Post by reccollectah on Mar 10, 2010 2:14:05 GMT -5
I always felt very ambiguous towards the Inspektah : on one hand you have the amazing, promising MC we all loved straight away who simply blew us away with legendary verses on Wu Tang classics and on the other hand you have the General who somehow kept failing expectations with his solo albums. I always thought it was an incredible shame Deck never really could consolidate his street rep an an MC on a classic solo venture of his own . Instead somehow he seemed to singlehandedly destroy that same rep as each consecutive album just disappointed even more .
Just look at his discography so far as I try to summarize them in one word each: Uncontrolled Substance ( Wu-Light ), The Movement ( mediocre), Resident Patient ( awful), Resident Patient 2 /Myspace freestyles (crap) , …
And now that I listened to “Manifesto” repeatedly last week , the one word that comes to my mind is … COMEBACK !!
Yes, people: it seems that after all these years Rollie Fingers finally crafted his own style to perfection. Where in the past Deck ‘s choice of beats was disappointing or just straight annoying , this time around Deck realized he had to stop messing about and really go for it. He still has a love for the more funky/soulful stuff or for the more modern type of beats but this time he didn’t settle for anything less than quality … which is always something to be appreciated, I reckon.
And I get the impression Deck also realizes he struck gold this time, calling his new album “Manifesto”. This is ( besides a rarely used alias, check ‘Killa Beez’ on The Sting) indeed Deck’s manifesto saying : “Here I am people, more confident than ever . I’m bringing my A-level game to the table so you’d better count me back in now !” And back he is, tossing out his entire production team from previous albums , which finally gives us a solid album from start till finish.
To be honest it took me some effort to get into it though: after a first listen I thought he messed it up again but was somehow still intrigued enough by what I had heard to find myself listening to it over and over again. Maybe I was too biased after the Myspace freestyles disaster compilation ? Fortunately each listening session peeled of more and more layers off my initial “disappointment” till I realized this is nothing but a triumphant return to form from Mr Manifesto.
Even though we only find very few Wu Generals ( Rae and Cappa) on here and no Wu productions ( except the ones INS did himself) , Manifesto presents us a versatile and very nutritious platter . Production is topnotch ( especially Deck himself brings us his finest production work to date) , the features are kept minimal but on point ( Kurupt, Billy Danze, Planet Asia, Cormega, Housegang affiliates even hold it up this time ) … Hell, even Obama comes on point on “Born Survivor “ and be it sampled from a speech , he still sounds impressive over the beat. ( Come to think of it: gives a whole new meaning to “Presidential MC’s” ) . And best news saved for last: lyrically, INS sounds revitalized, confident ( “hip hop is fallin' apart, Deck, he's the glue” ) and determined to show us he still has it.
Whether you prefer grimey beats ( “PSA”, “9th Chamber Pt II”) , the funk/soul tracks Deck seems to have perfected ( “This is it”, “Luv Letter”, ”T.R.U.E.”) , experimental stuff (“ The big game”: a similarly surprising outsider as Masta Killa’s title track from ‘No Said Date’ was one or “5 Star G”: that flute, omg !!! ) or just plain dopeness on wax (“The champion”, “ Serious rappin’ “, “Gotta bang”) … you’ll find it all on this little masterpiece. With “Manifesto” we finally get a consistent Inspectah Deck album, one everyone can enjoy .
Mission accomplished, now show the man some support .