In this week’s episode, Matthew and Ricardo pay respect to the late, great Takeoff of the Atlanta rap group Migos, and review the blood-soaked horror sensation “Terrifier 2”, the German-made film adaptation of the classic anti-war novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, the Netflix-released mystery film “Enola Holmes 2” and the aptly named “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story”.
LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE
“Respect the Skills” is the debut collaborative album from respective Bay Area rapper and DJ/producer Nord1kone (pronounced ‘Nordic One’) and LMT Break, two members of the hip hop music collective Outsiders Syndicate. I formally introduced myself to the Outsiders’ style and sound through the 2021 album “Escape the Yard”, where Nord1kone paired up with veteran Newark rapper and Artifacts member El Da Sensei, with the occasional support from fellow Outsiders The I.M.F. and Jimmy Beatz.
But what drew me to that record was the Golden Age-era, boom-bap, East Coast hip hop sound delivered by producer and Outsider member DJ MROK. From the blaring horn samples and DJ scratches (which LMT Break provides on the closing track “Colors of the Jungle”) to its vocal snippets from the classic 1983 documentary “Style Wars”, “Escape the Yard” sonically transported me to the days of graffiti-painted subway trains, outdoor b-boy sessions and rap music blasting from urban parks.
DJ MROK and Nord1kone expanded on that sound even further on the recently-released “Tower of Babylon”. Here, MROCK channeled the frenetic turntablism and sample-based production styles of late 80s to early 90s hip hop (“War Machine”, for example, is a brilliant tribute to Public Enemy and the Bomb Squad – which is funny since it features CHUCK D himself) while Nord1kone rapped alongside an ensemble cast of legendary emcees like Kool G Rap, the late, great Gift of Gab, Masta Ace (one of Nord1kone’s musical influences) and Chip Fu – yes, THE Chip Fu – of Fu-Schnickens. And as a Trinidadian myself, I felt nothing but joy knowing that a son of the soil is still receiving his flowers while he’s still alive – and on the BEST song on the album to boot! At this point in the review, you can take a break from reading, log on to your Spotify account and do a search for “Shogun Style”. Take as long as you like with that track! I’ll be here when you’re finished!
And now we’re back to our regularly scheduled review!
What immediately caught my eye with “Respect the Skills” were the substantially shortened features list compared to “Tower of Babylon”, its lengthy tracklist of 21 songs and 66-minute runtime. And with this being my official introduction to LMT Break’s production, the question was obvious: Can he and Nord1kone maintain a level of consistency and quality for over an hour? The answer is an enthusiastic HELL YES, and the end result is one of the best rap albums to come out in 2022!
Judging by his output on “Escape the Yard” and “Tower of Babylon”, it’s clear that Nord1kone gives his best rhymes when he’s given the best beats to work with. And on “Respect the Skills”, you can really feel the chemistry between artist and producer, as Nord1kone lyrically feeds off the energy delivered by LMT Break’s production and vice versa. And while there isn’t an overarching concept or wide variety of themes explored on this record, what we get instead is more of a mission statement than a message. Many hip-hop heads – myself included – will argue that the Golden Age of rap music was the greatest era in the genre’s history. Both the rawness and purity of that era still resonates to this day, and Nord1kone and his crew see themselves as official torch bearers of that style and sound. The challenge, however, is to keep that musical aesthetic fresh and relevant, and while there’s been a considerable number of emcees, DJs and producers who’ve kept that sound alive throughout the past few decades, I have a strong feeling that the name “Outsiders Syndicate” will be brought up in terms of the sound’s longevity in this decade and hopefully onwards.
The Syndicate itself is re-introduced to the listener on the first two tracks, starting with the instrumental “Sound of the Syndicate”, one of five instrumental-only moments on the record. Afterwards, we get the fiery posse cut “Smoke Signals” featuring The I.M.F. and Jimmy Beatz over some chilly, sleigh bell-assisted (a production choice that instantly reminded me of legendary producer Buckwild’s work in the 90s) production courtesy of LMT Break. Nord1kone leads the charge, showcasing some highly impressive lyrical dexterity on his verse, followed by The I.M.F. who delivers some of the album’s most memorable bars (“Like give me the fucking money or she gets it / And you don’t need a phone to get the message / I put a scroll in the beak of a falcon, send him out past the mountains / And have him drop it off where your house is”), and Jimmy Beatz who closes the track off quite nicely.
