After our recent detailing of Cyrus Malachi’s latest offerings and our recent interview with the man himself, we thought the best thing we could do was to review ”The Isis Papers’ ourselves and see what was what. Read on for our full track by track review …….

1. Intro (prod Endemic) – The Isis Papers mixtape begins with a High tempo offering , incorporating some impressive  scratching and sample dropping sequences, which really  sets up the tempo for the rest of the mixtape.

2. Praying mantis – Sees a high energy start, which progresses into a  metaphorical torrent of intelligent lyricism which starts to develop a more angry and urgent feel, which really starts to attract your attention.

3. Millennium ft Melanin 9 & Crown Nectar [Triple Darkness] (prod Beat Butcha) – This track sees the first dark twist in the mixtape, with an introduction consisting of more scratching and a dark sinister beat, with lyrics seemingly comprised from real life experiences with a metaphorical angry twist, which sees Cyrus and co delve deeper into complex lyricism and high tempo flows …. overall an easy listening track, but requires a quick mind set and more than one listen to truly appreciate the lyricism involved, however being honest, we wanted to hear more from this track and felt some of the scratching sections could have been minimised to allow us to hear a bit more of the immense lyricism involved.

4. Bloodhounds ft Melanin 9 & Crown Nectar [Triple Darkness] (prod 7th Dan)- Following the previous track we were really pleased to hear this track kick in with a really simplistic beat, with gentle melodies bouncing about in the background, with a high energy flow and lyrics to leave your mind screaming for a break! Even the hook leaves you scrabbling to catch up with the wordplay, so far this is proving to be an intense mixtape !

5. The hammered bracelet ft Melanin 9 – We really liked how this track kicked in with an old school movie style intro, which then kicked in with a slightly less intense flow and more philosophical orientation to the lyrics, coupled with the awesome lyrical styles of Melanin 9 once again, we were by this point still astounded by the fact that although there had been no major switches to the style of any of the tracks and the flows were all very similar, we were still encapsulated by every word and disappointed as the track came to an end, at this point we are realising that this mixtape is going to be BIG !!

6. 1000 daggers (prod Diplimat) -This track shows Cyrus go it alone again and  With an opening lyric of “take an MC and break him in 3″ to be honest we were slightly bemoaning the scratch intro once again, but all forgiven when what we thought to be some of the best lyricism thus far broke in. The flow so far hasn’t appeared to change at all, but “if it aint broke, dont fix it” definitely applies here. The only complaint here was that this was a short track only comprising of 1:47, but if Cyrus was going for quality over quantity then this track epitomizes that sentiment. perfectly.

7. Robin hood theory freestyle (prod Endemic) – For this number we thought we would keep the analysis  simple …… Hot beat + awesome lyrics + Cyrus breezing through bar after bar = FIRE!

8. Captivity’s tear – This track really refreshes your interest with a more sombre feel to it, which is initially created by a simple low dynamic beat with a gentle acoustic melody accompanying it behind, Cyrus really manages to compliment these productive touches with lyrics that allow you to feel the mood and pain that is being put across to you. A nice switch up which continues the quality we have heard so far.

9. Lion’s den (prod Jon Phonics) – This is one track we already knew alot about, not only have we had it locked as our featured video track for the past couple of weeks, when interviewed Cyrus labelled this as one of his favourite tracks, and to be honest we second that. Everything about this track seems to sum Cyrus up, as we see a nice simple easy listening beat, which Cyrus uses as a tool to flow lyrics which tell tales of which he can relate to, and while this track is fashioned in a story telling manner Cyrus resists the temptation to keep the lyrics simple and monotonous and adds his own intelligent brand of lyric to the track …. definitely a favourite of ours.

