Insight

Insight is a man on a mission of apparent world domination. The jack-of-all-trades MC/producer has taken a very unconventional approach in the dissemination of his career spanning six full-length albums, with three of the six being instrumental only, and his two most recent vocal albums being released exclusive to both Japan and France respectively. The Blast Radius, his most recent opus and the first non-instrumental disc to be released on North American soil, shows an artist refusing to be limited by any one aspect of hip-hop music. He’s taken the liberty of producing every track on the album, mixing straight-ahead bangers with some smoothed-out grooves and even throwing in the occasional backing vocal — whatever it takes to accompany his unabashed, spitfire flow and thought-provoking rhymes. Insight opens the record appropriately with "Time Frame,” a track that offers a brief overview of some key events of the 20th century as they pertain to hip-hop, taking it from the invention of the telephone, right up to the current state of media affairs. He touches on the importance of personal evolution over a melodic flute sample on "Evolve,” and, in an incredible show of versatility, plays the part of every one of the "seventeen MCs” on the track of the same name. Meanwhile, "Another Intermission” has Insight flexing his muscle behind the boards, cutting the track short after the second verse to break into a bossa nova-style interlude. Throughout, Insight provides a solid combination of storytelling and inspiring production, which should finally get him some more attention from the home crowd.