RhymeNetwork

Code Poets "Mark Of The Beast" Reviewed by: Access Hip-Hop	Code Poets are composed of emcees and producers Off Topic and Phase Fate of the label Rhymenetwork, who recently released Apakalypse's Walking Coma and Bad Luck's Make It Brief in conjunction with Nod Records. This East Coast underground sleeper from last year is full of conscious lyrics and socio-political content in the vein of Uncommon Records' The Presence (NASA and Cirrus) or Special Teamz Stereotypes. Heavy beats and excellent chemistry make Mark of The Beast a true banger from beginning to end. Again if you like Def Jux-like offshoot labels such as Embedded Music you will dig this. I sure did!
Bad Luck "Make It Brief" Reviewed by: rapreviews.com	The cover of 19-year-old NY MC Bad Luck is a black and red photo of a guy with a gun in his mouth, and it looks more punk rock than hip hop. It starts out with a sample of screaming girls from a horror movie, before going into beat layered with horns and singing women. Bad Luck immediately starts in with the shit-talking: "Dig this: Yo, I'm gonna take it back to basics Face this, I'm hot You got two seconds to run before the glock leave you legless Rhyme scheme is tasteless Flow is all fucked up Couldn't drop a jewel if your punk ass got trumped up" The song establishes Bad Luck as a bad ass who will not hesitate to kill you and then go shopping with your girlfriend. He's brash, cocky, and not afraid to offend. "Gun Shots" and "Prevent Lies" further expand upon his skills with the glock in a way that seems more fantasy than reality, as if Rakim was flirting with gangsta rap with his microphone assassin rhymes. Despite all of his talk of murder and mayhem, Bad Luck comes off more like Kool Keith than 50 Cent. He's more out there than menacing, and even his most hostile rhymes are backed with a certain Bellvue twist. The Kool Keith influence comes out especially strong in "Acid Trip," an ode to tripping: "I'm tripping on 'cid Skipping through Arabian nights Courageously striped through the pages of life I'm taking a knife to the side of your brain in a fight Flavor the light Honey screaming out she favor my mic I'll put an end to you with cosmopolitan subliminals Fuck you in your interviews I'll show you how I get it, dude Leave you wet with the skit Bring your innertube We don't like to rap about sex We ain't feeling you All of you dudes is fake You better elucidate Before I hallucinate And leave you in a crucial state of mind" He rolls off his rhymes with the same schizophrenic confidence as Dr. Octagon himself. His Myspace tag, "MF SHROOM," gives further evidence of just where his head was at when he was recording "Make It Brief. Speaking of "Make It Brief," Bad Luck definitely does that, keeping most tracks under two minutes, and the entire album (EP?) under twenty minutes. The short track lengths have the benefit of leaving the listener wanting more rather than reaching for the skip button. Bad Luck shows his age and inexperience with his occasional clumsy rhymes and elementary school homophobia - everyone he doesn't like is labeled gay or a faggot. For the most part, though, he delivers consistently entertaining rhymes that are equal parts menacing and bugged out. He is backed by beatmakers EDK, who deliver nine tracks of solid East Coast hip hop that have a little trip hop mixed in. If Bad Luck is clearly inspired by Kool Keith, than EDK obviously have heard a few Dan the Automator and DJ Shadow 12 inches. The result is a solid album from an artist with a lot of promise.
Bad Luck "Make It Brief" Reviewed by: Access Hip-Hop	New from Rhymenetwork and Nod Records, the same people who brought you the recently released Walking Coma by Apakalypse! EDK once again taking on production duties, providing dark, chopped-up beats, this time stripped down a little for Bad Luck aka Easy Andy, an NYC emcee with a twisted mindset and in keeping with shock and horror-core hip hop from the likes of Ill Bill, Necro or early Eminem shit!
Apakalypse "Walking Coma" Reviewed by: Insomniac Magazine	Miami emcee Apakalypse steps to the table with raw rhymes, hot beats, and wild content. “Walking Coma” is a hardcore Hip Hop album produced by solid production team EDK and beat maestro Jack Horner. They deliver an awesome album consisting of eleven tracks that can best be described as dark, atmospheric, and eerie. Apakalypse’s caustic delivery works well with the album’s bombastic and spacey flow. “Walking Coma” can be picked on RhymeNetwork.com. This is the remedy for those with an itch for banging, aggressive Hip Hop without the typical mainstream rap gloss.