10. Feathers of Tahiti ft Melanin 9 – With the return of Melanin 9 sees the return of the high tempo and dark urgency, this track displayed some absolutely immense lyricism and i can honestly say i had my review of this track written in my head before it had finished, yet i still felt the urge to rewind and listen to it again back to back. This is the type of number that can only be appreciated once it is heard, and even then it needs a second listen to truly appreciate the wordplay, and with quick flashes of samples we heard in the beginning intro, it reminds you that this mixtape has drawn you completely into the world of Cyrus Malachi.

11. Redemption – Whether it was just a case of finding the previous track so immense or perhaps built expectations, we were fairly surprised to find ourselves agreeing that this track was fairly average. A simple beat with simple flowing lyrics which to be honest didn’t really excite us too much. While we have nothing in particular to say was bad about this track, we did hope that it wasn’t the beginning of a fade out which saw a mixtape that up to this point demanded our undivided attention , begin to allow us to wander off.

12. 7 plagues (prod Blastah beats) Again we didn’t find too much exciting about this track but began to get the feel that the earlier vibe was beginning to return, and to be honest we never felt like this track was supposed to have you going nuts but merely a track to sit and nod your head along to in appreciation and  were not surprised to find ourselves agreeing that the lyricism had us focused on the track at hand and definitely shows that Cyrus Malachi is a lyricist which is far beyond average.

13. Politikin remix feat crown nectar & melanin 9[Triple Darkness] (prod 7th Dan)  - For us this showed some of the earlier zest return and had us feeling that although we had feared that The Isis Papers may not end as strongly as it began, our fears were completely unfounded and that we perhaps should not worry. Again a very simplistic head nodding beat which sees you tune your ears into some more mind mangling lyrics.

14.  Hood Novelists ft Melanin 9 & Njeri Earth  - This track really showed that the mixtape was going to finish on a strong note, with sinister yet diverse lyricism that completely reignites everything that you have previously heard on The Isis Papers, and with the addition of the female lyrical stylings of Detroit talent Njeri Earth, this track really gives you a feel for the depth of Cyrus Malachi’s creativity and vision.

15. Hell’s Gate ft Melanin 9 & Crown Nectar [Triple Darkness] – The finale to The Isis papers, leaves the listener with a dark sinister beat once more and lyrics which seem to be (perhaps subconsciously) trying to hammer home the message of the street negatives and traumas which exist behind doors that are closed to many . Hell’s gates is a track that is simplistic in its style yet one that is more than worthy to be placed as the finale to a mixtape that can only be described as brilliant.

Overall conclusion :

This is the part where we remove our headphones, and begin to put aside our own personal opinions on how much we like a particular artist and begin the meticulous post mortem, as we look over our dissection of the artist in question’s work.

What may surprise many is that for an artist of such lyrical complexity and depth, Cyrus Malachi  and his offering of  ’The Isis Papers’ becomes increasingly simple to sum up the more you hear it. The words ” Brilliant” and at times even “genius” seem more than fitting when describing Cyrus Malachi and his work. At times we almost telepathically seemed to be agreeing that if this is what Cyrus Malachi can show you on a mixtape, then what is his full Album ‘Ancient Future’ going to reveal. If you were to point any negativity towards ‘The Isis Papers’ then you would perhaps note that sometimes the seemingly unnecessary use of scratching can become an irritation and the fact that there is no real switch in flow at any point could be misinterpreted as monotonous. However when making these points you then realise that this is a mixtape, and seemingly endless flows and cuts, scratches and samples are the true essence of a mixtape.

In conclusion, ‘The Isis Papers’ arrived on my Ipod with the intention of staying there for as long as it took to listen to and digest and review, and has now become an integral part of my most listened to playlists, and will be staying there at least until ‘Ancient Future’ is uploaded onto it! In our opinion Cyrus Malachi takes the entire essence of UK Hip Hop, chews it up and regurgitates it in a form that becomes more appealing to true Hip Hop fans of any nationality than the “Artists”  producing  watered down Hip Hop elements which can fall under no category other than Pop packaged as Hip Hop. Cyrus Malachi draws from his real life experiences and his real life surroundings to produce real Hip Hop.

