Rating:
  Review Date: February 26, 2007
  Website: i2i Website
  Label: End of the Weak (EOW)

i2i “Year of the i” Album Review
I put this album into my laptop this morning, and plugged in my headphones. After just a couple tracks, my roommate tapped me on the shoulder. “Damn, dogg … that shit must be bumping!” he said. When I asked why he would say that, he responded, “Because you’re bumping your head like you’re listening to some heavy metal or something.” Ironically, I hadn’t even noticed, but I was jamming out to this album as if I had a dance club on my couch. That’s how crazy and in your face the beats and vocals are.

Initially, i2i demonstrates the sound of a street corner cipher, as the two talented emcees, ProPayne and Vice Verses, trade verses back and forth in somewhat of an Old School group rhyme style. However, when you combine that with modern edge hard-hitting production, dark sounds and in-your-face heavily-annunciated lyricism, the ultimate product is one that can only be described as eerily futuristic. At times, it’s almost even scary.

The production on this album forces the emcees to be aggressive, as any other approach to their rhymes would almost certainly be overshadowed by the beats. Yet the approach works out near perfectly, and creates a sound unlike anything I’ve heard in hip-hop before. To be honest with you, the only reason this album wouldn’t blow is because radio stations and record companies very rarely even give indie labels a chance.

Nonetheless, EOW has done it again. They have created an album that is simultaneously Old School and brand new. Simultaneously hard and, at times, sensitive. Simultaneously poetic and rhyme-slinging. Simultaneously underground and yet worthy of mainstream acceptance. The EOW roster has got to be one of the most comprehensive underground hip-hop crews around today, and have succeeded in creating yet another permanent fixture on my iPod. I highly recommend checking it out.

Album Track Listing:

1. Step 1 - Produced by McBanne
2. 121 Watts - Produced by Watts
3. Fallen (feat. Vaida Harms) - Produced by Da Riffs
4. Anything (feat. Scram Jones) - Produced by Biggs
5. Never Fall in Love (feat. Nicky Alrica) - Produced by Watts
6. Feet Don’t Fail Me (feat. Sinclair) - Produced by SOS
7. Heemies (feat. Swave Sevah) - Produced by McBanne
8. The Storm - Produced by Mad Vex
9. Rich Bitch (feat. Poison Pen) - Produced by Watts
10. Halls (feat. Sinclair) - Produced by Mad Vex
11. Word War 1 (feat. Vanguard) - Produced by Watts
12. Mayhem - Produced by Watts
13. Cide Note - Produced by Da Riffs