Location:
USA, CA

Category:
Hip-Hop

Try if you like:
Cannibal Ox, Lupe Fiasco, Mos Def, Nas

When L-Toka approached us for a review I had no idea what to expect. I guessed it would be hip hop but the quality was what I was wondering about. Let me be the first to tell you that L-Toka has some pretty decent vocal skills and the production on his Sense Of Humor Not Included full-length album is premium. The album starts out with a track called "Craaazay". He shifts to a dark overtone on "Gotta Be At Least One". This one is my favorite of the whole album. It's got an old school Wu-Tang vibe to it but L-Toka manages to give it a modern vibe.

A log of these new self-released artists have an issue with edits. For instance, Sense of Humor is 1.2 hours long. That's a long time to fill with decent material. It's almost as if the artist feels that they need to cram ALL of their material on whether or not it deserves to be released. Case in point is the track "Be Easy". It is lacking a lot of the professionalism that is apparent on the earlier tracks. This continues on "Bring Me The Bomb", there is a bit of a return on "Highly Addictive" although I didn't care for the old synth backing. "Welcome To The Jungle" was much better. Another questionable track is "Stripper Song". 

"This is my stripper song, this is my stripper song - sniff sniff sniff, is that coming from your thong?" Ouch...

 If L-Toka got rid of about half of these songs, using his discretion getting rid of the crappy tracks then Sense Of Humor Not Included could have been an underground classic. As it is Sense Of Humor will end up being the cornerstone of an up and coming hip hop star. I think if the right producer and manager gets a hold of L-Toka they could have a hero on their hands. Tracks like "She's My Woman" are just waiting to become hits. Two of the best tracks are saved for last: "Everything Don't Last Forever" and "Can't Forget The Little People". Pick and choose your playlist from this album carefully. If you pick and choose 10 key tracks you'll have a really great album. As it is, you'll have to filter to get to the meat.