Finebeats Rating for ‘ The Isis Papers’  5/5

Last night (April 7th) saw Method Man hit London at Matter .

Firstly you would have to say that the event was very well organised, and everybody managed to find their way in without too much effort and as the place started to fill the atmosphere began to build very nicely.

We entered at the start of the night and were amongst the first inside, as we walked in we were greeted with thumping old Skool classics which really set the mood.

This continued steadily with back to back classic tunes, with classics from Biggy Smalls, Jay-z and Nas raising the temperature a notch or so, but the first time that the crowd really came to life was when a bit of Old Dirty was dropped, the shouts of ‘Wu-Tang’ began to filter through and you couldn’t help noticing the number of Wu symbols being thrown up by the crowd, which told us that we were in for a great evening of atmosphere and classic music, after a verse and a chorus of Dirty the announcement “that’s enough of that s**t for now you gonna have to wait for the main event if you want more”, this would have been a good move , but for the following.

Sadly for the larger part of the evening this was where the atmosphere ended and the quality dropped dramatically. The initial  Support act was at best very poor, from an artist who’s sole job for the evening is to warm up the crowd and create some hype, you couldn’t help but feel he almost did the opposite, i don’t think you will find too many (honest) people who could say that it really got them in the mood, and i think the fact that he had to break the news that Cilvaringz wouldn’t be attending didn’t help his cause much.

The next support act to follow was Palestine a.k.a Ledr P, who didn’t do a bad job to be honest, and at least the one saving grace that Ledr P had over his support counterpart was that the effort put into the performance was considerably higher. Still though for us we didn’t feel that this was enough to really get us hyped for the upcoming main event, especially as Method Man was listed to perform at 9:30 and you just knew this wouldn’t happen ! unfortunately we were right, and the supports hadn’t done enough to hype the crowd for the wait in between.

The gap between the supports and the main event were cushioned by some classic tunes which helped get the crowd going,  M.O.P ‘cold as ice’ got a suprisingly good response along with Nas’ ‘Made you look’, a few more Biggy and Jay-z old skool offerings helped keep some interest but the supports just hadn’t done enough for me.

As expected Method Man was late ! although 10:10 wasn’t a tragedy, although much of the atmosphere had ebbed away by this point and a small degree of restlessness had crept in, this was softened slightly by a late influx of fresh spectators which helped to lift things slightly.

The poor support and the wait had  seemingly left Method Man with alot to do when he entered the stage, and as always the Wu legend didn’t disappoint, from the first moment he opened his mouth to the time he put the mic down he had the crowd completely encapsulated and eating out of the palm of his hand, all restlessness and disappointment had completely vanished and Meth had the crowd exactly where he wanted them and the place went absolutely nuts !

With decent support from streetlife and DJ Mathematics behind him coupled with his trademark elaborate stage diving and constant crowd participation Method Man started a process of tearing Matter to pieces and keeping the crowd hyped beyond belief, as soon as the crowd audio level dropped even slightly, a shout of “wu” or “Wu tang clan aint nothin to f**k with” brought the noise through the roof again.

Method man continued to raise the roof with back to back fire, and the middle section of the performance really got the fans going with a tribute to the late O.D.B, and when he dropped “Got Ya Money” the crowd participation and temperature in the venue was nothing short of electric, with Method Man acknowledging that fact by sayin “Thank you London, Dirty woulda loved that shit” with the nostalgic moment over Meth rallied the crowd again by acknowledging  the support saying “This aint an ordinary gig …. this is a method man gig” sending the crowd nuts before saying ” thank you London, you know what ? …. next time im gonna bring Red with me” which got another electric response .

