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I guess I’m supposed to start with something about how you shouldn’t front on this album just because the artists are explicitly Christian. It’s funny that such caveats are still necessary in a hiphop industry replete with Islamic groups and defiant secular humanists. Every person has a worldview, so why is it that Christian hiphop has been so maligned as of late? The obvious answer is that a lot of so-called Christian hiphoppers wouldn’t sell records if they didn’t have a captive audience of fellow faith-seekers, while others obviously create music simply to proselytize and not for the music itself. All of this changes with MARS ILL. The album opens with shout outs from respected artists such as Chief XL and Blackilicious. The respect from the wider hiphop industry for this Atlanta-based crew has been overwhelming, especially following the attention gained by Sphere of HipHop and UpRok Records after the release of the TunnelRats video. “The Sphere of HipHop” traxx - one of which, incidentally, I first peeped on the UK-based Cipher 1.0 compilation put out by Birmingham’s Michaelis Constant emcee ThinKing - may be entirely responsible for this phenomenon. Both Part II and The Original version of these songs display a keen sense of the contradictions which make up hiphop: “Yo, it's this and it's that, it's hype and it's flat, it's white and it's black, it's abandoned and it's packed, it's backpackers, it's wack rappers, beat jackers, chip stackers, but thank God, it's Microphone Masters.” Also name-dropping your favourite old-school and new-school artists on this track, Soulheir the manCHILD helps to mend the current gap between “backpacker” and “jiggy” cliches by showing the breadth and depth of styles and attitudes which hiphop encompasses. Musically, the album is a complete concoction of phat traditional bouncing hiphop tracks like “HipHop Fans” and more dark experimental uses of sounds such as “Unsound”. The turntablist element is thoroughly represented throughout with solid scratching techniques and even better use of vocal samples. Simply put, DJ Dust is one of the most unique producers in underground hiphop right now, displaying an ear for the abstract while still understanding the need to make his music enjoyable, as proven on Indulgent Instrumental #1 and #2. Lyrically manCHILD has it all: a dope voice, enjoyable flow, a balance between complex multisyllables and catchy end-line rhymes, dope punch lines (peep my favourite track “Compound Fractures”), an expansive vocab, a deep knowledge of hiphop, and perhaps best of all, an undeniable impulse to divulge wisdom. The track “Love’s Not” shows an insight into the most powerful force of human society that should be heard by everyone, while the strength of this emcee’s vision is best displayed on the final track displaying his aggressively delivered personal manifesto “The Abolition of manCHILD.” I’m supposed to add some type of criticism to balance a too-glowing review if I want to be a respectable journalist, so quickly: perhaps there are a few too many tracks and some of the choruses come off a little weak (but to me that is the nature of choruses). Still, you will be hearing a lot more from this crew in the future so go check it out and judge for yourself. Oh, and perhaps my greatest compliment: Although they know it will cost them quite a few fans, fame, and fortune than their skill would otherwise gain them - they still don’t front on Christ.
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