Tunsi The Omen LP Ever heard of this guy? No me neither, but in a world of waste and glitter it’s hard to hear all the Hip Hop from everywhere, especially if you are a true UK Hip Hop head its hard to check all the UK crews let alone the underground crews from the States. Tunsi is from Oakland California on Parana Records, and what’s more he’s good. Now I aint saying he is the best thing since sliced bread cos I don’t think he is. The unfortunate position that Tunsi is in is that there are so many crews in America trying to come out, which the majority are wic, wic, wack! But this gets pass marks. This 25 track, that’s right Twenty Five (although there are a few skits in there) make up “The Omen”. I used to be right into the whole Horror core Hip Hop, which Tunsi will no doubt already have been labelled, with samples from Omen kicking off the LP clearly laying down the ethos of the album. Now it also has to be said that there are skits on the album that I have no idea what they are doing there, and what they have to do with the following tunes is anyone’s business? Tunsi, himself a good Emcee, but not the best I have heard it has to be said, flows throughout the LP and never falls into the category of talking utter nonsense. He clearly is an enemy to glitter and bullshit lyrics and girls in bikinis in videos. This being a breath of fresh air. With Tunsi, you get what you get. You get the truth, you don’t get the lies, the wanna be life, the gun toting, crack running, bitch slapping ra, ra, ra. None of that is present on the LP, and that is good to hear. I wouldn’t say that this is amazing, I wouldn’t even say that this is a must for the collection. But what I would say is that it is a breath of fresh air across a minefield of stinking corpses of weak tunes and fake rappers. Tunsi soar above all of this and makes it to the other side with flying colours. I only hope Tunsi can continue and elevate to the next level to start cancelling out the filth that runs the top of US Hip Hop. - Riz | profile © ukhh.com 1999 - 2001