Jedi Mind Tricks - Visions Of Ghandi (August 26, 2003)

One of the better aspects of running this blog is that I get to arbitrarily decide what is and isn't included on my "finish what I started" project list.  You see, not every single artist in the sidebar is going to see their entire catalog written up on these electronic pages: that would be fucking insane, and this shit would never end.  But while some of the choices are really easy to make (there is no way I'm going to continue Lil' Wayne's discography, if only because his massive number of mixtapes alone will destroy my psyche), others aren't quite so cut-and-dry.  It was only while writing this paragraph that I realized that I hadn't reviewed anything from the Philadelphia-based group Jedi Mind Tricks in nearly six years.  Six fucking years.  Which should make it obvious how much I care about them at any given time.  But until I make a final decision, we may as well keep up this charade.

Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent By Design (October 3, 2000)

After their full-length debut, Words Strung Together In An Attempt To Be Clever, found an audience, Jedi Mind Tricks, which is made up of rapper Ikon the Verbal Hologram and producer Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind, set about creating the follow-up, entitled Violent By Design. (Well, at first it was allegedly called Polymatrix: Reincarnation of the Hologramic Christ, and while I would never put it past the group to use that title on something else, I truly hope that they actually sat down, read that fucking title, and thought better of it.) During the two-year recording process, they adopted a second rapper, Jus Allah, who would leave the crew shortly after the release of Violent By Design (and would rejoin seven years later). Ikon the Verbal Hologram also took on a different rap name, Vinnie Paz, which is what most underground rap fans are familiar with (although he still refers to himself as the Verbal Hologram on several songs). But the biggest change for the Jedi Mind Tricks was their co-opting of a newer, hyperagressive style, alternating between the quasi-religious psychobabble that pervaded the first disc and ultraviolence, the latter of which would make the group virtually indistinguishable from every other rapper in the fucking universe, aside from the fact that they utilized the word "Jedi" in their crew name. But the changes to the original recipe seem to have been universally accepted: Violent By Design is generally considered to be the group's shining moment.

I remember trying to listen to Violent By Design in my back office at work after having left to pick it up at a mom-and-pop record shop, and let me tell you, this music is not conducive to any sort of productivity whatsoever. Not because Stoupe's production had me geeking out and throwing chairs and shit (although, once again, Stoupe remains, as the bloggers and blog readers call him, a beast behind the boards), but because, not unlike an album from Killah Priest, Hell Razah, or some other Wu-affiliate familiar with theology, Vinnie Paz and Jus Allah kind of demand that you listen to the lyrics, and their many guests pretty much have the same expectations.

Maybe it'll be easier for me to work while listening to this today.

(A note about the release: Violent By Design was originally released on Superegular Records, the group's own label, but was rereleased by Babygrande in 2004. The newer version includes a couple of additional tracks which were unearthed for hardcore fans, but I don't have the rerelease, so I can't comment on those tracks.)

1. INTRO
Sigh...

2. RETALIATION
Wu-Tang fans may dig this, and not just because of the Killah Priest vocal sample that frequently appears. Stoupe's beat goes the extra mile to engage the listeners, but Vinnie's rhymes become almost too comically violent to take this song for more than what it is.

3. CONTRA (FEAT KILLA SHA)
Killa Sha, the rapper whose name sounds as if he should be a Wu-Tang affiliate, but really isn't, provides a really short middle verse over another great Stoupe beat. Killarmy should seriously consider ditching 4th Disciple for one album and hire the Enemy of Mankind. Alas, this is not the homage to Konami's classic video game that I had anticipated.

4. SPEECH COBRAS (FEAT MR. LIF)
The film geek in me has to applaud the use of dialogue samples from Darren Aronofsky's Pi, but the music geek in me dismisses this track as outright fucking boring.

5. BREATH OF GOD INTERLUDE
Leaves you with a bad, pretentious taste in your mouth.

6. DEATH MARCH (FEAT VIRTUOSO & ESOTERIC)
It's been a long while since I've watched WWE Wrestling (I think it was still called the WWF when I last saw it), so hearing a sound bite from The Undertaker was an interesting flashback. This track is actually really good, and it flies by, thanks to the chemistry between everybody involved (Virtuoso and Esoteric were also a part of the Jedi Mind Tricks supergroup side project, Army Of The Pharaohs). The reference to M. Bison was also unexpected, so kudos.

