griffin are Def Defying (Def Defying Mixtape Review)

Download Here

As I wait for the members of EDM to release their own solo projects I was told on the forums of SphereofHipHop.com that the group released a mixtape called the Def Defying Mixtape. EDM (Every Day Martyrs) is a duo of two brothers Mouf Warren of Scribbling Idiots and Griffin of The Tunnel Rats. Now Mouf Warren is my 2nd favorite rapper of all time and Griffin is 4th favorite rapper of all time so putting them together on one project equals nothing but awesomeness for me. Could this album mixtape be as awesome as I want it to be. One Word: YEEEEEEESSSS!!!

This is another duo album that does most of the things right. The album has guests from their hometown of Defiance, Ohio (which I live in Twinsburg, so I’m assuming Defiance is down south) classic beats from Wu-Tang Clan, Common, Hi-Tek and Just Blaze and others. The album starts off with a hilarious skit, then jumps to the first track on the album “Rulez Cash” using the beat from Wu-Tang Clan’s classic “C.R.E.A.M”. Griffin and a hometown friend of EDM Kaz kill the track. The topic of the track obviously being money and how it clouds the mind of all of us. The beat is hot and the lyrics revive an already classic beat.

So we all know that Mouf Warren and Griffin are brothers, but I didn’t know there was yet another brother with rhyme talent. The song “Cold Food Hot Beer” features the youngest brother Hectic. The track is pretty much saying “Guess what you don’t know the OH-10, but we’re easily one of the best in the game” and I love it. The problem is a lot of the tracks on the mixtape have the topic of saying “Ohio is the place to be for rap”.

“Paper Up” features Kaz (who makes quite a few appearances on the album) whose verses on the mixtape are more or less the same “We rock you suck” which is okay only because EDM changes it up a bit. Griffin’s verse has him dissing the mainstream and at the same telling the listener to take a chance with them.

“Def Tole” is the posse cut on the album featuring Kas, Theory Hazit, Cas Metah and another rapper who I’m not exactly familiar with. Every rapper gets 8-bars and it’s pretty much a freestyle track, but it’s cool none the less.

Griffin showcases his storytelling ability in the track “Nightmare on Clinton Street”. No I pray for Griffin’s sake that the nightmare he describes in this track is something he came up himself (then again if he did come up with it himself his mind is something I’ll never be able to understand). Anyway Griffin does an amazing job painting a picture for the listener. Listening to this you can only hope that you never have a nightmare like this.

“Stay True. Motivate” is my favorite track on the album it features Scribbling Idiots member Cas Metah. The beat for the song is from the classic Common song “I Used To Love H.E.R”. Mouf Warren talks about our motivation to do certain things, such as murder and sin in general. Griffin has one of my favorite verses ever with him talking about his struggle to find motivation and how “In weird way I’m…saying the same people that hated me are the same people that motivating me now”. Cas rhymes on how with out motivation we can’t really get anywhere in life.

The Def Defying Mixtape is a solid mixtape that has classic beats, original beats and talented lyrics. That doesn’t mean that there are no flaws with this. One thing I wasn’t feeling on this mixtape was the language of their guests more specifically of Kaz, he tosses around the N-Word in almost all of his verses. Also the fact that most of the mixtape is basically saying how Ohio is the best in rap. I don’t mind songs like that (I mean “Don’t Doubt” from Cas Metah’s Guest Room was epic) just don’t make half of your album like that. Okay, so Mouf and Griffin have released projects with their respective crew, made an album together can we PLEASE SEE A SOLO PROJECT FROM THESE GUYS (unless that whole Griffin and Cas Metah doing a project is true than I’ll till after that’s released).

The Good

Mouf Warren and Griffin=EPIC

Guests from around the OH-10

Beats from Common, Just Blaze, Hi-Tek and others

19 free tracks of Goodness

The Bad

The tracks about Ohio and it being the best are too many

Too much use of the N-Word

Rating: 4/5 (Good definitely Worth Grabbing….I mean it’s free)

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

IF YOU CAN’T BUY THE ALBUM YOU’RE AN IDIOT BECAUSE IT’S FREE!!!

