PRODUCTION RATING:
ENTERTAINMENT RATING:
OVERALL RATING:
Whether it be beef, mishaps or mistakes, Canibus has had quite a long career. At this point most emcees would hang up the mic. Not Canibus, he just dropped his eighth album and illRoots is here to tell you how it is.When the beat drops on the first track, you get the sense this could be a very long trip into Canibus' warped mind. For starters 'For Whom The Beat Tolls' holds your attention only because of Canibus' signature flow and bickering about the state of Hip-Hop in his sort of futuristic intellectual rhymes. Its a good introduction to the album though and you can never ask to much out of an intro. In 'Harbinger Of Light' Canibus opens up another lackluster beat that has a annoying clap, In a lyrical sense its pretty good though. Poet Laureate Infinity V003 starts out with a bang, but it kind of falls off three minutes in. Its an eleven minute song. Thats an awful thing, to say the least. The next track features Killah Priest and Sun. My guess is this is suppose to bring some extra entertainment, but it kind of fails. Up next we have 'Father Author, Poor Pauper', the beat is reminiscent of something Dr. Dre would spend two minutes making only to give up and throw it away. Canibus spits in intelligent mode again and does it well, still doesn't save the track from the skip button next time I hear it though. Dreamzzzzz is a weak attempt to bring new subject matter in and kills its self with an awful hook, Its a decent story though. The next track, Magnum Innominandum, also kills its self with a weakly thought out hook. It also helps me catch some quick z's, No Nyquil needed!
The track up next on the album, Layered Prayers, brings us a surprisingly decent beat and Canibus brings it lyrically without killing the entertainment, basically this is the first song I enjoyed. The Fusion Centre, featuring Vinnie Paz, doesn't really add anything to the album, but doesn't suck completely either. Its an average track, but still pretty listenable.
As we are entering the last few tracks of the album, we are offered '702-386-5397' a track which gave me one hell of a headache and sounds like a track for NBA Live 2008, very mediocre. In 'Secrets Amongst Cosmonauts' some how Canibus snuck a soulful beat in the mix, its not really up to par with modern production, aka its not that great, but its not as annoying as some of the other beats on the album and I kind of enjoy it. Next up, One Ought not To Think, is also not that bad. Its suppose to be emotional, but Canibus doesn't pulls off emotional all that well on this. Its still a decent song though. My feelings about 'Javelin Fangz' are mixed, its an average track at best though, so lets keep it moving. The next track gives us a verse from K-Solo, some of you may remember him from his beef with DMX, he gives us a relatively forgettable verse, he kind of lost his touch an should keep any extra new material in the vaults. For are closing track, we are presented with the fourth installment of Poet Laureate. Its an appropriate ending and its alot better lyrically then the third PL, but neither of the PL's on this album hold weight against the phenomenal one on Rip The Jacker (RTJ is a classic in My Opinion).
Basically, my final thoughts on this album are that Canibus overall brought it lyrically. His ear for beats is not exactly one I would trust though. That being said this is an album for all you underground heads to praise for its lyrical genius, but at the same time its an album that all you beat lovers will likely throw in the garbage, but If at this point, if what you expect out of Canibus is hot beats, you got another thing coming for you.
