Illa Squad - Illa Squad 4 Life

Finally another hip hop joint to review and it's a good one. The mix tape starts off a bit slow but really comes to the fore in the second half with some awesome lyrics over well known beats. I'm especially loving the sampled Tupac beats and the lyrics thankfully fit well to those otherwise it would be blasphemy.

It's good to see variety between the styles of the 4 artists that drop verses right across the board. You've basically got 25 tracks with varying styles, beats, samples and flow. It's good because there is literally something for everyone here. I'm more into the bangers (see my standout tracks). The slow tracks I got to skip past but they'd be ok if the mood was right.

The first time I heard it i was a bit sceptical due to the amount of unoriginal beats on the CD but when I went through it again its not that big a deal. What is on show here is the emcee'ing skills rather than the beats in my opinion although those do come strong and seemless between the tracks so credit where credit is due. There are some tracks on here the really put the subs to work, Still Tippin and Dirty Ass were two of 'em. Then you have the dramatic sounds of So Much Skill which makes it one of the stand out tracks for me. It's one of those tracks which proclaims their excellence while putting up a middle finger at the opponents. This gets followed up immediately by Still Tippin. I'm loving the beat and the samples used here, especially the little kid voice.

Pretty much from track 14 onwards you're talking about proper hardcore hip hop and lyricism, prior to track 14 progress is a little slow, but it almost works in their favour as it leads to track 14 when the joint starts to find its stride. The last two tracks bring things to a close, To Live is a fast paced track with equally smooth lyrics while Forever Freestyle is a more sedate track.

Overall it's a pretty good showing from the Illa Squad clique. I'm liking it for it's indie feel and sound, it's got an underground feel to it mainly due to the vocal and production style but also some of the old school beats that have been sampled.

Stand out tracks for me include...
Pressure Freestyle
Still Tippin' Freestyle
Illasquad Freestyle
Ok
Da Burg
Dirty Ass
So Much Skill

Track listing:
1. Intro- HAP and Nat King produced by D Black
2. Pumpin*- HAP and Nat King
3. Pressure Freestyle- Metafore
4. Dear Summer Freestyle- Phenom
5. Move, Sweat- Metafor, P Newsense, HAP and Nat King
6. IllaSquadaz Freestyle- HAP, Metafor, and Nat King
7. Da Fix*-Nat King, HAP, Mizury Illz
8. OK*-Nat King and HAP
9. Out of Nothin*- Illeat
10. Made Freestyle- Illeat
11. Freestyle- BP
12 .Mizury- Mizury Illz produced by D Black
13. Over There- Metafor and HAP produced by Vinny Mac
14. Da Burg (Tonight) - Nat King and HAP
15. Thursday Night Freestyle- Metafor, Mizury Illz, and Nat King
16. Dirty Ass*- Nat King, HAP and Knickotine
17. So Much Skill*- Nat King
18. Still Tippin’ Freestyle- Babylove
19. Watch That There*- Nat King and HAP
20. We Soldiers- HAP and Nat King produced by Vinny Mac
21. In Dem Streets- Mizury Illz produced by D Black
22. 4 Life Freestyle- Illeat
23. Looped It Freestyle- Knickotine, Nat King and Young Cream
24. To Live*- Mally, Dimize, and Phenom
25. Forever Freestyle- Nat King

The tracks with * are credited to Nat King.

More information:
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