7. WORDS FROM MR. LEN (PART ONE) (FEAT MR. LEN)
Interlude...

8. I AGAINST I (FEAT PLANETARY)
The beat was so pleasant that this song floated right out of by consciousness while it was still playing.

9. EXERTIONS REMIX (FEAT VIRTUOSO, ESOTERIC, & BAHAMADIA)
Just as she does on most songs, Bahamadia (also a one-time member of the Army Of The Pharaohs) sounds completely out of place, but her verse still sounds good, so the song still manages to work. This is representative of the traditional "underground rap song that tries to fit as many syllables in as possible but ultimately truly says nothing" that rappers release in an effort to prove how intelligent they are, so in that respect, it's not bad. Esoteric's verse happens to be the standout: it's reminding me that I have the 7L and Esoteric debut album in the pile and that I really should get over myself and write about them already. (Side note: the original version of this track was an Army song called "The Five Percent Exertions", and it also featured Chief Kamachi, who was deleted from this remix but appears elsewhere on Violent By Design. Curious.)

10. THE PROPHECY INTERLUDE
...

11. HEAVENLY DIVINE
I found this to be awfully dull.

12. SACRIFIEC
Other than the random Big Pun vocal sample, this kind of blended together with "Heavenly Divine" for six to seven minutes of sheer boredom.

13. PERMANENT MIDNIGHT INTERLUDE
...

14. THE DEER HUNTER (FEAT CHIEF KAMACHI)
Sadly, Christopher Walken fails to make an impression on this track. In fact, I barely remember his contribution to this weak-ass song, and I just heard it. What do you mean, Christopher Walken wasn't actually on the song?

15. BLOOD REIGN (FEAT DIAMONDBACK, LOUIS LOGIC, & B.A. BARAKUS)
I appreciated everyone's attempt to create a different sound for Violent By Design, but lyrically, this sounds like every other fucking song on the album. Even diehard Killarmy fans will have tuned out by this point. B.A. Barakus is a fantastic rap name, though.

16. WORDS FROM MR. LEN (PART TWO) (FEAT MR. LEN)
Interlude...

17. GENGHIS KHAN (FEAT TRAGEDY KHADAFI)
I can't imagine that anybody saw this collaboration coming back in the late 1990's. (If you did, then why haven't you won the lottery yet?) Tragedy, who was late of Capone-N-Noreaga collaborations and infighting at this point, doesn't truly fit in, but at least Vinnie and Jus Allah do their best to make him feel welcome by referencing shit that Tragedy has repeated in his own rhymes ever since his career rebirth (shedding his Intelligent Hoodlum image).

18. TRINITY (FEAT L-FUDGE & LOUIS LOGIC)
Graciously, Vinnie Paz opts to perform his worst verse on a collaborative track that appears on his own album. The hook is a bit much: was it truly necessary?

19. THE EXECUTIONERS DREAM (FEAT J-TREDS)
While I love the title, it feels artificial, as it seems to have only been chosen because it sounded cool, and not so much because it had anything to do with the fucking song. (See also: every other song on Violent By Design.) That said, Stoupe's dark-as-hell instrumental is very moving, and none of the rappers manage to fuck it up, so that was nice.

20. MUERTE
Meh.

The following two tracks are only found on the CD version of Violent By Design.

21. HEAVENLY DESIGN (REMIX)
I'd put this at the same level as the original. Sampling Alanis Morrissette was an interesting touch, though.

