Jedi Mind Tricks - A History of Violence (2008)
WELL AIN'T THAT A SURPRISE: Jedi Mind Tricks get pretty popular with their previous album, and all of a sudden, the great Jus Allah rejoins them! HOLY SHIT!! A -HUGE- reason of why "Violent by Design" was great is BACK!!.. But not quite the way you're expecting. I'll get into that in a bit, but damn, it's great to see Jus Allah reunite with the group after a million or so albums of Vinnie Paz screaming at me about what a faggot I am.
Before one gets too excited about that, let's rewind a bit: "Violent by Design" was great because of many reasons, but one was the interesting dynamic between Jus Allah and Vinnie Paz. Jus and Vinnie were both equally violent with their lyrics, but Jus sounded like a lost member of Wu-Tang Clan with his smooth and technical flow, and Vinnie sounded like an angry ball of hatred, who couldn't quite keep up with Jus but did fine for what it was. Now we get Jus Allah returning back to the group, and while he entertains me with his verses on this album, one thing is very apparent: It isn't the same Jus Allah you came to love and respect on "Violent by Design". On this album, instead of blessing the listener with his smooth flow, he must feel insecure next to Vinnie Paz or something because he copies Vinnie's style of "YELL/GROWL THE LYRICS" down to a T, while occasionally dealing an absolutely bullshit verse. The upside is that he sounds ANGRY AS SHIT, even angrier than Vinnie! The downside is that SO FUCKING MANY of Jus Allah's lines begin with "I", "I am", or "I'm", and then he reads a grocery list of shit that he is (hint: violent, evil, etc), what he's done, and what he wants to do. There's seriously a part in "Deathbed Doctrine" where he practically stops rapping, and just spends a long time saying singular words to give off the impression that he's actually rapping. It's REALLY hard to describe but if you listen to it, you'll see what I mean.
Now that that's out of the way, which I consider to be the biggest thing to discuss when it comes to this album, let's get onto the rest of the album: This album is pretty fuckin' bombastic for the most part. Stoupe's production is AWESOME as always, but there are some tracks on here where it really shows, such as the intro, appropriately titled "Intro", in which the beat explodes and DJ Kwestion (a guy I don't think I've even really mentioned before, due to him not being an official member or some shit) providing scratches over it, leading into "Deathbed Doctrine", an awesome track to reintroduce JMT as a trio. The album MOSTLY tries to make underground bangers, such as the incredible "Butcher Knife Bloodbath" that really is, to me, the best track of the entire album, with an awesome beat, incredible scratches, angry-as-shit sounding verses from Jus Allah and Vinnie Paz, and an outro that lets the beat and the scratches ride. If you want some great underground bangers with incredible production, "A History of Violence" has you covered.. IN A BODY-BAG!! *AUDIENCE APPLAUSE*
Unfortunately, not every track is a balls-out lyrical battle between Jus Allah and Vinnie Paz over great beats, as there are two tracks in particular that break the flow of things: "Trail of Lies" only has Vinnie Paz at the microphone, rapping about typical third-eye shit involving the media, you know, shit about how we're all brainwashed or whatever, and he ends up saying, with good intentions, "Turn the television off, cousin, that ain’t nothing for a girl to see. I’ve got a niece and best believe she mean the world to me, and she don’t need to see the shit that they think a girl should be. Ninety pound skinny bitches, that ain’t even girl to me." which is almost hilariously ironic because he doesn't want her to see what "they think a girl should be" but then goes on to say what HE thinks a girl should be! Oh Paz... Then you've got the outro track "Death Messiah" which sounds like it's gonna be badass as shit but it's just another track in the same vein of "Before the Great Collapse" and "Razorblade Salvation" in the way that it's only Vinnie at the microphone, talking about his fears of existentialism, which is fine, but it breaks the feeling of the album and should've ended on an all-out song instead. It's also really apparent that Vinnie really has some fuckin' problems if he has to keep making songs about them, which is fine: My mental health isn't the best either, but it's weird to see him go from "I'LL KILL ANY MOTHAFUCKA" to "I get sad sometimes.." in the blink of an eye.
Is it as good as "Violent by Design"? Fuck no. Is Jus Allah disappointing on it? A bit. Are there bangers on this album? You bet your ass. This album is even worth checking out just to hear Jus Allah, Stoupe, and Vinnie Paz reunited in an even more aggressive musical style years after their underground classic.
7/10
________________________________________________________
Feel free to check out the song previews/buy this album using my Amazon Associate link!
