This isn't an actual review, but more of a roadmap. Older posts have showcased The Vultures (and their collective family) as a force that is to be reckoned with in hip hop, especially if you hate listening to crap. Well, one day after digging around on their official site (where you can order the two albums reviewed below - hint, hint), I discovered that their 2007 debut album, From Parts Unknown, is available for free download.
Click here to visit their site, and click on 'Downloads'. You can also bend an ear toward their very first recorded song, "Plot The Apocalypse", if you're so inclined.
So now you can't say that I never gave you anything.
Enjoy!
-Max
RELATED POSTS:
The Vultures - 7 Rings Of Saturn
K.I.N. - Knowledge Is Now
The San Antonio underground hip hop crew The Vultures consider themselves to be their own version of the Wu-Tang Clan: many affiliated artists and groups that combine to form the Alamo City Voltron. When I listened to the collective's second album, 7 Rings Of Saturn, earlier this year, I was amazed at the lyrical dexterity of the crew, as well as the dank, dusty beats that primary producer Ruler Why was able to conjure up from the ether.
So when given the opportunity to listen to the first album from Vultures offshoot K.I.N., I predictably jumped at the chance.
Ruler Why has likened the duo of K.I.N., made up of rappers Ruin and 7ish, to the relationship between the Wu and North Star, the West Coast affiliate crew that nobody gives a fuck about, up to and including the actual members of the Wu. Although I can see where he was going with that, I disagree: I have my own comparison, which I created while listening to their debut project Knowledge Is Now, that I will reveal somewhere within the review itself. Ruler Why takes the reigns for the majority of the album's production, with assists from Reiner Hass and KOOLaction behind the boards, while Ruin and 7ish are accompanied by various other members of the Vultures clique.
In short, if you're a fan of Jedi Mind Tricks or early Wu, this may be your shit. But for those of you who like your reviews to be long winded, please continue reading.
1. INTRO
Still not a fan of rap album intros, but the drums on here are fucking hard.
2. THIS IS K.I.N. (FEAT JAMAR EQUALITY)
Even though it sounds nothing like it, the Reiner Hass beat reminded me of John the Baptist's work on Killah Priest's “The Professional”, although this is much darker. Ruin takes to the mic and simply destroys the scenery with his opening verse, leaving his guest to pick up the pieces. This was a pretty dope track, even if the “hook” was entirely unnecessary.
3. ARMAGEDDON
7ish spits a one-verse wonder over an instrumental that sounds nothing like the previous track. Truth be told, the beat from “This Is K.I.N.” sounds more like Armageddon than this one did: this song sounds more like the peace that could only come after the end of the world. 7ish sounds pretty damn good, though.
4. CAVEWALLZ (FEAT SUN ELO)
Ruler Why's subdued beat is a good contrast for the aggressive rhymes from everybody involved. Even the hook doesn't stick around long enough to become annoying. Ruin rips shit, but Sun Elo steals the show with his “amorphous” flow: bonus points for using the word amorphous within a rap song's context. This wasn't bad.
5. CONTAMINATION (FEAT JUS THE DESTROYER)
Over an organ-driven loop (one which hides in the background, so as not to trip over any of the artists), Ruin provides a commendable first verse, but all he really does is set up the dominoes for his guest, Jus the Destroyer,to fucking demolish. The instrumental treads the fine line between repetitive and interesting, but I still would have liked this to have been a bit longer. But then again, why does every rapper think that a rap song needs to be at least four minutes long?
6. FACE THE FACTS (FEAT JAMAR EQUALITY)
This shit is pretty awesome. Ruin spits like one of the lost members of Sunz of Man, back when they were still relevant. (Maybe that statement was mean, but I'm fucking serious.) KOOLaction's dark beat is begging for a posse cut featuring the rest of the Vultures: maybe if I write it down, it'll actually happen. Still hard to believe that these guys are based out of the same city that considers the Alamo to be something to remember, but it's called creativity.
7. GIANTS & TITANS (FEAT JUS THE DESTROYER)
So far, I'm appreciating how none of these songs overstay their welcome. There wasn't anything bad about this track, but, unfortunately, it was a bit forgettable.
