Army of the Pharaohs debut album, The Torture Papers (charming, I know), got straight down to business, opening the album up with this 6 minute long, 9 verse posse cut. Shuko produced the ‘epic’ feeling, string led beat, suited perfectly to the constant stream of MC’s laying down bar after bar. Vinnie Paz opens the track up with a little shit-talking hype up intro, about the only thing he does well anymore in my opinion. Unfortunately he decided he wasn’t done shit-talking and that the track would be all the better for having two more interludes throughout where Paz’ gets to display his extremely limited vocabulary by inserting ‘fuck’ and ‘shit’ over and over. The aim was obviously to help break up the verses lest the track become too monotonous but a much better idea would have been to added some scratching and cuts which would have fit the tracks tone perfectly.
Now, getting to the actual verses, Apathy leads the track off and puts down one of the best verses from the album and undoubtedly the best verse on the track.
‘And if you're facin' us, block off a 30-block radius
I throw more blows than boxin' Dr. Octavius ’
I throw more blows than boxin' Dr. Octavius ’
Unfortunately the track goes through a bit of a flat patch afterwards with King Syze, Crypt The War Child, Des Devious and Esoteric all putting forward decent verses but nothing spectacular and you start to feel monotony set in. Yes, they all have aggressive deliveries and fairly good rhyme schemes but there’s no punch lines or even particularly clever/witty lines in general that stand-out. Luckily Chief Kamachi and Celph Titled are up next and help lift the standard with Celph’s witty exaggerative braggadocios style built for a track like this.
‘It’s the Army, we got power in numbers
And that's nines, .45's, .357's, and M-500’s ’
And that's nines, .45's, .357's, and M-500’s ’
Planetary’s up next. He’s alright. Vinnie Paz then proceeds to close the track off in what I can only guess is some attempt to ‘save the best for last’. Of course, the day Vinnie Paz outshines Apathy or Celph Titled on a track is the day Immortal Technique becomes a Republican. So, in typical Paz’ style he spits a horrible verse where his flow doesn’t change once and he puts out the weakest rhyme schemes of anyone on the track. He does drop a gem on us though
‘That’s the reason that I'm fly like the life of a bird ’……..... -_-
All Vinnie Paz hate aside the track’s actually quite good and well worth a listen
7/10
For more Army of the Pharaohs check out their debut album, The Torture Papers