22. WAR ENSEMBLE (FEAT VIRTUOSO & ESTOERIC)
Tagged as an Army Of The Pharaohs track and not a Jedi Mind Tricks song, this isn't that bad, but it's a bit too late. All it truly accomplishes is making me upset that Violent By Design didn't sound mostly like this track.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Violent By Design's hyperaggressive rhymes and borderline pretentious execution turns this album into a literal chore to listen to. Music shouldn't force the listener to earn their entertainment or enlightenment, and it definitely shouldn't feel like work to hear it (although I suppose it is actual work for me, since I'm writing about it and all). While technically proficient, Vinnie Paz/Ikon and Jus Allah fail to engage the listener with their rhymes, and since this isn't an instrumental album, that makes Violent By Design a failure in my eyes. Maybe it's simply because I'm completely over this type of hip hop, but I'm of the mindset that rappers shouldn't take on a holier-than-thou persona (at least, not without the chops to back such a persona up). Stoupe remains a monster on the boards, though. All in all, I'm disappointed that this album failed to hold up.

BUY OR BURN? If one were to somehow locate an instrumental version of this disc, I would recommend that you purchase that. As is, this only deserves a burn. The fans of this blog that are fans of Jedi Mind Tricks will already own this anyway, and anyone who hasn't yet heard of them won't be turned by this disc.

BEST TRACKS: "Death March"; "Retaliation"; "The Executioners Dream"

-Max

RELATED POSTS:
Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological & Electro-Magnetic Manipulation of Human Consciousness

Jedi Mind Tricks - The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, And Electro-Magnetic Manipulation Of Human Consciousness (November 4, 1997)

Regardless of what my two readers might feel in sporadic bursts, Hip Hop Isn't Dead isn't solely about mainstream rappers. It's just that, every time I actually write about something that could be considered "underground", nobody leaves any comments. Here's July's bid to shift that behavior around.

Jedi Mind Tricks (I'd be willing to bet that the name alone may have caused more than a few of you to give up on today's blog) is a hip hop duo haling from the East Coast (specifically, Philadelphia and New Jersey), made up of producer Stoupe The Enemy Of Mankind (no subtlety there) and rapper Ikon the Verbal Hologram, who would later change his rap name to Vinnie Paz, which rolls off the tongue much more freely. In 1996 they released their Amber Probe EP, an inauspicious debut that consisted of six songs. It didn't make a lot of noise in the hip hop world, but the few folks that stumbled upon it craved for more.

In 1997, Ikon and Stoupe took a few songs from the Amber Probe EP and recorded several more, formed a debut album, and called it The Psycho-Social, Chemical, Biological, And Electro-Magnetic Manipulation Of Human Consciousness, a title which I will only type once (thankfully, most people in the Interweb tend to refer to it as The Psycho-Social CD anyway). The title is swiped from an appendix from Val Valerian's book, Matrix III, which chronicles, in painstaking detail, "how the consciousness of human beings is being modified by psychological and social institutions" and how this all relates to the New World Order. Based on that last sentence alone, you can imagine that The Psycho-Social CD is chock full of religious references, conspiracy theories, and abstract thoughts that could expand your thought processes, but will probably just go over your head while you bask in the dark brilliance that is Stoupe's instrumentals.

The album was pressed in a limited quantity by Superegular Records, one of the least effective record label names in hip hop history. It was later re-released in 2003 on CD by indie hip hop giant Babygrande, who decided it would be a good idea to tack on the remaining tracks from the Amber Probe EP and some other Jedi leftovers, in an effort to capitalize off of the success of Jedi Mind Tricks and their subsequent albums. I don't have the original vinyl: I have the re-release. However, this review is going to focus on the original twelve tracks that appeared on the vinyl release of The Psycho-Social CD. Just as long as the two of you out there know that there are more tracks that appear after number twelve.

Anyway.

1. INTRO
Well, at least it's short. And nobody discusses why this album is going to be so fucking great, so that's a plus.

2. THE WINDS OF WAR
And with just one song, Jedi Mind Tricks has completely lost any hope they may have held on to regarding even the most remote possibility of mainstream success. (I'm kidding: I'm sure that even they knew they had no shot.) This song isn't bad at all, though, even if the Masta Killa vocal sample is misused.

3. CHINESE WATER TORTURE (FEAT BREATH OF JUDAH)
Breath of Judah's line about "opening up all your chakras" is amusing to me. Otherwise, Chinese water torture has never sounded more real in your earbuds (and yet, Jeru the Damaja's DJ Premier-produced "Come Clean" still takes the trophy, hands down). Ikon also makes sure that the audience's awareness of his skill level is high by completely stealing the song away from his honored guest.