8. INTERLUDE
You can't swing a dead cat around without hitting a rap album interlude these days, but unless it's produced by Prince Paul, they're typically unnecessary. And what the hell are you doing swinging a dead animal around, anyway? The fuck is wrong with you?
9. MANSLAUGHTER
Ruin and 7ish, performing without any guests for the first time on Knowledge Is Now, both kick a single verse over a sweeping Ruler Why production that sounds as if it was lifted from an epic Ben Hur-esque flick. In truth, the beat may be a bit much for the artists involved: I walked away from this humming the instrumental, but I can't remember any of the lyrics, aside from 7ish kind of losing me when the word “tabernacle” is fumbled. Also, how funny and apropos would this be if it were actually entitled “Man's Laughter”?
10. MOVIN IN UNISON (FEAT JUS THE DESTROYER)
Reiner Hass provides a simple beat, but it fires on all cylinders. The Wu-Tang-like way that each artist tries to outdo the previous one is pretty fucking infectious: the only other time this year that I heard something similar was on the Slaughterhouse album. The hook is a bit goofy, though. The Destroyer takes home the prize, but everyone deserves a lovely parting gift.
11. PROTECT THE UNIVERSE (FEAT JUS THE DESTROYER)
While the imagery of “keep[ing] Saturn City (the group's handle for their home city) safe” while “protecting the universe” is hilarious to me, Ruin and Jus tear through this dark beat like a pit bull chomping on a Zhu Zhu Pet. The hook is a bit wordy, but this is independent hip hop we're discussing.
12. RAW GROOVES (FEAT JUS THE DESTROYER & JAMAR EQUALITY)
The Psycho Les vocal sample was unexpected. The beat contains the kind of hard drums that are missing from hip hop today, and the piano keys looped around them provide a haunting environment for all four rappers to spit within while searching through the haunted house for signs of paranormal activity. Jamar Equailty, one of my favorites from 7 Rings Of Saturn, takes over the track in such a forceful manner that it's a wonder it wasn't just his song to begin with: he demands your full attention. This shit was just fucking good.
13. RHYTHMATIC STATIC (FEAT JUS THE DESTROYER)
I didn't really care for this one. The beat was dramatic enough, and the fact that Jus directly references Inspectah Deck only furthers the comparison between The Vultures and the Wu, but the hook turned me off completely, most likely by sounding like something Inspectah Deck would come up with today. It wasn't as bad as some of Kool Keith's choruses, but still.
14. THE ONSLAUGHT (FEAT SUN ELO)
Ruin and 7ish's vocal styles and chemistry reminds me of Killarmy's 9th Prince and Dom Pachino (or PR Terrorist, depending on what day of the week you catch him), and I don't mean that as a bad thing. It's probably unfair for me to continue using the Wu as a reference point when discussing K.I.N., especially if you hate the Wu, but their influence cannot be denied.
15. HELLO (FEAT BRAZY)
The creepy vocal sample at the halfway point will replace the whale in my nightmares.
16. THE WRATH
While this isn't technically an outro, “The Wrath” concludes the K.I.N. saga with one hot verse from each member. It leaves you wanting for more, which makes Knowledge Is Now pretty goddamn successful.
THE LAST WORD: If you liked 7 Rings Of Saturn, then you'll like Knowledge Is Now just as much. And if you have never heard of The Vultures, but still claim to be a hip hop fan, you owe it to yourselves to give them a shot. Ruin and 7ish, with their opposing styles, mesh well with the music, which is provided mostly by Ruler Why, whose production isn't as epic in scope as it was on 7 Rings Of Saturn: instead, it appears to be ever evolving, providing a perfect counterbalance to the rhymes. Simply put, if I was a producer, these are the kind of beats I would wish I could make: Ruler Why, along with Reiner Hass and KOOLaction, use the Wu Elements and Stoupe The Enemy of Mankind as a jumping-off point to create their own cohesive sound, and K.I.N., along with their extended Vultures family, step up their lyrics to prove that they deserve to be on Knowledge Is Now. I would have preferred that Ruin and 7ish shared more tracks together (the two men only seem to share the stage on six tracks out of sixteen), but whenever one of the criticisms of an album is that you want to hear more of it, that can only be a good thing.There are no freebies this time around, but you should visit The Vultures here and pick this album up. It's Christmas, people! You may as well spend it with some music you're bound to enjoy. Oh, and your family and friends and shit.
-Max
RELATED POSTS:
The Vultures – 7 Rings Of Saturn
Now, I could just cut and paste the press release, but that's no fun, so here's my version: Hailing from San Antonio, Texas, The Vultures aim to "restore balance in the hip hop ecosystem" (their words). They are a collective of solo artists (Jus The Destroyer, Jamar Equality (wouldn't that be great if that were his legal name?), Ruler Why, Ruin, 7ISH, and Stealth Entity, with occasional assists from others), not unlike how the Wu-Tang Clan marketed themselves. All of the production is handled by Ruler Why, who also released this disc on his own Ruler Why Records. They also keep a deejay in the fold, 7ISH, to provide scratches at random intervals, usually when the crew is enjoying their Big Red and their breakfast tacos. The Vultures are also, apparently, part of a much larger crew called Psytology, a German-based supergroup, which explains away the random verse dropped in German that I'll get to in a bit.
7 Rings Of Saturn (named as such because their city is frequently abbreviated as SAT, so the extension was kind of natural in a "not at all"-sort of way) sounds so unlike anything you would ever expect to hear come out of the Lone Star State (read: rappers from Houston, Port Arthur, Dallas, etc.) that you would be forgiven if, after you got a chance to finally hear this, you thought the guys hailed from New York. But in order for that confusion to happen, I have to convince you that listening to 7 Rings Of Saturn would actually be worth the time.
Is it?
(Note: since it's listed as such on the back cover of the album, I've listed each emcee and the order of their appearance on each song, as a way to help introduce the crew to my two readers.)
1. YOU BEST STOP (EQUALITY, RUIN, STEALTH, TOPCAT)
Not the biggest fan of the hook, but this is an otherwise pretty damn effective intro to The Vultures. The music is much more majestic than you would expect (thanks to the work of Ruler Why behind the boards), and all four rappers featured come across as the missing link between the Wu-Tang Clan affiliates and Jedi Mind Tricks, which I mean in the best way possible.
2. MIND WEAPON (RUIN, DESTROYER, EQUALITY)
This reminds me of something from Killarmy's unheralded second album, Dirty Weaponry. In fact, the rappers on here come off as a bunch of Holocausts with their attention to detail and lyrical clarity, even with the sometimes gory imagery that I'm sure most of my two readers could do without. This isn't bad. (And yes, I realize Holocaust was never a part of Killarmy, but he was a large part of Dirty Weaponry's success with his two guest spots.)
3. KILL THE NOISE (DESTROYER)
The sampled piano keys behind this one-verse wonder by Destroyer is haunting. Well, not so much when the drums and vocals are laid upon it, but it still lingers in my mind. This shit is not bad at all.
4. YOU AIN'T READY (EQUALITY, STEALTH, 7ISH, DESTROYER)
I'm always amazed at how rappers can twist almost any word into an acronym for something. After a lengthy intro that leads listeners to believe that this is an interlude, the rhymes come in fast and furiously. The drums on here are ineffective (I wish they would have hit harder), but this still came off as pretty interesting regardless. The funniest line by far is “We suck no dick here”, an odd, yet very much to the point, way to establish your dominance, I suppose.
5. WAY OF THE JEDI (EQUALITY, STEALTH, BAD BUDDHA)
Well, no way to get around the Jedi Mind Tricks comparison now. I quite liked the many pop culture references sprinkled throughout. The verse in German was unexpected, and the jacking of “Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)” may sound pretty cliché when I write it out, but this still clicked for me. The scratching at the end was a nice touch. The vulture sound effects at the end, though, were simply creepy as shit.
6. THE MENACE (EQUALITY, DESTROYER)
This shit hits fucking hard. It sounds as if the rhymes are cut off at the end (even though the beat continues to ride), but this still rocks. I'm finding it hard to believe that this is coming from the same city as the Alamo, as it contains an obvious East Coast influence. Optimistic Max would say that good music transcends territorial boundaries, but when have you ever known me to be optimistic?
7. TRUE UNDERSTANDING CIPHER (DESTROYER, TOPCAT, RICHARD GEIN)
So far, The Vultures have proven that Texas rappers don't always shave to rhyme about driving around, wasting gas, sipping syrup, buying grillz at Paul Wall's shop, and the other shit Texas artists tend to do. I could have done without the throwaway line about eating children (a lyric in the hook explains this away, but still), but this sounds pretty good otherwise. (According to the group's MySpace page, Richard Gein is their go-to guy for horrorcore, so if that's your cup of tea, then you're not invited into my fucking home.)
8. ONES PERCEPTION (EQUALITY, DESTROYER, STEALTH, RUIN)
It's not often that you can listen to a rap song and hear references to Daisy Duck, Randy Savage, and Oscar Meyer products, all within a single verse. I liked the whimsical beat much more than the words presented, but as a whole package, you had best believe I would blast this on repeat.
9. SUPREME THOUGHT (EQUALITY)
The hook is too wordy, but it is just wordy enough to qualify as underground rap, so it works. Barely. You'll probably never hear The Vultures on any Clear Channel radio station, but these guys (Equality, especially, is a standout to me right now) can rap circles around a lot of the bigger names. Lace these guys with some Stoupe throwaway beats and other bloggers will eat this shit up, guaranteed.
10. WAR JOINT (7ISH, DESTROYER, EQUALITY)
Ruler Why's production was moody enough, but this track didn't really work for me.
11. CHECK THE CULTURE (RUIN, DESTROYER)
Meh.
12. HEARTLESS MCS (EQUALITY, RULER WHY, STEALTH, DESTROYER)
And now we're back on track. “Real recognize real – if you don't recognize it, you ain't shit”? That's a pretty fucking funny way to start off a song. The hilarity quickly dissipates, though, as The Vultures are obsessed with picking apart haters in increasingly creative ways. Ruin's second verse brings the energy down a bit, but with a different beat underneath, he would sound pretty good. If you told me that these guys have actually been recording for the past twenty years, I'd believe it, with the level of expertise presented.
13. FORTRESS STORM (RUIN, DESTROYER, EQUALITY)
A Timothy Leary reference in a rap song? Can't say I saw that coming. Everyone comes across as pretty awesome over this dark beat, even if the drums sound as though they don't mesh well with what passes for melody.
14. KEEP YA EYES ON HIM (EQUALITY, RUIN, DESTROYER)
Ruler Why's beat is appropriately full of darkness and despair, which I tend to like in my hip hop (unless I'm at a club or drunk or something). The dialogue samples that pop up throughout are jarring, and they don't really add much to the proceedings (they do give the song its title, though), but maybe that was the point.
15. HARDEST CLICK (EQUALITY)
“Flopping like a half-assed album released in '94”? I'd love to hear some clarification on that line, even though it's still pretty funny. The beat gets the blood flowing, and all of the rappers involved rip shit as well. This is just nice.
16. 7 RINGS AROUND SATURN (7ISH, TOPCAT, EQUALITY, DESTROYER)
The final song, which, oddly, does not contain all of the members of The Vultures. The instrumental loop, admittedly, gets a bit boring after a while, but the rhymes all hit their mark. As good a way to end an album as any, I guess.
THE LAST WORD: 7 Rings Of Saturn is not the first album by The Vultures, but it's still commendable that the crew sounds fully realized on here. Ruler Why's production is mostly moody and effective, and everybody involved shows a capacity of ripping shit in a most glorious way. The disc is chock full of dark themes and pop culture references, almost as if the talking heads on VH-1 I Love The '80s marathons were also inclined to beat you to death with their scientific and religious texts. The Vultures not only fit right in to the current hip hop landscape, they have the potential to dominate, if provided the right platform. Fans of Jedi Mind Tricks and Sunz of Man will love 7 Rings Of Saturn, while everyone else that reads this write-up will find at least one track that will end up in shuffle rotation on their iPods (I would probably recommend “The Menace” if that description fits you).
As an added bonus, The Vultures actually want you to have their album for free, so you can instantly hear 7 Rings Of Saturn for yourself. Just click on the link below. This probably won't happen too often on Hip Hop Isn't Dead, so enjoy while you can. And be sure to leave your thoughts below.
The Vultures – 7 Rings Of Saturn (download link - Megaupload)
The Vultures MySpace page
-Max
