This is the fourth solo studio album of Japanese American Rapper Lyrics Born. I learned about Lyrics Born in his early solo career and quickly became a fan, his use of intelligent rap with very musical backgrounds made for some good listening. However when making his third album he decided to change his direction and he steered more towards soul and funk. Now Lyrics Born is a very creative good rapper, but he’s not a very good singer. His wife Joyo Velarde is a Filipino singer and anytime she’s featured on the albums it’s very good because she’s a very good singer. So his third album wasn’t very good, but it seems he’s serious about steering more towards soul music with rap as a secondary thing. So now his fourth album which came out on October 16th is a decent grouping of songs. There are about four songs which are really good, the best two tracks on the album are the first track “Kontrol Phreak” and the ninth track “Pushed Aside/Pulled Apart which features his former partner Lateef The Truthspeaker where Lateef is actually the best part of the song. One thing that some rappers for some reason get into is using skits throughout their albums, little tracks of themselves trying to create a story, and every single time some artist does that, it is awful. Three of the tracks are skits and they quickly take you out of the feel of the album. I’m not very happy with his current direction but invite you if you haven’t heard his music before to check out some of his earlier stuff from his first two albums.
Out of 4 stars: 2 stars.
Key Tracks: