:: Detonator
So simple it's profound? If you're sleeping because Ak's moniker and album title are non-assuming, you're about to get smacked upside the head like catching a Pedro Martinez fastball with your nose. If you don't peep the analogy, this cat reps for Boston like the Red Sox. Akrobatik's short album title "The EP" is emblematic of this rapper's profound honesty and complete lack of gimmicks.
"I make a Rhodes scholar sound illiterate
My soul is old, rhymes dirty, born illigetimate
My shit received five mics before I submitted it
If it didn't it's because the reviewer was inconsiderate"
Full consideration is being taken of this nine track masterpiece; including the above track "The Flow." To characterize Akrobatik's voice, smash Royce the 5-9 together with Ed O.G. - combining also the penchant of both to flip witty punchlines and focusing a little extra on Ed's "Roxbury" dialect and sound. Shake that shit up and roll it out and you'll get 4-5-6 for verbal gymnastics; but Ak is also coming correct with the beats. Ak produced 2/3rds of the songs on this album, including the stripped down and hilarious "Internet MC's." Ak even gets extra dap for VOCALLY PERFORMING HIS SCRATCHES on this track. Whaaaaaaaat?
"Your website gets a whole lot of hits (right)
but in the real world son you ain't sayin shit
Cats run they mouth on AOL
but everytime they drop a twelve inch, they don't sell
You love the anonymnity, you hide behind the shadow
Always tryin to get someone to chatroom battle"
There's something to be said for releasing a short album this way with no skits, no filler, and most of all no BULLSHIT. Consider yourself seriously hard-pressed to find a flaw in the music or the rhymes - this is as good in the self-conceived and produced department as Prince Paul or Organized Konfusion. Ak also shows love for his fellow hot Boston contemporaries, as Esoteric gets shine on the punchy "Battle Royal" and Mr. Lif raps over Akrobatik's BEATBOX on "The Fat Shit Pt. II." The best track hands down though has to be "SayYesSayWord" - an all too short manifesto on wrecking the mic and appreciating fresh rap records.
"I devestate your situation, build and destroy
When it comes to Satan, I kill and enjoy
I chill and employ the tactics,
of stretchin MC's minds like prophylactics
Turn methods of meaning intergalactic
Right now, they think too locally
So when they grab the steel they tend to bullshit vocally"
Any cat in rap with enough gusto to rhyme "sharks swim the other way when I'm in the water" and back it up with nine tracks of lyrical and musical dopeness gets TALL PROPS over here. If you didn't know who Akrobatik was before now, you've been warned - put down the blankie cause nap time is OVER!
Music Vibes: 9 of 10 Lyric Vibes: 9 of 10 TOTAL Vibes: 9 of 10
Originally posted: September 29, 2000
source: www.RapReviews.com