blaq-poet-tha-blaqprint

It’s been 22 years since Blaq Poet first entered the rap game in 1987 when he infamously dissed KRS-One during the battle between the Bronx and Queens. Subsequently, he was relatively quiet up until the year 2000 when he linked with three of his fellow New York City rappers to form the Queensbridge collective Screwball. Eventually branching out on his own in 2006, BP is set the map out the game in his likeness with his sophomore effort Tha Blaqprint.

The predominately East Coast project is fifteen tracks deep with thirteen produced by the incomparable DJ Premier, which gives it an immediate boost in credibility for most rap fans even if they had never heard of the Queens native. As you can imagine, the landscape in which Premier provides for Poet is a smorgasbord of boom-bap drum patterns and scratched choruses that leaves Poet with plenty of room to make the statement he sees fit over a superb selection of beats.

Regrettably, Poet’s statements seem to be the same that were echoed through every 90’s Hip-Hop album coming out of NY. Coming out hard on the intro “I-Gittin,” Poet does a good job of introducing his raspy hardcore flow that he brings to the table with a bunch of boasts about how he “gets it in.” But for all the points he gained for the ferocity he brings on the opener, he loses once you get deeper into the album. The album’s centerpiece “Voices,” is noble attempt at spiraling down memory lane, but the mediocrity will swallow listeners whole by the second verse. Each song seems to blend together and his flow remained pretty stagnant over the not so diverse production of Premo that is designed to accentuate the rappers many styles which Poet seems to lack. See the stale “Stretch Marks And Cigarette Burns” with its droopy bass loops for further reference.

Tracks like “Ain’t Nuthin’ Changed” and “Rap Addiction” might wake you up from the slumber that the rest of the album provides, but making splashes on occasion isn’t enough to spark riots of past years. Overall it’s nice to hear so much Premier production in one place again, and while Tha Blaqprint may have BP’s uniqueness embedded into it, ultimately it’s the same layout as it was a decade ago.

3cigs

Bonus — Blaq Poet – Tha Blaqprint (Instrumentals)