The following track “Knock Knock” douses the flames left by the Syndicate posse cut, thanks to a jazzy, laid-back, guitar-looped instrumental that I INSTANTLY fell in love with the moment I first heard it (points for the Slick Rick “Children’s Story” sample added to the song’s hook, by the way)! And while I love everything about this track, my main takeaway from it is the first verse where Nord1kone tells a brief story about going on-stage to perform at a show, not getting a positive reception at first, reminding himself of his 15 year-plus experience as an emcee and proceeding to make his name and his crew’s known to the audience (“My verbal left hook, all it took to leave ’em shook / Surprise, motherfucker, Outsiders on the rise!”)
And it’s this idea of Nord1kone being a lyrical force to be reckoned with that he explores to some degree throughout this record. Take the subsequent track and single “From the Syndicate”, which makes for one of the album’s brightest moments. Over some lively, spacey production, Nord1kone uses scientific terminology to describe his descent to Earth to leave an impact on the rap game and his ascent towards rap greatness (I don’t think I’ve ever heard a rapper use the word ‘Cassiopeia’ in ANYTHING prior to this song’s release). On “Now You Know”, however, Nord1kone utilizes LMT Break’s startingly spooky and mysterious instrumental to spark fear in the hearts of wack emcees.
On “I Double L, Pt. 2” featuring The I.M.F. and guest rapper Die-Rek, we get a stunning example of LMT Break’s encyclopedic, DJ Premier-level knowledge of rap lyrics. He takes the line “I’m too ill, I represent Park Hill” from Wu-affiliate Cappadonna’s MASTERFUL verse off Ghostface Killah’s “Winter Warz”, chops it up and reworks it to create the vocal sample that plays at the beginning of the track (“Too ill, I represent, too ill”). The production throughout has this grimy, East Coast-inspired murkiness to it, and Nord1kone, Die-Rek and The I.M.F. do an excellent job in maintaining the cold-blooded nature of the beat.
Up next, we get the track “Progression” where, over a delightfully optimistic instrumental, Nord1kone delivers some genuine, motivational words of encouragement to work towards your goals despite the occasional setback. This segues nicely into “When I Bust”, which not only features one of the best and most head nod inducing beats on the album, but also includes one of Nord1kone’s best performances as he raps from this heightened and expanded state of mind (which is funny since his opening ad-libs on the previous track encouraged the listener to “free your mind”)
After the slightly surreal instrumental interlude of “Mind Calibration”, the album gives us a much-needed moment of introspection on the track “The Elements”. Over LMT Break’s reflective production which features this hypnotic flute sample, Nord1kone shares his deep-rooted concerns over his path in life and the decisions made in the process. Interestingly, on the second verse, he criticizes the rap industry, calling out “false prophets” and “half-steppers” for diluting today’s rap music. The I.M.F. appears to perform the post-chorus, which is a rather odd decision since I felt he could’ve contributed a verse to this track. But clearly, this is Nord1kone’s song and you can tell he had a lot of existential baggage to get off his chest.
We then get what is easily the BEST song on this album: the single “The Concept”. At this point in the review, you can take a break from reading, go on YouTube and look for the music video. Again, I’ll be here when you’re finished! But seriously, the opening moment of that video made me fall in love with the song even more, as we see LMT Break rework a sample from Masaru Satoh’s “Hometown” (Preemo fans should remember that sample as the one he flipped on the criminally underrated “MVP” instrumental for Ludacris) into a beat that is nothing short of FUCKING AWESOME! Nord1kone dives deep into this instrumental, rapping about the intricacies of crafting a great song from a great beat, spitting it in the booth and putting out to the masses. But for me, the song’s biggest highlight comes near the end of the song, where Nord1kone pauses his second verse and allows LMT Break to deliver a brief section of neck-snapping turntablism over an isolated drum pattern. Thankfully, the following instrumental “Deep Earth” prevents the booth from completely engulfing in the flames left by “The Concept”!
