Jedi Mind Tricks - Legacy of Blood (2004)
Alright, so here we go. I honestly am not a fan of this album due to a few reasons, and one of which being that while I'm a Jedi Mind Tricks fan (at least up to this point in their discography), this album in this point in their career feels like the tenth day in a two week binge where you have pizza for dinner every night. More and more battle-raps about an invisible enemy (or is it YOU?) being a "gay faggot", even more stuff about how we should convert to Islam, all that stuff you had already come to expect from Vinnie Paz lyrically, and while the beats provided by Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind ain't bad, it all generally feels same-y for the most part: Samples of pitched-up Italian music, samples of classical music, and samples in (some) choruses of lines from other hip-hop songs, but hardly any of this has the underground charm or general violent feeling as "Violent by Design" or even some cuts off of "Visions of Gandhi".
Homophobia is at an all-time high on this album, to the point where I was thinking about listing out a few examples of it, but then decided "The listener can pretty much pick almost any song on this album and hear a shitload of it". Whether it be Vinnie Paz calling his invisible enemy (OR IS IT YOU?! I'VE ASKED IT BEFORE BUT I REALLY GOTTA KNOW) a homosexual in a demeaning manner, or him bragging about not being like wunna dem soft-handed fagets, whereas on previous albums it was "Oh, that's offensive" with the occasional unintentional comedic edge, here it comes across as absolutely unintentionally comical coming from a guy that'd probably get offended if you called him overweight.
You've got a few guest stars on here but it's mainly The Vinnie Paz Show. You've got Sean Price, Killah Priest, and even GZA of Wu-Tang Clan fame, but it all just feels wasted. That being said, there are actually a few songs on here that wet the whistle a bit, like the typical JMT formula of "And So It Burns" that actually bangs pretty nicely in your mom's jeep, and "Verses of the Bleeding (Feat. Dez Devious)", but it's all more and more of the same shit that I honestly really liked before (and still do) but it's just tiring at this point, like that one friend you've had since you were 11 who still only talks about video games and that's it, despite you both being in your 20s. Vinnie Paz is exactly that but with violence, homophobia, and Islam instead.
That being said, Vinnie Paz does actually break away from his usual tropes at some points, such as "Before the Great Collapse" reading out like his own suicide note that he wrote as a letter for his mother, talking about how life is too painful to continue on with, and it's actually pretty damn emotional to the point where it's almost hilarious that it's on this album in contrast to the other songs, but it's cool to see him talking about other sh- AND THEN THE BONUS TRACK KICKS IN, "The President's Wife (Feat. Dez Devious)", WHERE HE AND DEZ DEVIOUS TALK ABOUT KIDNAPPING AND SHOOTING LAURA BUSH IN FRONT OF GEORGE. I HONESTLY CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS A SONG OR THAT VINNIE PAZ WAS NEVER INVESTIGATED BY THE FBI. HOLY SHIT. I AM DONE.
6/10
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Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
