Rating:
  Review Date: May 4, 2007
  Website: Dub Sonata Website
  Label: Illest-Rated Ent.

Dub Sonata “On The Arm” Album Review
When I was a kid, I remember hearing people attempt to discredit hip-hop all the time. A lot of musicians would especially diss the music, saying that hip-hop was a borrowed art form because it relied on a DJ who used other people’s records to make the music. Anyone, they would say, could put a couple old records on some turntables and make a hip-hop beat.

And to be honest with you, I bought that for a long time. I never really considered the skills of deejaying or turntablism very complicated or overly-talented art forms when I was a kid. That was, of course, until the first time I tried to do a simple beat match on a set of turntables. The experience made me instantly realize how amazingly difficult it is to sample other people’s music and create your own sound.

Dub Sonata’s “On The Arm” is one of those producer albums that will make anyone who is even remotely familiar with the art of deejaying say, “Damn, that kid has some skills homie.” While simply looking at Dub Sonata’s portfolio and list of guest emcees allowed me to assume that he could make some good beats, it was his ability to use a wide array of samples so successfully from track to track that continuously took me by surprise while listening to “On The Arm.” Several times, everything meshed so well together that I had to rewind through tracks to figure out whether he was sampling something or somehow creating it himself with instruments or background vocalists.

In “On The Arm,” Dub Sonata utilizes all kinds of sounds and samples to create often-complex and head-nodding musical compositions. And even more impressive was his ability to do this and create such crisp, clear and uniform sound arrangements. The production on this album flows so well that it’s often hard to imagine it being created by just one person. We could very well be listening to one of hip-hop’s next generation of beat-making, turntablist-friendly producers.

Regardless of what those who may be ignorant to the true art of deejaying might say about the art form, I believe a set of turntables and a mixer are arguably the most difficult instruments to play on Earth. Unfortunately, Dub Sonata makes it look so easy with “On The Arm” that people probably won’t learn that lesson from listening to this album. Either way, anyone familiar with the difficult art of true hip-hop production will be able to appreciate this album. I recommend checking it out. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. Do What You Do ft. Rich Mo
2. Wake Up ft. Double A.B.
3. No Sir ft. J-Hood
4. The Sermon ft. Nature
5. Streets Too Live ft. Skinny Joints
6. New York ft. Swave Sevah, Double A.B. & C-Rayz Walz
7. Young ‘n Filthy ft. Billy G
8. Philosophical Gangsta ft. Bizzy Bone
9. Hit ‘em ft. Vast Aire, Double A.B. & Swave Sevah
10. Riot Gear ft. Deadly Divisionz
11. Envy ft. The Aztext
12. So Fly ft. J-Hood & A.P.
13. As Far As ft. Moondoc
14. Revolution ft. Double A.B.
15. Napalm ft. Dom Pachino & Thirstin Howl III
16. Murderers ft. Rich Mo & Kimberly Squires
17. Greatest Love