Album Details

• Artist: Verbal Kent
• Album: What Box
• Label: Gravel Records
• Year of Release: 2004
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: hstisgod on 2008-05-03

Wow... sometimes I feel like a fool for sleeping on an album review. On Verbal Kent's What Box, I am that fool. This record walks that shadowed cloud between Rap and Hip Hop that I rarely refer to as I rarely enjoy Rap. Hip Hop being a more acquired taste for a typical Gen X rocker, and Rap a taste I cant at all, I enjoy a good spackling of bass, beat, scratch and sample.

Verbal Kent is right there along the lines of Atmosphere and Deltron 3030, while walking the thin line with some of the most influential AggroRappers like Busta (Rhymes) or Method Man, strong lyrically, but odd and moody rhythms with often times; contemporary sample cuts. Organ, and horror movie like, most of the production is on behalf of HAZ1 with vocal jabs from Willis Drummond II, One Man Army (aka One Be Lo) and Rusty Chains. Often times HAZ1 -who is also assisted by Presyce on breakbeats and cuts- has a tendency to mix up the vibe so soundly between Hip Hop and Rap, his work resembles that of a Dre/Ant prodigy. Then there's tracks like twelve "Combat", which Kent comes in on the coat trails of One Man Army and both of 'em are as clear as day, definitive with vocal autonomy. Though the chorus is rather bland, the attack and style of these two spotlights the energy of the entire disc.

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