MIND INVERSION

I want to start this review off by saying that this review holds special because Ace is one of my favorite emcees of all-time. He’s been in the game for twenty plus years now, and his albums consistently get better and better. Ace’s flow is aged fine wine, and Disposable Arts is the testament of time. Even though this album wasn’t on my top 10 most influential albums (although A Long Hot Summer was), I can assure you it rests comfortably on my top 10 favorites of all-time. When listening to this album, you go on a journey with Ace to The Institute of Disposable Arts. The storytelling on this album is impeccable, and you feel almost like you are there every single step of the way. I still thank my friend Nick Heise to this day for referring me to Masta Ace, and this one goes out to him.

This album starts out with Ace getting out of jail on the track “Too Long”, and right from the get go the album goes hard as hell. Ace’s flow is perfectly pristine as he jumps out of the gate, “Aye Yo, it’s been a long time just like sweet revenge/never thought that I’d be seen on these streets again/it’s been five years at least waitin’ for a piece/bouncin’ off of these walls awaitin’ my release”. On the track “Block Episode” Masta Ace, Punchline & Wordsworth spit a nice narrative with 3 different perspectives from the block. Ayatollah lends his hand to the beats on the beautifully produced “Hold U” where Ace spills some sentences for a lady that he just can’t seem to let go of. When Ace meets his roommate on “Roommates Meet” you will surely laugh your ass off over and over again. MC Paul Barman lends a hand to the album as Ace’s roommate “Paul”, not to mention he plays one hell of a kid from Saskatchewan. After Paul asks about Brooklyn, Ace & Apocalypse tell serious yet humorous stories about the hood. Ace comes out with violent verbal punches on the track “Acknowledge”, “…I heard a few cats tryin’ to take shots on the low/these XFL rappers tryin’ to fuck with a real pro/one thing, who named ya’ll The High & The Mighty?/To me ya’ll sound like a couple of high whities”, and the always classic, “…and I heard your album, this must something you must be new at/cause I’d rather hear a Lil’ Wayne/Lil’ Zane duet”. Xplicit’s beat on “Acknowledge” is full of beautifully weeping strings, and the way he cuts in Gang Starr “Moment of Truth” is some of the realest shit I’ve ever heard.

My favorite track on this album might be why I simply love this album so much. When I was younger I grew up on The Moody Blues, it’s my dad’s favorite band. When I was starting to appreciate music a lot more, “Dear Diary” was always a track that stuck out to me when it came to the Moody Blues catalog. When I played this album for the first time and heard that sample on Ace’s cut I went nuts. Domingo flipped the sample perfectly, and the beat is perfect prey for Ace to murder. Ace spits spiteful lines into his diary that contain volatile venom, and it’s so vivid you might feel like you are right there watching him write.

I feel like I skipped over so many tracks that I would still like to talk about, but I have to keep the review relatively short. This album is everything that a Hip-Hop album should be, great humorous interludes (literally perfect) and straight lyrical bliss on every single track. I can’t talk about this album highly enough, if you’ve slept on this one you truly don’t know Hip-Hop.

9.5 Classes out of 10

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 29, 2009 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Music Reviews, Wildstyle Wednesdays with tags Apocalypse, Disposable Arts, Domingo, Masta Ace, Nick Heise, Punchline, The Moody Blues, Wordsworth, Xplicit. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.