Wax Philosophic

Wax Philosophic is some of the most interesting hip-hop to come out of Canada. With quite a following in Thunder Bay and a string of EP's behind them, Reach, D-Cyphur and Jenero set forth on their first full album release. The greatest thing about Wax Philosophic is by far the production by Jenero and the simple fact that they’re not afraid to make a mellow hip-hop album. Its Fallout starts off with "Power," which is definitely a show starter and one of the more hype songs on the album. But more mellow songs like "Utopia" and "Freedom Fighters" set the mood and stand out production wise. Probably the best song on the album is "About You," which is an instrumental song that intertwines vocal samples over some beautiful pianos and guitars. As for lyrics, "Pomesumoe" (which they shot a video for) pays homage to the infamous Old English malt liquor and "Big Words" tackles the idea of "rhyming big words and not saying shit" with a complimentary Common Sense sample used in the chorus. Quibbles are minor but they are a few: If you own a copy of Hee-Haw Brayks then you've got half the scratches used on the album, so expanding the scratches and tightening up the DJ skills wouldn't hurt. The most important thing of all though is to nix the live female singing that appears on about three songs. Sampling female vocals is a whole other thing but when you get one of your friends in the studio it ends up taking away from all the great production that's already there. But hey, these guys are real deal and with so much commercialised garbage out there it's nice to hear lyrics that are actually about something and beats that are laid back and well produced.