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  Release Date: October, 2006
  Website: Apollo’s Sun Website
  Label: Sky’s The Limit Productions

Apollo’s Sun ”The Happy Masochist” Album Review
I received this EP with another EP, Coping Mechanisms by Phynite, from Sky’s the Limit Productions, an up-and-coming Pennsylvania-based hip-hop production company. I came across STLP when I reviewed Leaps & Bounds by Artists of Industry. Needless to say, The Happy Masochist is the third hot album to come out of STLP, and judging on the sound and lyrical qualities displayed on each release, I think we can expect great things from this Apollo’s Sun and Sky’s The Limit Productions in the future.

Apollo’s Sun has an Everlast-ish type of flow, combining deep-voiced melodic wordplay with a head bumping sing-rap storytelling presentation. The production is quality, blending simple yet bumping backdrop beats with piano, electric keyboard and guitar interludes. And his lyrics are personal and heartfelt, and tell poetic stories of the MCs experience with common pain and suffering that many people should be able to relate to.

With just one listen, I was able to understand a little bit of the point Apollo’s Sun wanted to make with The Happy Masochist. A masochist is a person who is stimulated, usually sexually, by pain, abuse, humiliation or mistreatment. Since this album was obviously based on pain, it made me think that Apollo’s Sun was expressing the need for pain as a certain type of inspiration or motivating force in one’s life. In other words, the MC made an album about the pain he has experienced, but doing so brought him happiness. Therefore, it could ultimately be that pain that produced his happiness … making him a happy masochist. Maybe not, but that’s what I got from it.

Overall, a quality EP that is definitely worth checking out. If this is any indication of Apollo’s Sun’s debut album or the upcoming projects of Sky’s the Limit Productions, we can expect some great hip-hop to come out of York, PA in the future.

Album Track Listing:

1. Opening the Wounds
2. The Happy Masochist
3. Decree
4. Life Can’t Be
5. Finding Sunshine
6. Too Many Miles