BillyBo Gives Us A Little Piece Of Home (A Little Piece Of Home Review)

Buy Album Here

So earlier this year I’m sitting in my photography class and instead of doing my assignments I spent my time on SphereofHipHop.com (which could be one of the reasons I got a C in that class and because I didn’t try since it was my senior year and it was a blow off class). Anyway during that period of time of March to about May every time I jumped on the site I saw an advertisement for BillyBo’s album A Little Piece of Home and I was slightly intrigued to pick it up, the only problem was I had already told myself I would wait and buy JustMe’s Before the Twilight and Cas Metah’s Guest Room. The entire time though I was thinking I wonder what BillyBo sounds like. Eventually I got my answer when I received Praverb’s The Gospel Is Free mixtape and that sold me into giving BillyBo a chance. A couple months later, I received A Little Piece of Home in my inbox a couple weeks ago and after a few technical difficulties on my part I finally got to sit down and listen.

The first very notable part of about this album from the start is the creative production this album holds. I’d like to say it’s a mix of country and hip hop, but I think the beats are have a little more edge than country. Whoever made the beats for this album did an amazing job in mixing the countryesque beats with the DJ scratches and it has an addicting vibe to it. The point is the album’s sound is one that we’ve either never heard before or haven’t heard in a real long time.

BillyBo actually reminds me of a different version of Change, one that is more personal yet still hits close to home with his lyrics. The second track on the album “Today” proves my point. This track covers what many numerous tracks cover and the idea never gets old: the journey that we’ve taken from the beginning of our lives to the point where we’ve found Christ and even things we go through after Christ has saved us. BillyBo puts everything out there and I think that makes the listener able to relate to BillyBo even more.

Now I got this album about a week ago and the only reason this review wasn’t out sooner is because I every time I would listen to the album straight through I would never get past “One More Mile”. I heard the track on the Sphere of Hip Hop Podcast (SphereofHipHop.com) and when I received the album I couldn’t stop listening to this song. The beat has somewhat of a dark feel to it, which is perfect for this song and the lyrics that go along with it. Life is rough for all of us, but the road that we travel is even harder for Christians, we all can personally relate to the idea of “One More Mile”. We all work hard and we all work hard to achieve the goals that we have set for ourselves and the goals that God has set before us. For me this song talks about the idea of “being so close, yet so far”. This song is a classic and is one of the songs that deserve to nominated for “Song of the Year”.

“Daddy” is another song that has a topic that has been covered by the likes of MotionPlus, Wonder Brown, EDM and others. The fact that their fathers weren’t there when they needed their fathers. During the first two choruses of the song I got the feeling that BillyBo had some serious hatred for his father. The lyrics to the song is reminiscent of Wonder Brown’s track “Namesake” (from his free EP The Wake). The chorus changes from “Daddy, I hate you” to “Daddy, I love you” which sends a strong message to the listener: we’ve all been mistreated, but we’re called to love everyone just the same.

A Little Piece of Home is a solid album that’s filled with creativity and lyrics that should hit home to the listener. BillyBo even brings along guests: reSearch, Cas Metah, Change, ManChild, Aaron Paul and Phynite, plus the production the unique. The only thing I can say I wasn’t feeling was the remix of “One More Mile” at the end of the album. Other than that go grab this album you won’t regret it.

The Good

Production is one of kind and unique (wait a minute I could’ve swore we asked BillyBo if he could get the instrumentals for this album in the Sphere forums…)

Lyrics hit home and allow the listener to relate even more to BillyBo

“One More Mile” LISTEN TO IT YOU’LL KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!!

The Bad

The beats from the album while they are creative, sometimes slow down the flow of the album.

Rating: 4/5 (Good Album/ Definitely Worthy Of Your Music Collection)

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

ONE MORE MILE!!!

The Records That Changed My Life

Daddy

Yesterday

Chains and Things feat. ReSearch and Aaron Paul

Christian Hip Hop Podcast #32

So duos are awesome if you guys didn’t know so I dedicated a podcast to them. This episode features classic duos:

Solseekers, EDM, The Brainwash Projects, LPG, JustMe and Cas Metah and many others.

Click to Download

Sev Statik Speaks Life (Speak Life Review)

Sev Statik, Da Pointman, whatever you call him the man is work horse, he juggles being a part of two of the best groups in Christian Hip Hop: The Tunnel Rats and DeepSpace5, while continuing to put out albums from his solo career. Before Back to Dust, Shotgun and some of the group projects Sev Statik released Speak Life which for the most part was produced by The Tunnel Rats own Dert. So if you take Sev Statik’s ability to put the world under a microscope, while teaching you a lesson and Dert’s insane ability to produce amazing beats what do you get. I’ll tell you what that means:

Sev Statik + Dert=CLASSIC!

