If there's one thing you must understand, it's the rhymes of Vinnie Paz and the music of Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind.
The duo, known as Jedi Mind Tricks, came together in 1991, around the same time that other Philly cats like the Fresh Prince were holding rap down in the City of Brotherly Love. The Jedi Mind Tricks were able to stay together and keep creating music as Stoupe worked as a janitor and Vinnie Paz sold cars.
Now, after 12 years, the Paz and Stoupe were able to find their niche in Hip Hop on "Visions of Ghandi," where they fit somewhere between M.O.P., Gangstarr and Canibus. It's hard to really classify their sound, because they sound like no one else out there.
Stoupe, who handles all of the production, uses a variety of Latin influences in his beats. He recently produced Canibus's new album, "Rip the Jacker," which also came out on Babygrande this year. While Canibus is still spitting the complex rhymes that he's always been known for, Stoupe's production pushed this album past mediocre and made it a must-have for the Hip Hop heads. At the rate Stoupe is moving now, he will soon be regarded as one of the best producers in Hip Hop.
Canibus proves that he and Stoupe have a winning combination when he chips in on "Visions of Ghandi," on the song "Tibetan Black Magicians," which has him tearing up his verse as he sets it up for Vinnie Paz to wreak havoc over the heavy Stoupe beat. However, Canibus still has the listener running for the nearest chemistry book as he rhymes, "Eating MCs / Is like eating garbage they make me vomit / Discombobulate prostates re-hydrate dry lakes / Wipe Ammonium Nitrate across the side of your face."
Vinnie Paz fits Stoupe's beats perfectly. His high-energy, intense flow comes through loud enough to convert the comatose into insomniacs. He proves that there's not too many other MCs like him on tracks like "Animal Rap," the first single which features the legendary Kool G. Rap. Vinnie Paz, who's known to spit some violent lyrics, doesn't fail to disappoint with lines like "I'll feed your corpse to a swarm of vipers / And let 'em suck the blood till your form is lifeless."
Throughout a lot of the tracks, Vinnie Paz's Muslim faith is reflected in his rhymes. He teams up with Ras Kass for the track "Rise of the Machines," a track that almost never happened. The track was recorded just before Ras Kass got nabbed by the law, and now he's serving time. The track ignites with an incendiary Mike Tyson sample claiming he wanted to eat Lennox Lewis' children.
JMT enlists the help of another legend in Hip Hop in the form of Percee P. Percee's been on the scene for a minute, and he's most famous in the New York City area for selling copies of his album "Now and Then" outside of Fat Beats, one of the biggest Hip Hop stores in the city. Percee comes through great on the track as the "Rhyme Inspector" keeps pace with Vinnie Paz and makes you wonder why he hasn't had a whole library of albums come out.
On "Blood In, Blood Out," one of the album's best hype songs, Stoupe drops a nasty beat with a great vocal sample as Vinnie Paz angrily claims "I'm the one who brought the truth to the light / If you listening to me you couldn't lose in a fight / Abusing the mic, with the force of five lions / Anybody f***in' with Paz can die trying." This track draws the M.O.P. comparison, because they're a group known to get people jumping. This track definitely has that ability, as Paz and Stoupe prove that they make a great team.
The new single getting rotation now is "Kublai Khan," which features Tragedy Khadafi and Goretex of Non Phixion fame. Stoupe comes through with another heavy beat. Vinnie Paz spits venom, and Tragedy drops a nice verse as well.
There's a lot of guest spots on the album, as cats like Ill Bill from Non Phixion come through for a verse. It's important to realize though that Vinnie Paz can hold it down solo when he wants. But it's nice to see that he enlisted a lot of good help for this effort, as JMT went after an almost entirely new team of MC's to make cameos. The rhymes of Vinnie Paz are on point most of the time, his flow and the beats of Stoupe are enough to hold this album together and make it one of the better releases of the year so far.
Rating: 4 outta 5
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