Hey guys, its your old pal Bank Robber here hooking you up with a review made by yours truly. I'll try to do this each week if I have the time :thumb:
Artist: Mr. Hyde
Album: Barn of the Naked Dead
Record Label: Psychological Records
Release date: August 10, 2004
Producer(s): Necro
Notable guest appearances: Necro (5 songs), Goretex (2 songs), Ill Bill (3 songs), Sabac (1 song)
Mr. Hyde, a member of the group Circle of Tyrants, and protégé of Necro, made his anticipated debut with “Barn of the Naked Dead” in 2004. If you can’t tell the general feel of the album by simply looking at the album cover, you can bet your sweet ass it’s not going to sound like Chingy. Over the years, Hyde has shown his potential to fans through various guest appearances with artists like Non Phixion and Necro; and through many freestyle sessions on radio stations all throughout New York. With this album he doesn’t exactly leave the side of Necro, as Necro is the producer for every beat on this album (along with making a few guest appearances).
Barn of the Naked Dead could be classified as horrorcore (although “death rap” is the term Necro prefers to use), presents a very morbid/scary feel. While it’s not perfect, it’s one of the few great albums left in an otherwise dying genre. While most horrorcore rappers today focus on shock value more than musical content; Hyde and Necro have polished this into a great blend of rapping and producing. Yes, shock value can be found throughout this cd, but it comes cleverly packaged together with an articulate rhyme scheme. Mr. Hyde has one of the best rhyme schemes of any rapper I’ve ever heard. His ability to rhyme multiple words per bar surpasses the best of any emcees, but what keeps me from officially declaring him a “great” emcee is his inability to carry full tracks together. The songs he performs best on happen to be his collaboration tracks. Not that the solo tracks are bad, some just get repetitive and start to sound the same. Perhaps had he put in a little more emotion into the verses this problem could’ve been fixed. Still, that doesn’t do enough to keep this from being a solid album.
Not every song on the album is strictly about violence, some songs have actual themes. In example, the song Bums comes with Hyde taking on the persona of an actual street bum, while Necro follows in the character of your run-of-the-mill hardworking regular member of society who looks at bums as low life’s who can’t contribute to society. Another solid theme track is Death Sentence, featuring Sabac Red of Non Phixion. Hyde takes the position of a heartless/remorseless inmate on death row while Sabac raps in the point of view as the prison guard who looks over Hyde.
Necro, as a producer, is well respected around the hip hop community (although the same cannot be said about his rapping). It’s not much of a surprise that he came through once again with the beats for this album. He manages to give Hyde’s raps a grimy/darkish vibe throughout the LP and even drops a few dope verses as well. There’s only one beat on the entire cd I would classify as below average (and considering the amount of projects Necro was juggling through 2004, I can overlook it).
Here’s the stats:
Rapping/delivery: 8 (of 10)
Lyrics: 9.5
Production: 9
Subject Matter: 6.5
Overall score: 8.25 (33 of 40), B+
Artist: Mr. Hyde
Album: Barn of the Naked Dead
Record Label: Psychological Records
Release date: August 10, 2004
Producer(s): Necro
Notable guest appearances: Necro (5 songs), Goretex (2 songs), Ill Bill (3 songs), Sabac (1 song)
Mr. Hyde, a member of the group Circle of Tyrants, and protégé of Necro, made his anticipated debut with “Barn of the Naked Dead” in 2004. If you can’t tell the general feel of the album by simply looking at the album cover, you can bet your sweet ass it’s not going to sound like Chingy. Over the years, Hyde has shown his potential to fans through various guest appearances with artists like Non Phixion and Necro; and through many freestyle sessions on radio stations all throughout New York. With this album he doesn’t exactly leave the side of Necro, as Necro is the producer for every beat on this album (along with making a few guest appearances).
Barn of the Naked Dead could be classified as horrorcore (although “death rap” is the term Necro prefers to use), presents a very morbid/scary feel. While it’s not perfect, it’s one of the few great albums left in an otherwise dying genre. While most horrorcore rappers today focus on shock value more than musical content; Hyde and Necro have polished this into a great blend of rapping and producing. Yes, shock value can be found throughout this cd, but it comes cleverly packaged together with an articulate rhyme scheme. Mr. Hyde has one of the best rhyme schemes of any rapper I’ve ever heard. His ability to rhyme multiple words per bar surpasses the best of any emcees, but what keeps me from officially declaring him a “great” emcee is his inability to carry full tracks together. The songs he performs best on happen to be his collaboration tracks. Not that the solo tracks are bad, some just get repetitive and start to sound the same. Perhaps had he put in a little more emotion into the verses this problem could’ve been fixed. Still, that doesn’t do enough to keep this from being a solid album.
Not every song on the album is strictly about violence, some songs have actual themes. In example, the song Bums comes with Hyde taking on the persona of an actual street bum, while Necro follows in the character of your run-of-the-mill hardworking regular member of society who looks at bums as low life’s who can’t contribute to society. Another solid theme track is Death Sentence, featuring Sabac Red of Non Phixion. Hyde takes the position of a heartless/remorseless inmate on death row while Sabac raps in the point of view as the prison guard who looks over Hyde.
Necro, as a producer, is well respected around the hip hop community (although the same cannot be said about his rapping). It’s not much of a surprise that he came through once again with the beats for this album. He manages to give Hyde’s raps a grimy/darkish vibe throughout the LP and even drops a few dope verses as well. There’s only one beat on the entire cd I would classify as below average (and considering the amount of projects Necro was juggling through 2004, I can overlook it).
Here’s the stats:
Rapping/delivery: 8 (of 10)
Lyrics: 9.5
Production: 9
Subject Matter: 6.5
Overall score: 8.25 (33 of 40), B+