4. THE THREE IMMORTALS (FEAT BREATH OF JUDAH & APATHY)
Okay, the reference to "chakras" has officially gotten old, just one song later. I'm not impressed by this Breath of Judah guy, but Ikon/Vinnie and Apathy (of the Demigodz collective) sound really good over this dark, melodic treat. Lyrically, though, I have to warn my two readers that if you're not fond of lyrics that have quasi-religious, historical, and mathematical tones, then, wow, this album must be awful for you.

5. NEVA ANTIQUATED (DARK JEDI REMIX)
The original version of this song appeared on the aforementioned Amber Probe EP (and, now that I think about it, this remix appeared on there, too). Simply put, this shit is dope, even if Ikon gets too wordy for his own good toward the end.

6. OMNICRON (FEAT APATHY & SUN PHARAOH)
The sound bites used in what passes for the hook sound as if they were lifted from a bad Kool Keith song. No, wait, come back! The beat and lyrics are still worth your time! Wait! Dammit! I've probably lost you two forever.

7. AS IT WAS IN THE BEGINNING (FEAT THE LOST CHILDREN OF BABYLON)
This sounds like what Killarmy had been trying to achieve for the better part of the last decade. In fact, a collaborative effort between Vinnie Paz, the Lost Children of Babylon, and Killarmy, produced by 4th Disciple and/or Stoupe, may not be a bad idea. If only Killarmy was still relevant and its members weren't in jail or trying to burn their Wu bridges (Dom Pachino, looking in your general direction).

8. BOOKS OF BLOOD: THE COMING OF TAN (FEAT EL ELOH)
The beat does some interesting things throughout, but overall, I didn't really care for this track.

9. INCANTRIX
An interlude, albeit one with an admittedly great score.

10. THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Before all of the Wu stans jump all over me for the Killarmy reference above, I realize that the comparison between Jedi Mind Tricks/Lost Children of Babylon and a bunch of guys in fatigues representing Wu in a half-assed manner is probably not the best comparison to make. Trust me, I fucking know that Sunz of Man would have made for a better correlation. Like on this song, for instance: Killah Priest would probably feel right at home spitting over this instrumental.

11. THE APOSTLE'S CREED (FEAT APATHY & YAN THE PHENOMENON)
Yan, the second rapper to appear, spits much too quickly to fit this slow-ass beat: it's almost as if he truly believed he would never get another shot at recording a verse on wax, so he decided to spit every rhyme he had ever conceived in one verse. That's the only misstep on this otherwise good song. Actually, there are two missteps: the Yan thing, and the overuse of the term "overstand", which always sounds pretentious as fuck to me, regardless of who uses it.

12. I WHO HAVE NOTHING
A lyrical clinic, administered by Ikon, is certainly not the worst way to end your album. The beat could be a tad bit more engaging, but it's good in other ways.

FINAL THOUGHTS: The Psycho-Social CD is not for everybody. Hip hop heads that live out of their backpacks may feel this one much more so that the fans of Clear Channel rap that listen to music primarily to test the speakers in their rides. The casual hip hop listener will have absolutely nothing to grasp on to, and might as well bypass this one. It's not the most challenging album, though: indeed, if you've found yourself appreciating any Killah Priest solo album, you'll like what Ikon/Vinnie has to say. And Stoupe's beats deserve to be commended. All in all, your grandmother probably won't approve of this one, but only because she may find it boring.

BUY OR BURN? While it isn't for all audiences, I'm the type of hip hop head that straddles the line between mainstream and underground with regularity: basically, I just like good music. I feel that a lot of my two readers fall into this same category. So if that describes you, and you chance upon this album while shopping for milk, throw it in your cart. It's actually pretty good. You'll even look past all of the quasi-religious undertones that derails a lot of underground hip hop, because the beats consistently rock.

BEST TRACKS: : "The Three Immortals"; "I Who Have Nothing"; "As It Was In The Beginning"; "Omnicron"; "Neva Antiquated (Dark Jedi Remix); "The Apostle's Creed"

-Max