As the evening continued and the dreaded last train home hour arrived, the numbers began to slowly deplete, not dramatically but enough for the rap star to notice, instead of ignoring it or pleading with the crowd to stay,  in typical Meth fashion he cut the beat and said ” Ya’ll gettin tired London ? …… You wanna go home?  …….. well if you do wanna go home ….. then f**k you, you know where the door is, but no matter whether it 1 person, 2 people, 3 people 4 people …. or whatever …….. i’m gonna rock this bitch no matter how many of you are here!”. This brought a huge response with the crowd doing all they could to show that they were still behind the Wu legend.Method then took this opportunity to start dropping some new material and testing the fans to see who was up to date with what he had been doing.

Overall, the initial mood in the beginning was good but not great, the support acts were generally poor, but Method Man was awesome and made the night worthwhile, our advice … if you get the chance to see Method Man live .. then definitely take it !

Pics to follow soon so look out for that !

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We decided to start the week off by reviewing the latest offering by UK talent Tenny Ten a.k.a 10 Shott. The track is called ‘Oh my dayz’ and should be available for purchase today.

The first and most noticeable thing about this track is the tempo and energy, it is one of those tracks that if you hear it at a venue of any sorts, it will have you up on your feet jumping around the place like a lunatic !

You instantly get the feeling that this track will become one that every DJ is going to love having in his set list, reminding us of the first time we heard Wiley ‘wearing my rolex’ , it’s a great ‘get up and go’ track that not only invites you to listen to it, but to feel every single part of this immense energetic prime example of UK talent. With a smooth style that sees Tenny breezing through continuous bars of fire seemingly effortlessly, with a flow that can only be described as flawless.

‘Oh My Dayz’ had us going absolutely nuts and we have no doubt that this is going to be an absolute smash with the UK following and in the club as well.

Just for the pure fact that this had us bouncing from start to finish and the fact that we haven’t stopped listening to it, tells us that this track deserves nothing less than the big 5/5 .

Tenny Ten is about to make a huge impact with ‘Oh My Dayz’ and is the first artist onto our favorites list for 2010.

To all UK fans who only take one piece of advice from us …………. Add this to your 2010 collection.

Track Rating  5/5

Here at finebeats we thought it was about time that we got cracking reviewing some of the work produced by the artists we rave about.

The latest album to grace our eardrums was ’speed of thought’  by Houston rapper K-Rino. Known for his expansive vocabulary and intricate word play displayed in a manner that allows the imagination of the listener to be completely encapsulated, and this latest offering is no different.

Read on for our track by track review :-

 ‘Loaded’ -is the first track to hit you as the album opens with a suspenseful menacing beat, with K-Rino displaying real  intricate word play from start, as soon as it graces your ear drums you feel the  high impact  ‘i  have arrived’ vibe , a great opening to the album with great vocabulary displayed in a  highly metaphorical manner.

‘Scientific‘ enters next,  this track opens with more Futuristic feeling sounds helping to reinforce the ‘cosmic’ feel of the track. Again it is a constant stream of intricate metaphors nicely  continuing the  presence from the first track. Whilst lyrically displaying his comparisons to any other in the game, K-Rino flows with ease and really shows he means business with this album.

‘If you only knew’  is the third track on the album showing a more simplistic approach, with  a resonating and suspenseful beat. Displaying K-Rino  on the attack again, giving a feel that he really knows how good he is, and is almost daring the industry to challenge him. This track shows the first introduction of UK rapper  LATE who’s strongly accented UK sound shows real  presence on the track and really shows how Hip Hop cannot be divided by nationality, the combination gets a big thumbs up !

‘Too Far’  is the fourth track to slam through your cranium, instantly picking up the pace with a much faster tempo to the beat and a faster lyrical flow to match, this sometimes proves to be a large obstacle for some artists, but K-Rino clearly relishes the faster tempo and blows bar after bar of continuous fire with an immaculate flow. Great timing for the faster tempo as the 3 tracks that preceded ‘Too Far’ feel like they have been building up to a release of high tempo lyrical bombardment………. and they got it ! 