One amazing thing about this album is the album’s format, it has the perfect balance of solo tracks and guest appearance tracks. I kinda like to think of the album as Sev Statik and The Tunnel Rats, because if one of the Tunnel Rat emcees don’t have a verse you can hear Raphi or Macho handling the hook on a track and it’s great. In fact every Tunnel Rat is on this album except Griffin and Triune (who eventually get their chance on Back to Dust).

After the intro and the first track “All For A Purpose” we get a posse cut called “Warning” which features new Tunnel Rat members (at least they were new at the time) Dokument and Propaganda. For the most part the track says “hey guess what we’re the Tunnel Rats don’t mess with us because we might destroy you…..lyrically anyway”.

Sev Statik handles a lot of topics (I mean A LOT of topics), but two of them always tend to stand out: his outlook on us as a nation and the rap business. “Over the Influence” handles the idea of the mainstream rap business being corrupt. The mainstream raps lies and rappers like Sev Statik bring the truth on every track. Sev stays “Over the Influence” by reading the Word. “Global” is another track where Sev raps on his frustration of the mainstream the only difference is he brings LPG along for the ride. I’ll put it this way if decide that you wanna battle LPG or Sev this track should make you reconsider your decision.

Now the title track on this album is my favorite for many reasons, one the beat is amazing, second Dax destroys the hook and third Sev hits you with so many important subjects it’ll make your head spin. Sev’s first verse talks about he speaks life when he’s rapping these words the line that sticks out most to me is:

“Serving fiends for free cuz my gift is my music, pushing the world to move souls and not units”

The second verse is all about how Sev’s outlook has changed and how he hopes we will live our life’s to the best of our ability. He says when writes his verses he does in God’s name. He goes on to tell us some things that will only help us in this world: staying unique and not conforming to the world’s ways and not being lazy. Sev’s last verse is where Sev talks about us as a nation pretty much saying the Bush Administration (who was “in control” of the country at the time) contradicts what God would have us do. For example, Sev brings up the fact after 9/11, the Bush Administration as we know went to war with Afghanistan, not because they want to defend us from terrorism, but for other reasons. Basically this track should make you think about a lot of things, yourself and the nation that we’re in.

Speak life is a classic album straight up and I think it’s Sev Statik’s best album to date. The lyricism and the topics Sev covers a multitude of topics. Production was great Dert and Peace 586 did amazing on the beats. It had the perfect balance of guest and solo tracks with almost every Tunnel Rat made an appearance on the album. Get the album if you don’t well…you’re an idiot!

The Good

Sev’s lyricism is great and covers many important topics
Production is one for the record books
Guests everywhere!!!
“Speak Life”

The Bad

DeepSpace5 only on one track

Rating: 5/5 (GET THE ALBUM IT’S A CLASSIC)

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

Speak Life

Warning feat. Propaganda and Dokument

Season of a Tear feat. Zane and Elsie

Global feat. LPG

Mic

I Read The Summer Articles of Sojourn (Sojournalism Review)

Now if you’ve paid attention for the last couple of years we haven’t seen a release from the Hip Hop Is Music record label run by Braille of Lightheaded. And people that know about the label also know the label has yet to release an album that was anything short of great. If you go through my blog you learn that the releases that have come from Hip Hop Is Music haven’t received a rating lower than a 4 (which is good by the way). So what ever happened to the label…actually I have no idea, but I do know that they’re back with the perfect release to jump start the label again.

Sojourn of Future Shock is not even close to new on the hip hop scene, he’s done work with the Tunnel Rats and made guest appearances on numerous tracks (TheBreax, Dokument, Cas Metah, JustMe, Solseekers and others). So finally Sojourn has released his first solo album entitled Sojournalism: The Summer Chronicles under the Hip Hop Is Music record label. Now if you guys remember I put this album on a list of albums I was strongly looking forward to this year, so when I got this in my inbox I was instantly psyched.

I took a look at the track listing before I listened to the album and saw that a bunch of people put hard work into this album both guests and producers. Sojourn handled some the production with other production from Ruslan of TheBreax, Theory Hazit, Dert and others.

