Review: The Slaughterhouse EP: A Great Example of Wasted Talent

Presented by the artists behind the ‘Mood Muzik’ series, ‘Death Is Certain’ and ‘The Brick: Bodega Chronicles’ (and….well, I’m sure Crooked put out something decent at some point in his career) is….This. The Slaughterhouse EP (they’re creative with their titles these guys). An EP which provides a great example of talent gone to waste. I’m not going to exaggerate and claim this is some atrocious, god-awful, horrible release, it’s not. It’s just a mediocre release from a group with the capacity for so much more.

Back On the Scene: I like this beat. Nothing amazing but it does the job. The chorus really grew on me as well (except for the unnecessary ‘Slaaaaughterhoussseee’). Royce starts his verse off well then sounds like he got fed up put any effort in halfway through . Crooked’s

‘Only time your music is fly in when I use your compact disc as a frisbee to fling’

pretty much sums up his contribution to the whole album so I won’t waste anymore time talking about him. Funnily enough the site I got the lyrics for this song off had the line quoted at the top of the page as if it was, like, actually a nice line. Joell then comes in with a really poor verse containing one of the worst lines on the whole release,

‘Sorta like a spine on a movie screen, back on the scene’......  -_-

Budden saves the track from falling into ‘awful’ territory with a real nice verse.

5.5/10

Sun Doobie: This tracks of a pretty similar standard to ‘Back On the Scene’ except lyrically it’s a little better and the beat’s a bit worse. Don’t really know what Mr Porter was thinking with that piano.

6/10

Everybody Down: This is probably the best of the new tracks. Black Milk whips up a pretty decent beat and Budden comes through and kills it. Royce is alright. Joell puts out a pretty decent verse minus the corny food references. That other guy throws in a punch of forced multi’s and some feeble attempts at lyricism (that Boardwalk Empire pun couldn’t have been more forced).

7/10

Put Some Money On It: The LOX are how they always are, consistently average. Joe’s alright, Royce is inconsistent, Crooked puts out his best verse so far (which says very little) and Joell shows a little bit of what he’s capable of when he’s not half-assing it.

6.5/10

Fight Club (Remix): Love the beat but it doesn’t really gel with the way the ‘verses’ are structured.

Move On (Remix): Love this beat, great chorus. This and ‘Fight Club’ are examples of what this EP could have been.

So, pretty much, the whole thing was disappointing as fuck. Lets just hope the Shady deal motivates these guys to put out the great album they’re capable of.

Rating: 6/10

Highlights: The production on ‘Move On’ & ‘Everybody Down’

Lowlights: ‘Back on the Scene’ & ‘Sun Doobie’

Recommended Listens: If you enjoyed this – or know from their solo work that ¾ of the Slaughter are actually capable artists – you could listen to their self titled debut album, ‘Slaughterhouse’(duh!), but that’s fairly underwhelming as well (though still a lot better). You’re better off checking out their pre-album collaborations (such as ‘Wack MC’s’ and ‘Onslaught’) or their solo work.