‘Debate’  is the next track to drop into the mix and is probably my favourite track of the album the verses display less about the beat and more about  flow and some fantastic  lyrics, moulded around the creation of life,  which are both philosophical and extremely thought provoking, and as usual with K-Rino at some points may have you reaching for a thesaurus !  

‘Tidal waves’ is up next and  sees K-Rino spittin again over  a tricksta beat, throughout the track  with a suspense created through both production and lyricism you are being directed into the  mindset that something huge is happening, whilst embracing the  metaphorical image that K- Rino is eclipsing any other artist in his way. Not sure we really felt the pinnacle of this eclipse on this track and with the beat given we did feel that perhaps more of a lyrical surge would have pushed this track where we wanted it to hit. But don’t get me wrong it still continues the presence of a fantastic album.

‘Tap Out’  is next to drop and see’s the introduction of a more  bouncy light beat, which given the timing is really refreshing and helps to ensure there is no onset of  ‘ Mid album syndrome’  coupled with the art of keeping up the lyrical showcase matched  with  a flawless flow, at this point we saw no signs at all of  being distracted from this album.

‘Waste Man’  is next to play  again featuring LATE , and  again with a darker menacing beat,  this track  feels more like direct attack with  LATE bringing refreshment to the hook. With a ’street style Educational feel’ it sees the pair displaying how easy it is to slip into drugs and the social perception of those caught in that world, thought provoking in a different way and good to hear .

‘Get that Cash’  (feat Kuwait)  follows, the track bounces in with a more  mediterranean feel to the beat. Talking on the good and bad side of money,Life struggles and the problems of the street, it flows pleasantly through the listeners ears, and perhaps gives a few a chance to rest their brain with less focus on vocabulary. 

‘Handcuffin’ then jumps in ( feat Klondike Kat, Pimp game shane and Pointblank). Which again shows a Lighter beat, and as a result, this time perhaps  less impact. Showing some signs of things slowing down slightly here.

‘Old School Rippin’ springs in next and immediately snaps your attention back as  Tricksta’s production pulls off exactly the right feel for this title,  and gives the feel of a tight old school freestyle session showing the return of higher impact lyrics, which are again extremely  thought provoking, we had to listen  twice to this one to fully appreciate !  and we have listened to it many more times since ! real nice track with pure fire displayed in the lyrical section.

‘You aint neva done nothin’ drops next feat LATE,  with a light cerebral beat, does switch back to  lower impact lyrics, and in places feels slightly filler. A track for me which is slightly dwarfed by the sheer tenacity of  a so far fantastic album. 

Then ‘Amnesia’  drops in and very cleverly uses a beat which gives the  implication of  confusion from the start, with a much softer flow and soft hook to match, which gives the sedate feeling the track’s title needed. an enjoyable and cleverly constructed way to chill things out.

‘Holla at me’  comes next with a very simple backdrop comprising of a stabbing beat and simple chords.With remorseful sounding  lyrics, it gives the feel K-Rino is talking about someone he really cares about. Very easy to listen to and continues the more sedate feeling with  a calming influence on earlier more angry tracks.

‘Look around you’ then slides in and  brings the tempo back up slightly, with a  slightly heavier beat but still more sedate than some earlier tracks. A great way to ease the tempo of the track back up and feels like it is now building to finish the album the same way it started.

‘Knockin our Hustle’ finishes the album off and right from the start the beat gives you a real feel of east/ west era, which is then confirmed with opening lyrics speaking on Hip Hop divisions by region, displayed in a respectful and easy listening manner. This finishes off the album nicely and ensures that when the final lyrics have been dropped and the beat has faded out, you are left feeling far from empty and glad you fired up this album.

Overall we really enjoyed ’speed of thought’ , with constant back to back fire that kept our ears locked to the speaker for the duration. K-Rino is definitely an artist to be keeping a close eye on and we can’t wait to see what the Houston rapper brings us next. Nothin but love from Finebeats.

Album Rating 4/5 .