Apakalypse "Walking Coma" Reviewed by: Access Hip-Hop	Accept no substitutions, this is quite possibly one of the best "true" hardcore releases we've heard in a long time, both a mental and physical beatdown, production-wise and lyrically! Apakalypse is a "take-no-prisoners" ready-for-battle emcee, and its not since I first was introduced to the Wu almost 15 years ago now that I have ever heard such a raw spirit murder (almost literally) every track on an entire album. Carrying around only his fists and a guilty conscious, the Miami native has no regrets as he spits about the real life horrors of the streets and the haunting consequences that come with it. EDK's beats perfectly compliment the gritty imagery and send us straight into the mind of an unstable, hallucinating manic depressive, where no topic goes untouched. From nightmarish visions of war, drugs, sex, random acts of violence and religion to an oppressive society and failed system of government in a world where only the inhabitants of the streets will be ready to rise against it all. If we are to believe that we are living in the last days, then Walking Coma is a product of some of the darkest corners of the imagination, where fear and paranoia are combated with violent aggression. This album is a throwback to the heavy boom-bap of the early 90's and on the forefront of a new era in hardcore hip hop from Nod Recordz and released in conjunction with the New Jersey based Rhymenetwork, we are now eagerly anticipating all future releases from the artists on these labels! All heat and no gimmicks!!!
Code Poets "Mark Of The Beast" Reviewed by: The Run-Off Groove	Politics are wicked, and two people who are wiping the dust off of the dusted are Code Poets. Individually, Phase Fate and Off Topic are very direct about what they want to talk about, whether it's about exposing people to a government of lies, or simply (if doing complex lyrics can be considered "simple") dropping knowledge in a manner that should be celebrated. Both of them come off with the best elements of Kool Keith and El-P, where you have to give them serious listens a few times before understanding what they're really saying. One of my favorite songs on this (and in truth, all of the songs are great) is "Desensitized Lyrics", which offers a number of lessons to those who aren't aware of the hazards that exist today: Remember when our biggest fear was Y2K? ‘Cause we were ignorant, blind, and we liked it that way Overseas conflicts share air time on 60 Minutes With corporate sponsorships and celebrity who-did-it? We in a glass bowl living though a filter so we never notice That the food they’re throwing in is poisoning us Tax money subsidize corn and cattle Makes corn syrup cheap so you know what cows eat That’s why fruits and vegetables cost big bucks and candy’s cheap That’s why our teeth rot and kids are obese Now your fear factors into every aspect of Big Brother’s military tactic classes Lead the masses Uncle Tom, Major Tom Tomahawk missile bombs Dying fast, lasting long It’s another Vietnam Lock and load those machine guns, we’re gonna need ‘em all Had my hard drive erased on purpose So I don’t know what day my birth is No sign, my horoscope is worthless For what it’s worth, I’m as strong as my verse is It's this type of power that speaks volumes, add to that the content within and you have a recipe for something that should be duplicated many times over, but isn't. This is what hip-hop is all about.
Off Topic "Formative EP" Reviewed by: The Run-Off Groove	Last week I reviewed a great CD by Code Poets that I hope will do well for them in 2007. One of its members, Off Topic, will be coming out with a release of his own, called Formative EP (Code Poets). While the Code Poets CD was heavy on politics at hand, this one is a bit subtle in tone but Off Topic's vocal approach is still ruthless. The EP is subtitled "an epilogue to Mark Of The Beast", so consider this an extension of the Code Poets mentality. However, you can listen to it on its own terms, as Off Topic seems to be one of those guys who has something to say, has to write his thoughts down immediately, and sets them to music. I say "ruthless" because this is not lightweight stuff. He speaks on what hip-hop means to him, but this is not a party CD, not with a track like "Return To Ruins". I'm curious to see what direction Off Topic takes in the future, for he has a bit of versatility in the six songs offered and one can see this expanded into the full-length world. Job well done.