Independent rap just for the love summarized best with selling out is bad, mass appeal is unimportant and playing with the very element that rap involved into from its birth – Build a track on beat laced with heavy drums, kicks,snares andvery little string work. Display of wittiness and an emcee’s way with words – the very understanding and ease to wordplay, tell a story, construct punchlines and head scratching metaphors and in content are political/conscious, lyrical, poetic, real and could be said to be conservative.Now,I give in after much struggle not to see them (Str8Buttah) as a version of Wu Tang Clan where every member stood out. A good listen at the album won’t help.

The bright side is this album was in no way struggling to be commercial (what I really want to say is there was no desire to be lyrical over a yoruba/igbo or pidgin hook) nor an attempt to fuse with the aim of appealing to that listener that is not totally on that side of the fence for the early nineties hiphop. What Str8 Buttah did with this album? I assume Enigma, R Cube, Deck and Rae just want Teckzilla and XYZ (the two producing of the bunch) to keep the sample in check and a full rap beat. The rap is told in english with story told in a language that’s not foreign.

The intro set it straight telling Str8Buttah is that rebel to the ‘entertainment’ that is playing the industry globally. Str8 Buttah stay stuck up and give the middle finger to any form of stunt – Entertain with rock, R and B, Pop but not ‘old’ rap that should be rightly synonymous to hiphop. ‘You know the str8buttah clique got a knack for dropping unorthodox out of the box’ ‘When we kicking mad cipher that make our leg swell’ in the words of one of the collective.

Teck opens track 2 – radio for Rae to tell the radio tale of they getting played only by Doc Gee and don’t leave it as he mentions Lord Of Ajasa. We know Nigerian radio won’t put their kind of track on the playlist too often. I am thinking the track would have satisfyingly (pardon the adjective) brilliant if it was one with a sample from one of our own highlife or afrobeat veterans or just a Fela sample if really Rae held ‘Rakim in my left hand and Fela on my right hand and in my past life, I was Shakespeare’s hypeman.’ It was more of philosophical me-against-the-world kinda jump on this.

Next, They know for a couple of new fan there would be a number of haters, period! Skit from a comedy. I suspect Chris Tucker on defending the art. Followed up by the SMVAwards recognized track and for correction sake. It is ‘The Last Stand’ not ‘last standing’.

Micworx brings aggression to the body of work to ‘Marvel us’ as track six on the album. The collective had to call where they from with Green State Of Mind – It’s L.A.G.O.S if you still don’t know!

Knighthouse recruits Kel for ‘Showtime’ with a recite along hook that she delivers well over the timed kick where she tells who takes a rap verse by saying the name after he wraps it, My verdict? Kel is chilling like a dutchess but won’t say the ‘motherfucker’.

Track 9 parades Mifliss to give that don’t-wanna-hear-myself-when-I-speak gangsta hook just right to call themselves ghetto CNN. The first shout out to late Fleet Militant comes here!

For the ‘lives one’ and the real ones, Str8buttah put the first Jazzy sample. It comes in here.

‘Loving it’ almost was my favourite on the album sees a female voice sample on the background as the rap verses were laid and there was a decision to talk out the track to the end.

On Track 17,Hiphop is African and str8 4rm da art not having a track to say this would be inappropriate just then comes my favourite on the album saw a scratch and classic recitation run in.

The bad? Yeah I made to find one or a few. The album is for a passive hiphop head even with Kel on ‘showtime’ track with the recite along hook – the beat would bore the ‘new school’ of hiphop fans but then the album was not for them. I also had an issue with the choice of words precisely ‘nigga’ (hey, I use it the word) by Mifliss on Fly and ‘project’ in Origin–ion. Why do rappers or emcees use the “N word” and ‘project’ in Nigeria? Nigerian don’t relate with such words.

With that said, I would recommend the album. Support hiphop!

By Dro Ameh.