The first very notable track on the album is “Human Resources” featuring Big Rec of Mass Reality. I was psyched for two reasons first the fact that Big Rec was on track because I really haven’t seen too much of him lately and second it was Sojourn on the beatbox…that’s right THE BEATBOX!!! It’s probably my favorite track on the album because of the vintage sound and brought me back to the good old days of hip hop, two people a beat boxer and the emcee ripping up tracks like there’s no tomorrow.

A couple tracks later is “Cause and Effect” which is where Sojourn tells a story of how one time when Future Shock was on stage, a crew of emcees jumped and tried to battle Future Shock and from the way the story was told I wish I would’ve been there myself so I could see Future Shock destroy the crew of emcees that wanted to battle for the name Future Shock.

“Civil War” was one of my favorite tracks lyrically on the album, probably because Sojourn made it so easily to relate to what he was speaking on. The track covers on how hard it is to be a follower of God in a world surrounded by evil. The hook says it all “there’s a war going on inside” and it’s true inside of all of us we battle everyday with the human in us and the Holy Spirit in us. That song truly hit home reminded me of Braille’s “Broken Heart” off the S1 Cloud Nineteen project, an amazing beat with lyrics that can’t help but make you feel like the people making this music go through the same things that we do.

One thing I like about this album is the variety of beats and lyrics on this album. You have the posse cuts, songs of heartfelt lyrics and bangers filled with battle raps and that’s where the track “10,000” comes in. A track that features Hip Hop Is Music artists Braille and Theory Hazit with production from The Strange Fruit Project’s S1 fresh of his release with Braille Cloud Nineteen. All three emcees take the beat by the neck and strangle it, each emcee killing their verse. This was definitely a song I pressed the repeat button on, in fact when I first got the album it was the second track I listened to (with Human Resources being first).

“The Road Less Traveled” is another favorite track of mine which features Sojourn’s Future Shock Crew and an emcee named BlameOne. This is also another amazing track lyrically and it helped me to realize something that’s kind of a downer. The road we as Christians travel is a road less travel and one that is very difficult. The hook to this song says it all:

“The path we walk, some couldn’t handle

On this road less traveled

It’s a place where dreams get trampled

On this road less traveled

Keep it moving cuz time don’t stand still

On this road less traveled”

In bits and pieces of this verse you can sense the pain and frustration that the crew goes through on this road less traveled. Sojourn made the beat himself and I love it, because it’s dark and has the piano which combines perfectly with the dark lyrics.

Sojourn has been around for a long time and I’ve grown to love every track that he’s on, which could the reason why I over hyped this release for myself. On my first listen I was somewhat disappointed, but I ended listening to the album 6 times over and over again I grew to realize the album is great on both a lyrical and production standpoint. The Hip Hop Is Music label succeeds once again in releasing a talented album from a talented emcee. Fans of Sojourn will love this album and the variety of styles just take the album to another level. Pick it up, now if only we could get Future Shock to release another album….and what about Big Rec?

The Good

HUMAN RESOURCES feat. BIGREC

The variety of sounds and lyrics on the album

Sojourn’s ability to hit home with his lyrics

Production from everywhere Theory, Dert, Ruslan, and Sojay himself

The Bad

For some reason I’m having a problem understanding the topic of Art Verses Commerce….I love the beat though

Some the tracks were just good (Solutionists, Fool’s Gold, Say Something) they were missing the umph that was in the rest of the songs

I probably never see a Human Resources album with just Sojay on beatbox and Rec on the lyrics

Rating: 4/5 (Great, Go Get It)

*- Like I said I over hyped this for myself so I’d actually give it like a 4-4.5

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

Human Resources feat. Big Rec

10,000 feat. Theory Hazit and Braille produced by S1

A Road Less Traveled feat. Future Shock and BlameOne

The Craving produced by Dert

Civil War produced by Theory Hazit

Buy Album

Now if you’ve paid attention for the last couple of years we haven’t seen a release from the Hip Hop Is Music record label run by Braille of Lightheaded. And people that know about the label also know the label has yet to release an album that was anything short of great. If you go through my blog you learn that the releases that have come from Hip Hop Is Music haven’t received a rating lower than a 4 (which is good by the way). So what ever happened to the label…actually I have no idea, but I do know that they’re back with the perfect release to jump start the label again.