While the smoke clears from said booth, the album detours into a selection of mellower tracks, beginning with the moody and psychedelic “Mr. Mathematical” where Nord1kone delivers this seemingly endless stream of metaphysical-based bars centered on his lyrical precision behind the mic. Following that is “Enter the Cypher” which is undoubtedly the BEST posse cut on the album! Over a jazzy, downtempo instrumental with some cuts from none other than DJ MROK himself (Points for the inclusion of the sample from Black Moon’s “Buck Em Down” in the cuts, by the way), Nord1kone, The I.M.F. and fellow spitters Cypph4, IQ and Lee Ricks bring their individual A-game to this track, and you can tell they’re all having a blast! Also, I really appreciated I.M.F.’s mention of Brownsville’s own M.O.P. and their 1996 album “Firing Squad”! God, that was a great record!
El Da Sensei appears on the next track and single “The Lab”. As the title suggests, Nord1kone and El break down the ‘scientific theories’ behind their lyrical styles and why haters find it difficult to duplicate their rap formulas. LMT Break’s production is appropriately fun and breezy with the inclusion of a few prominent vocal samples, one of which is lifted from the CLASSIC song “Section” from The Roots. “High Velocity”, the fourth album single, features one of the SMOOTHEST transitions from sample to beat I’ve heard in a long while! And speaking of smooth, this track has this irresistibly laid-back vibe to its production, which Nord1kone puts to great use as he delivers a three-verse affair (When’s the last time you heard three verses in a contemporary rap song?) vividly describing his artistic quest towards rap immortality.
After the serene and meditative interlude “Like That” (my top favorite instrumental-only moment on the album), “Respect the Skills” proceeds to wind down with “Brick by Brick”. While the track feels like a spiritual successor to “High Velocity” with regards to its ‘path towards greatness’ theme, Nord1kone delivers some insightful bars over LMT Break’s string and piano-assisted beat. The playful production behind the following track “Tech N Style” gives Nord1kone the opportunity to kick back, relax and flex on the listener, showing off his technical skills as an emcee (the triplet flows he uses on the opening bars of the first and second verse are absolutely rewind-worthy) and a level of cockiness that can only come from years of experience.
Then there’s the title track which serves as both an exposition of the abovementioned mission statement of Nord1kone, LMT Break and the Outsiders Syndicate and a final address to the listener on why they and other hip hop torchbearers should be held in high esteem. Driven by a couple of party-starting vocal cues (one is directly lifted from Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick’s “The Show”) and bolstered by three passionate verses and a catchy-ass hook by Nord1kone, LMT Break closes the lyrical portion of the album on a strong and satisfying note with his vibrant, piano-laced beat. The instrumental portion, however, is brought to a close with the slightly dramatic, string-assisted flourishes of the aptly-titled “Home Stretch”.
Overall, I dug the hell out of “Respect the Skills”! As a fan of dusty drums, hard-hitting, boom-bap melodies and witty, razor-sharp displays of lyrical dominance, this album checks all the boxes for me. In addition, Nord1kone and LMT Break’s chemistry and respective musical skills are so undeniably strong, there’s no telling what further damage they’ll leave behind on their next collaborative project. And while the genre of hip hop will continue to go into unexpected directions – some good, some bad and some truly tragic (at the time of me writing this, the rap world is mourning the sudden loss of former Migos member Takeoff) – it’s reassuring to know that the foundations of the hip hop culture will stand the test of time. As long as there’s a B-boy to break, an artist to do graffiti, a DJ to cut and an emcee to spit.
OVERALL RATING: 8.5 out of 10
Now available on Spotify, Apple Music and Bandcamp. Physical copies (CD, vinyl, cassette) are available at Black Buffalo Records
In this Halloween special of BBB RADIO, Matthew and Ricardo talk about the hiring of James Gunn to run DC Films, the third season of “Star Trek: Lower Decks”, the first seasons of “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi” and “House of the Dragon” and the Halloween-viewing recommendations “Wendell & Wild”, “Pearl” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities”
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