It seems to me wholly appropriate that the MC known as Ultra Magnus shares a name with one of the Transformers (a fact brought home with various bits of dialogue sprinkled throughout the album and the track “Autobot Anthem”). His rap style can transform from a rapid-fire attack mode to a laid-back vibe, sometimes within the same verse. Add in DJ SLAM’s beats, and you have yourself a quite impressive debut album.
Stand out tracks for me are “Bill Clinton,” “Censorship,” and two of the tracks with guests: “Damage” (ft. The Mighty Rhino) and “Yogibear” (ft. Wordburglar). The first of these is, obviously, about Bill Clinton, or at least partially so. It’s more of an excuse to use him to talk about drug use. I particularly like the opening sax riff, an obvious nod to Clinton’s playing of the instrument, as well as the closing quote from Clinton himself.
I don’t always look at track names when listening to albums for the first time (especially when I’m listening on my iPod), so when “Censorship” came up, I was kind of confused. It didn’t take long for me to realize what was going on, though, and when I checked out the name, I had to laugh at how obvious it should have been.
I’ve only ever heard The Mighty Rhino as a guest on Jesse Dangerously’s “A More Blessed Perfection,” so I was surprised to realize that I recognized him immediately on “Damage.” The track is a perfect example of vocals, beats, and lyrics working in conjunction to convey the message of creating a song so impressive that it just destroys all expectations. Wordburglar, on the other hand, I’ve heard plenty of times, and he never fails to deliver his characteristic mastery of words. “Yogibear” is no exception. From the first words of his verse, ‘Burg shows us how skilled he is a word play. So good!
This album may not have huge amounts of geeky references like most of what I review here, but if you’ve been following this column for any length of time, I strongly suspect that you, like me, won’t care. This is just plain good hip-hop. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
