Masta Killa - 'Loyalty Is Royalty' (2017, Nature Sounds)

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...alty_cover.jpg

"Intro"		0:51
2.	"Return of thee Masta Kill" (featuring Young Dudas andCappadonna)	P.F. Cuttin'	3:21
3.	"Loyalty is Royalty (R.I.F. - Rapping Is Fundamental)" (featuring AB and JR)	9th Wonder	2:37
4.	"Therapy" (featuring Method Man & Redman)	P.F. Cuttin'	3:05
5.	"OGs Told Me" (featuring Boy Backs and Moe Roc)	Dame Grease	3:30
6.	"Wise Words by The RZA" (featuring RZA)	RZA	1:38
7.	"Trouble"	9th Wonder	2:38
8.	"Skit"	True Master	0:55
9.	"Down with Me" (featuring Sean Price)	9th Wonder	3:46
10.	"Tiger and the Mantice" (featuring GZA and Inspectah Deck)	Blocade	2:41
11.	"Real People" (featuring Prodigy and KXNG CROOKED)	Chainsaw	2:52
12.	"Flex with Me" (featuring Chanel Sosa)	Masta Killa, P.F. Cuttin'	3:25
13.	"Calculated" (featuring Ra Stacks and Nick Guns)	Cruz	4:42
14.	"Noodles, Pt. 1"	!llmind	3:28
15.	"Noodles, Pt. 2"	Masta Killa	2:11
16.	"Outro"		1:47

first off I wanna say MK has a good ear for beats, just like Ghost, and he knows what beats fit his flow. the production on this record is nothing to sneeze at bruhs


now on to a quick song by song review ...

(1) intro

sets the shaolin mood nicely. cool points for leaving out the inane intro blabber, nahmean?


(2) return of thee masta kill ft young dudas & cappa

beat reminds of me some of the tracks off chamber music and legendary weapons. nice drums. good first track. at this point cappa is just stringing cliche phrases together but eh at least he brings some energy on the track. mk and young dudas did their thing on this one


(3) loyalty is royalty (R.I.F. - Rapping is fundamental) ft. AB & JR

if rapping is fundamental more than just one verse per song would have been nice MK mkay? this track is butter though with the scratches and the smoov backdrop, replete with crooning. we know MK does these kind of tracks for duh ladies in his sleep. and he pulls this one off well. props to those alphabet boys and 9th too


(4) therapy ft. red n mef

STRAIGHT BANGER. how did I not like this when this first dropped? it must have been the eurofag in me. P.F. Cuttin is not employed nearly often enough in this here rap game. meth's flow is flawless. always good to hear reginald on a wu cut


(5) OGs told me ft. boy backs and moe roc

while Boy Backs sounds like a subliminal homo thug name (it must be me) him and moe roc handle the song well along jamel. everything about this track just clicks. always been a dame grease fan, ever since DMX first destroyed the scenery



(6) wise words by the rza

mr abbott checks in. honestly you could have robbieh read out the phone book and it would still sound interesting. I'm not mad at this interlude. nicely enhances the atmosphere


(7) trouble

well HELLO THERE. we just hit the soulful heart of the album. sounds like a Bronze Naz beat but hey look it's 9th Wonder again. yeah this album is turning out to be pretty damn good. MK pulls off some nice story telling on this one. MK must have been overfed on wucorp gen chat threads since he wisely decides to leave out the word COCK at a crucial point in the story, thus lowering his CUCK COUNT


(8) SKIT

someone have that hoe who sued True Master take MK to court for not turning this into a full song. damn shame son


(9) down with me ft. sean price

the beat is kinda subdued but trust ya boy it's a low key banger. nobody brags like P. somebody got the wrong memo though as mr price shouts out p.f. cuttin when according to The Internet this is a 9th wonder track. what gives? I do not appreciate rappers showing off their geographical knowledge so please mk stop that long ass outro already


(10) tiger and the mantice ft. gza and inspectah deck

yeah I don't know what a mantice is either but it could be a mantis with a learning disorder. as such we need a sequel to this track by warcloud, in which he pits said mantice against candy apple eating box jellyfish. in other news this track right here is WU PERFECTION. gza sounding fully awake, ins took his cough medicine like a good boy - mk knows how to keep these youngins in check


(11) real people ft. prodigy and kxng crooked

I hate it when mofos put an x in their name. just imagine a guy called Xilvaringz running this forum. doesn't sound right, now does it? other than that the crooked guy handles himself just fine on this underground sounding heater. prodigy isn't saying all that much in his verse (rip to the gawd) but he still sounds menacing as hell to this white boy. mk also spits a few bars, yeah you might not have noticed but this is his album


(12) flex with me ft chanel sosa

chanel sosa sounds like a good backup name if chaturbate ever gets into legal trouble

slowly accept this song's existence by watching the vid on mute




(13) calculated ft. ra stacks and nick guns

huh this 2012 kayslay mixtape ain't half bad. apparently two rappers who purchased their names at the Thugs R Us toy store have lessons in mathematics in store for us. I think I'll pass for now. so where did I put that mk album again?


