IRS

Emerging out of Scarborough, Ontario’s formidable Monolith crew, IRS have been steadily raising their profile in the last few years. After a brace of singles and lyrically blessing tracks and stages with Kardinal Offishall, Welcome To Planet IRS is indicative of the group’s continued impressive growth. While previously released tracks like "T-Dot Anthem” and "Manipulation” are present, their appearance here helps to convey the scope of IRS’s artistic path, something that had only been hinted at before. The ability to flex their creative control is impressive given the trio’s graduation to the majors and a deal with Universal. The trio have not diluted or filtered their brand of rugged hip-hop retaining the foundation of Korry Deez’s smooth wordplay, Black Cat’s gruff delivery and DJ T.R.A.C.K.S.’s precise vinyl shredding as current single "Strictly For The Headz” amply demonstrates. The envelope is pushed further on "Whatchuwantnow” where Korry Deez and Black Cat show lesser mic wielders how to ride an unorthodox track while deftly escalating energy with their invigorating back and forth rhymes. IRS’s distinctive bouncy dub-influenced beats are primary ingredients here, but an appreciation of butter smooth head-nodders is now also apparent. Add their ability to lyrically hang with Bay Area lyrical supremo Planet Asia on "No Hesitation” and the fact that IRS are a crew on the rise is only underlined.