A little something new for y’all.
‘The Theif and the Fallen’ Released: June 2015. Label: Enemy Soil.
Frontman and Lead Rapper – Vinnie Paz (Aliases; Boxcutter Pazzy, Pazmanian Devil, Pazman, O’Drama Vinladen or just Vinladen, Pazzienza, Luie Doggs and The Genocide General). Producer – Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind
General Information:
Jedi Mind Tricks or just JMT, are a hardcore rap group based in Philadelphia, NY. Sicillian Vinnie Paz, the groups frontman moves weight through rap scene like Michael Corleone tearing apart the five families in his prime, whilst Stoupe in fine form concocts a killer tonne of crazy beats. Although Pazzy is no sellout and you’ll never hear him anywhere near the mainstream, he is like the Lemmy Kilmister of underground rap. A godfather in his own right. Not all heads will have heard of the JMT and hell, that’s why Im writing this damn thing. Buckle in hiphop fans, with Stoupe on the beat, these two bring the pain on wax with this marvellous underground oldschool yet gritty latin styled record. You best peep The Thief and The Fallen if you respect real hiphop.
Track #1 – Intro. Smooth, jazzy and reminds me of Italy – perfect for the Larry Davis of rap to start off with.
Track # 2 – Poison in the Birth Water. Damn, the title says it all, there is no nonsense here man. “I don’t even rhyme over a beat, I fucking torture it. Like taking a butterfly an rippin the wings off of it”. The beat is crazy, sounding like the exorcist of hiphop and pazzy kills it. Or tortures it as he would prefer to say.
Track #3 – Rival the Eminant (Ft Lawrence Arnell) Another Italian, Mafioso styled gangsta rap kind of thing. Pazzienza adopts a Big Pun styled flow, unsurprisingly as Pun is his proclaimed favourite. Quite a few cool rhymes in this one, my favourite refers to how his Italian mother still “cracks me in the head with a wooden spoon”. Ha. Ha. Ha. All of us Italians understand pazzy. Not a huge fan of whoever the Arnell guy is on the hook but other than that not a bad track.
Track #4 – Hells Messenger. I feel like if anything, this is the club beat due to the sound hook, buuut. Fuck it man it’s too hardcore for the clubs and too hardcore for the radio so lets keep it to the boom box. Perfect for me. It’s a banger, trust me, If you don’t then “you an asshole masturbating to soft porn, no guns – iron deficiency you an anaemic, audio heroin intravenous”.. Yup, Hells Messenger is raw.
Track #5 – Merchant of War. I love this one. “I’ve been down since disco 3 became fatboys”. “Let me fall back, let me take a sip at the bar, cos Vinnie in the hood like im fixing your car”. Paz has some lines, Stoupe kills this beat and both are set to level 100. Go get this album.
Track #6 – La Montagna del Dio Cannibale (Ft Yes Alexander). A nice interlude, quite sombre and provokes your sad senses.
Track #7 – Fraudulent Cloth (Ft Eamon). Do you remember Eamon, the guy who sung that hit back in the early to mid 2000’s called; “fuck it I don’t want you back”. What do you know, he got fucked over by his record company and couldn’t release anything for years. Now, he is back at it and rocks with underground rap crews like JMT, along with other great rappers like R.A. The Rugged Man. Anyway, Eamons hook is beautiful and Vinnie spits that soulful gold. All I’m saying is get this album fam.
Track #8 – And God Said to Cain (Ft Afro AKA – All Flows Reach Out & R.A. The Rugged Man). Damn, when R.A. and Vinnie get on a track it’s always classic and now that this young kid called Afro has joined the hiphop scene courtesy of R.A. – the shit gets wild on this track. Trust me this is a lyrical bomb, I don’t even know who is the best – you decide. Probably my favourite, It even samples smiley the ghetto child’s amazing verse of that under looked gangstarr track from “The Ownerz” called “Werdz from the Ghetto Child”. I used to rap that verse in the mirror. Fuck, I still do. Ha. Just listen to this album.
Track #9 – Destiny Forged in Blood. I love this, the beat is sick – big pun styled gruff delivery on a haunting beat. Did I tell you to get this album?
Track #10 – Il Tuo Vizio e Una Stanza Chiusa e solo no le ho la chiave (Ft Yes Alexander). Probably my favourite of the interludes – its dark and Its just really good.
Track #11 – Deathless Light. Didn’t I tell you JMT were hardcore? Forget the jazzy roots represented by a number of the tracks in this album.. Deathless light is like the second coming of Onyx and M.O.P. combined. Sicilian King Kong rap style. Damn, I wish Sticky Fingaz or Billy Danze and Lil Fame of M.O.P. were featured on this track.
Track #12 – No Jesus, No Beast. The track has that oldschool hiphop mixed with latin vibes feel to it yet again. I feel like Pazzy and Stoupe really felt this style was important and fucking banged out some great stuff. The Genocide General; Pazienza, kills it with the adopted Big Pun style flow he pulls of so well in this album. Strange thing to get used to though as most Vinnie Paz heads listen to him for that avalanche delivery. Anyway, dope song.
Track #13 – The Kingdom that Worshipped the Dead. (Ft. Dilated Peoples). This duo always keep it grimy from the titles to the rhymes to the beats. This one features Dilated Peoples and is not bad at all. Not my favourite but goes down well. Favourite rhyme – “This traitor over here, he a snitch like Gravanno, his career only seen on the history channel”. Paz is referring to some snitch in the Italian mafia called Sammy “the bull” Gravano. Also is basically saying don’t fuck with with me. I agree.
Track #14 – The God Supreme. “I feel sorry for your Mum, mo’fucka you a waste. When I say that you my dog I mean a muzzle in your face”. Haha – I like this. Reminds of Quentin Tarentino’s Reservoir Dogs. That quote above was how the song started – yep, the Pazzmanian Devil hits hard again with another hardcore joint for the true heads. Love this one and you should learn to love it too.
Track #15 – In the Coldness of a Dream (Ft Thea Alanna). This is the kind of darker, poetic track most people don’t really notice unless they are really into the artist. Not my favourite but still eerie and still great – “Y’all aint had the pleasure to live life in hell, the guns mad big and sing like adelle”.. Haha I like that. Love the hook too. Check this one out, don’t let it slip out of your playlist.
Track #16 – Lemarchands Box [Outro] (Ft Yes Alexander). Another one of those eerie shorter tracks featuring Yes Alexander. Boxcutter Pazzy raps Big Pun style again and kills it whilst Yes Alexander softly tells you that your skin will be torn off slowly and you won’t be saved, meanwhile what sounds Rakim saying “Darkside” is repeatedly mixed in by Stoupe on the 1s and 2s. Did I say hardcore or what.
Well Hiphop heads, this is The Thief and the Fallen. Its crazy hardcore and I love it. Excuse the clichéd pun but this album is like red wine and I love red wine – it just gets better and better. Oh and not to be completely bias but the artwork is crazily artistic man. Judge a damn book by its cover all right. Thanks to Hip-Hop Back in the Day for spreading the right rhymes.
Jack ‘in for rhymes’ Dingle