(14) noodles, pt1

after that two song slump mk just about hits every right note on part one. !llmind stays true to form and drops an amazing beat on here where playful piano keys set the mood at the beginning, some intriguing movie dialogue is sprinkled throughout (source, my brethren?) and elegant violins weave in and out. umm yeah this sounds like a night at the opera, but at least that soprano has her tits out on stage. meanwhile mk brings his A game on the lyrics. nicely played, mister Irief.


(14) noodles, pt 2

there's a part two to that goodness? mk is a triple threat on this one, not only numbering his tracks for those who skipped out on the mathematics lesson provided by Ra Stacks and Nick Guns (study those names now, as you will never hear them again) earlier on the album, but also dropping a fine story here and laying down a great laidback beat that reminds me of jan hammer scored miami vice sexy time scenes when those keyboard violins kick in over the sparse beat.


(15) outro

show's over. don't forget to tip the waiter and the piano player as you leave the restaurant you cheap fucks




masta killa, you did us PROUD with this one mang

Lol at your comment about Ra Stacks and Nick Gunz.

Yeah dope album other than those 2 songs. Some very good songs like Skit, Tiger, Loyalty, Noodles. The sample in Noodles is from The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan.

really like the album, going to listen more to it.. definitely much better than "Selling My Soul". it feels like a good follow up to "Made in Brooklyn" which also had a nice balance between the harder vintage Wu sound and smoother soulul shit. 9th Wonder did his thing on the beats here, the track with Sean Price is butter.. "Calculated" is a serious fail though, wtf was he thinking with that lol

Btw, R.I.F. - Rapping is Fundamental is a group, it's not part of the title of the song.. it's Easy Mo Bee's old group, they were all over that record he produced with Miles Davis just before the God died. i think it was Easy Mo Bee, A.B. and J.R. they made one album in the early '90s, but i haven't heard it as their verses on "Doo Bop" really discouraged me:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/12907...Is-Fundamental

Overall, I'd say it's a little bit better than Selling My Soul, but not by that much. It's a harder album, and not as sparse as Soul, but still only about half the songs are good. I didn't even hear any of the tracks other than Therapy before listening, so I can imagine how weak it would sounds to those who already heard the few standouts long before the album was release. Album starts off strong, Return of thee... is one of the better tracks with a crazy beat that energizes MK and gives hope that this album will be tougher than his previous effort. The next track, Loyalty is Royalty, while not bad, is lackluster and not something I'll be listening to many time. Therapy is great, nice beat and really good verses from all three MC's. OG's Told Me is next, and that's also pretty lackluster but at least it's listenable. A skippable possee cut with uninspired lyrics. Then RZA gets on a piano and babbles some nonsense trying to ass meaning to the album's title. Next are 2 great bak to back tracks. Trouble is fantastic, vintage sample and 3 nice MK story verses. The skit that follows is actually a track, probably the best on the album, that for some dumbfounding reason is less than a minute but hey, it's a nice touch to the overall flow. The Sean Price track is next, and it's a nice P verse, but MK verse is so short. It's a good track overall. Finally we get a Wu track with Tiger & Mantis towards the end with GZA and Deck. This is probably my favorite track on the album, featuring a classic Wu beat and sharp as fuck verses from its guests. Wish there was more cuts like this, but Tiger & Mantis is fucking beautiful, bringing in the GZA in the last :30 seconds making you think the song is over just before he comes in and mops up the finale. The rest of the album is downhill from there, with Real People being pretty good and the following two tracks fucking awful. Don't think I'll be listening to Flex with Me or Calculated ever again, but even Made In Brooklyn had really bad tracks. Lastly there's Noodles pt.1, which is really good and reminded me of the final thrack from Raekwon's Lex Diamond Story, just an epic storytelling song about meeting a bad bitch and those Thomas Crown remake snippets were a nice touch. Noodles pt.2 sucked, especially by comparison.

Overall I'd say LIR is better than SMS, but not by much. LIR tracks I really liked: Tiger & Mantis, Noodles Pt. 1, that Skit, Trouble, Return of the..., Therapy. The rest ranges from pretty good to absolute dogshit. MK could do much better, but al least the aforementioned tracks are very welcome additions to the catalogue.

Solid effort from MK. Nice listen all the way through until Calculated and Flex. However, it is a given that all the solo albums done by generals post '97 have a tracks where they go out of their chamber and attempt a more commercial sound. By comparison therefore - tracks like the aforementioned Calculated and Flex are tolerable.
The biggest sin on here is the True Master joint being relegated to a skit.
The only way you can redeem yourself for that faux pas is to have a full Masta Killa and True Master concept album, in the same vein as True and KRS.
Solid 7/10

great album review