For those who don’t know Masters
of Illusion consists of Motion Man
(aka Clifton Santiago) and the
hardest working man in hiphop, Kool
Keith (aka Keith Televasquez).
With Kutmasta Kurt on the boards
there is guaranteed to be nice sharp beats with hard drums and plenty of
scratching (by Babu and Rev). Keith‘s major concepts here are wack rappers (rappers are weak most of them belong to Romper Room), and a
particular female orifice (firing
missiles at your girls anus), pure entertainment here. Motion Man is not to be overlooked though, he holds his own beside
the veteran over the entire album.
The first single Partnas Confused
caught my attention with it’s sinister sound that compliments the harsh battle
rhymes, the dope scratching throughout should be noted as well. The second
12″ contained We All Over and Souped Up, both of which are off the
chain. The latter is a hilarious song about being rude to autograph seekers. Keith delivers a classic line here, tell the Backstreet Boys…I’m arrogant.
The eerie piano perfectly captures the essence of Scared Straight and on U Want
Freestyle Keith is blazing on the
mic. Let Me Talk To You shows Keith and Clifton‘s perverse way of treating women properly. The bonus track,
Silk Suit Black Linen, is much of the
same.
East West Hustlers will get your head
nodding and the phat Urban Legend
will probably have you hitting the repeat button. Back Up Kid is yet another showcase for the producer and the
emcees. To top it all off, Kurt
takes it back to ’89 on Bay-Bronx Bridge
and Kool Keith rips the mic like he
is still an Ultramagnetic MC (rumor’s
have it they are getting back together for one more album).
Any of you out there with those trigger-happy fast-foward finger can holster
those mafuckers. Masters of Illusion
is 19 tracks of goodness, there are a few tracks that fall into the solid
category (Magnum Be I and Time To Get Right), but everything else
is pretty dope. Keith, Clifton, and Kurt possess the chemistry that was lacking on the Analog Brothers album, something that
cannot be overlooked. Chemistry among group members is often the x-facter in
making a dope album (see: Wu-Tang
’94 vs Wu-Tang ’00). M.O.I. is what it should have been
considering the parties involved, a very dope album, nothing more, nothing
less.