Sojourn of Future Shock is not even close to new on the hip hop scene, he’s done work with the Tunnel Rats and made guest appearances on numerous tracks (TheBreax, Dokument, Cas Metah, JustMe, Solseekers and others). So finally Sojourn has released his first solo album entitled Sojournalism: The Summer Chronicles under the Hip Hop Is Music record label. Now if you guys remember I put this album on a list of albums I was strongly looking forward to this year, so when I got this in my inbox I was instantly psyched.

I took a look at the track listing before I listened to the album and saw that a bunch of people put hard work into this album both guests and producers. Sojourn handled some the production with other production from Ruslan of TheBreax, Theory Hazit, Dert and others.

The first very notable track on the album is “Human Resources” featuring Big Rec of Mass Reality. I was psyched for two reasons first the fact that Big Rec was on track because I really haven’t seen too much of him lately and second it was Sojourn on the beatbox…that’s right THE BEATBOX!!! It’s probably my favorite track on the album because of the vintage sound and brought me back to the good old days of hip hop, two people a beat boxer and the emcee ripping up tracks like there’s no tomorrow.

A couple tracks later is “Cause and Effect” which is where Sojourn tells a story of how one time when Future Shock was on stage, a crew of emcees jumped and tried to battle Future Shock and from the way the story was told I wish I would’ve been there myself so I could see Future Shock destroy the crew of emcees that wanted to battle for the name Future Shock.

“Civil War” was one of my favorite tracks lyrically on the album, probably because Sojourn made it so easily to relate to what he was speaking on. The track covers on how hard it is to be a follower of God in a world surrounded by evil. The hook says it all “there’s a war going on inside” and it’s true inside of all of us we battle everyday with the human in us and the Holy Spirit in us. That song truly hit home reminded me of Braille’s “Broken Heart” off the S1 Cloud Nineteen project, an amazing beat with lyrics that can’t help but make you feel like the people making this music go through the same things that we do.

One thing I like about this album is the variety of beats and lyrics on this album. You have the posse cuts, songs of heartfelt lyrics and bangers filled with battle raps and that’s where the track “10,000” comes in. A track that features Hip Hop Is Music artists Braille and Theory Hazit with production from The Strange Fruit Project’s S1 fresh of his release with Braille Cloud Nineteen. All three emcees take the beat by the neck and strangle it, each emcee killing their verse. This was definitely a song I pressed the repeat button on, in fact when I first got the album it was the second track I listened to (with Human Resources being first).

“The Road Less Traveled” is another favorite track of mine which features Sojourn’s Future Shock Crew and an emcee named BlameOne. This is also another amazing track lyrically and it helped me to realize something that’s kind of a downer. The road we as Christians travel is a road less travel and one that is very difficult. The hook to this song says it all:

“The path we walk, some couldn’t handle

On this road less traveled

It’s a place where dreams get trampled

On this road less traveled

Keep it moving cuz time don’t stand still

On this road less traveled”

In bits and pieces of this verse you can sense the pain and frustration that the crew goes through on this road less traveled. Sojourn made the beat himself and I love it, because it’s dark and has the piano which combines perfectly with the dark lyrics.

Sojourn has been around for a long time and I’ve grown to love every track that he’s on, which could the reason why I over hyped this release for myself. On my first listen I was somewhat disappointed, but I ended listening to the album 6 times over and over again I grew to realize the album is great on both a lyrical and production standpoint. The Hip Hop Is Music label succeeds once again in releasing a talented album from a talented emcee. Fans of Sojourn will love this album and the variety of styles just take the album to another level. Pick it up, now if only we could get Future Shock to release another album….and what about Big Rec?

The Good

HUMAN RESOURCES feat. BIGREC

The variety of sounds and lyrics on the album

Sojourn’s ability to hit home with his lyrics

Production from everywhere Theory, Dert, Ruslan, and Sojay himself

The Bad

For some reason I’m having a problem understanding the topic of Art Verses Commerce….I love the beat though

Some the tracks were just good (Solutionists, Fool’s Gold, Say Something) they were missing the umph that was in the rest of the songs

I probably never see a Human Resources album with just Sojay on beatbox and Rec on the lyrics

Rating: 4/5 (Great, Go Get It)

*- Like I said I over hyped this for myself so I’d actually give it like a 4-4.5

If You Can’t Buy The Album Download These Songs

Human Resources feat. Big Rec

10,000 feat. Theory Hazit and Braille produced by S1

A Road Less Traveled feat. Future Shock and BlameOne

The Craving produced by Dert

Civil War produced by Theory Hazit