Review: Menacide - The Drugz LP

Artist: Menacide
Album: The Drugz LP
Year: 2004
Label: Shofiya/ So Sick

Menacide hails from West Michigan and was once a part of the "Low Mafia", a group from Lansing, Michigan who came up selling tapes to anyone in their local area who showed interest in their music. Menacide then went on to start his career as a solo rapper in 1995. After having to come to terms with personal tragedy he released the autobiographical release, the "In My World" EP, which came out in the year 2000. He later returned to drop the album "Knuckle Up" which was well received and featured artists such as Mars of 'Mad Insanity Records' and The Ca$hroll Criminalz.

This album, "The Drugz LP", has 19 tracks in total although a fair few of them are snippets rather than actual tracks. The first track on the album (after the Intro) is "Braggin Rightz", as soon as you hear this track you get a fair idea of what you are in for - hard hitting rhymes delivered with passion by a rapper with alot to say. The track has a few quality quotables, one of my personal favourites is: "Bitch please - how can ya undo me? - You actors weak like DMX in Segal movies". The next track "Walk With Me" features Majik Duce aka the Irish Killa. This is another quality track. The track is rapped over a fitting Bob E Nite beat and is about lifes struggles. Both Menacide and Majik Duce are impressive, Duce raps with near effortless flow and has one of the most original voices in hip hop.

"The Real" featuring female rapper Realistikk and Menacides emotional "Blood and Water" are both sick tracks and they are followed by another sick, although very short, track "Underground King" which samples various rappers including Eazy E, Eminem and Chuck D. Menacide's menacing delivery on this track is nothing short of crazy, even though this track goes for a meer 1:29 it is still one of the albums hilights for me. "I'm A Problem" featuring the Heavy Hittaz has a darker sound than the majority of the album. I love the beat (produced by Midwest's Finest), especially how the sound of a gun loading up was incorporated into the beat.

Next up is the relationship track "Dude Like Me", it isn't bad but it's definitely not up there with my favourites. After a snippet where White Boy Ric just talks a bit of shit, the title track then starts to play. "Drugz" featuring Proof from D12 and McNastee is one of the albums stand-out tracks. Although I'm not a fan of D12, Proof is pretty good on this track, as are both Menacide and McNastee. Following this track comes another of the albums hilights, "Bootleggaz" which again features the Heavy Hittaz. As you can probably gather by the title of the track, it is a diss to people who bootleg their music - "I don't give a shit if you 15 or 20, leave your ass bloody for fuckin' with my money". This was meant to be followed by "Die Slow" featuring Mr Sche and DJ Shy One (according to the CD cover) but instead the tempo of the album goes down a notch with "Hate Ballad" which is pretty depressing track.

"The Basement" featuring Rhode Island's Q Strange is next up, I first heard this track on Horrorcore.com when it was put up as a free download and although it's not Menacide or Q's best work I still listen to it on a regular basis. Both of their styles compliment each others well, I would definitely be keen to hear them on the same track again in the future! I love the hook for "The Basement", to be honest most of the tracks on this album have sick hooks.

Welcome To The Basement, down here we put ya head in vices/
Slice kids, we dice shit, wit' sick devices/
Light shit, you might get spiked wit' an icepick/ Fuck the nice shit, this is fight shit/

"Can't Compare" is next, another short yet mad track, Menacide disses people who think they're hardcore after watching gangster movies, this is another track with a fair ammount of quality quotables, ie: "Damn you a thug - you bust dudes with heaters, you so damn tough I caught a slug through the speakers". The album is closed out with another down-tempo track "Journey" and then 3 remixes, one for "Drugz" and the other 2 are for tracks that aren't on this album - all are well worth a listen.

All in all this is a solid album, my only complaint is the shortness of quite a few of the tracks, but the over-all quality of the album makes it easy to forgive. Menacide is another quality artist coming out of Michigan and this album is well worth buying (they should still have copies for sale over at 'Red Rum Media'). Being a white rapper coming out of Michigan some people compare Menacide to Eminem, to me there is no competition - give me a Menacide album any day!

MP3:
Menacide - Drugz (Album Sampler)

Rating: 4 Daytons out of 5