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If any hip-hop group was ever deserving of the “army” moniker, it’s the 15 MC-deep Army of The Pharoahs (AOTP). Originally helmed by Jedi Mind Tricks, 7L & Esoteric, Chief Kamachi, Trip C, and Bahamadia, the group has metamorphed throughout the years to a gargantuan-sized roster of skilled MCs rocking over Stoupe’s beats. Their latest project, “The Unholy Terror” doesn’t try to change the traditionally rugged Jedi Mind-seasoned formula, but provides grimy themes, lyrics, and beats their fans have loved since the beginning.
The first track, “Agony Fires”, leads us straight into the gutter, yet powerful, rhymes of Vinnie Paz. The Jedi Mind emcee has a voice that is immediately recognizable and gives him superior microphone presence. His multi-syllabic rhymes are pretty decent, but do not say much that stands out other than the “Find a more suitable pitch” line. Planetary, half of the duo known as Outerspace, is next up and brings some solid imagery but no lines that catch my ear. “Ice out the whole joint/ put your men on freeze” uses a fairly played punch. His work on the chorus was alright as well. Celph Titled comes in after the chorus with uber-bassy voice and his trademark, straight punch-line, delivery. The “Florescent pants on” line was okay. I liked the attempt for originality with “Bear trap on your ankle/Footlocker”, but perhaps it could have been setup better. The connection seemed a little too vague. Apathy, who’s voice is also instantly distinguishable, continues Celph’s Satanic-themed lyrics and battle rap. His “Dead ringer” metaphor is incomplete. Technically, a dead ringer is someone who is identical to another person. While the imagery of “[rockin’] the bells in hell” is cool, but I’d doubt Ap is trying to express that he’s a clone of someone else, unless it’s an internal comment explaining he’s spitting about or continuing the same immediate topic as Celph (Satanism and murder). His rhyme scheme was a pleasant juxtaposition to Celph’s more rudimentarily paced flows.
“Ripped To Shreds” opens up with a synthy melody and a rugged bass line. Celph Titled flips up his flow on a completely different tip than from the first track, and I welcome the transition. “When my above-the-margin thugs are bargin’ in / Ya whole parliament, turn butter-soft like tubs of margarine” had to be the dopest two bars I heard so far. Demoz supplies a clever chorus that gives some purpose for an otherwise run-of-the-mill battle track. His flow and rhyme scheme are definitely his strong suits, but his pronunciation suffers greatly for it. Paz’ consistent multi-syllabic and punch-infused rhyme scheme was solid, but the punches should hit harder if dragging a scheme that long. In general, redundant rhyme schemes should be avoided. “Poked with clean needles” was a decent line.
Celph starts up “Bust ‘em in” as well, although this time with a very hype chorus. Reef The Lost Cauze has the first verse and shows off a proper flow. “No holds barred” line and others were pretty weak. Apathy enters next with a steady array of punches. “Holdin’ up the walls of water with my soundwaves” had tight imagery. “Flip a bird and hold a swammie with the same hand”, not very clever, but with his delivery it was dope. Overall, Celph’s delivery was the main attraction on this one.
“Prisoner” is yet another battle-type track set to a mellow beat one could imagine would be better suited for a story track. Planetary starts off with consistent multi-syllables. “Cops lurkin’, still searchin’ me for murderin’ beats”, nice. Doap Nixon has a good voice and a straightforward flow, but no quotables on this verse. Demoz comes in tough after the chorus: “I talk to the mic, you scream at it like Lil Jon”, but the rest of his verse wasn’t very impressive. “The sun cursed me”, ok. “Sun’s jersey” line is played. Paz’ multi-syllabic rhymes kept his verse interesting though.
Celph Titled is the firestarter for “Godzilla” with more grungy punch-lines. “Smiley face sticker on my detonator button”… “Burned more white widow smoke than an old folk’s home – on fire”. I dug the utilization of echo effects with the delivery. Jus Allah hits us with his trademark raspy voice along with heavy metaphors. “Try teaching a beast peace and loving” was a tight line. While some of his lyrics are a tad abstract, he tries to prove his point in an original manner. Apathy brings on the heat imagery pretty well. “And cops searchin’ for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)”, dope line and good use of vocabulary. Planetary follows up with a good flow and rhyme scheme but no standout lines. King Magnetic has a nice voice and delivery but some of his punches are a little weak and/or forced. “Put ‘em in a long box like breadsticks” was alright. “Screamin’ on the phone like you won a radio contest” was tight, but could have been delivered better. Vinnie ends the song with a simple couplet rhyme scheme with random and unoriginal punches.
The beat on “Suplex” sounds almost exactly like “Only Slaves D.R.E.A.M.” on Canibus’ Melatonin Magik. Wow. Des Devious comes in with a bass-heavy voice that sounds stuffy in a way. Perhaps his vocals could have been mixed better. Demoz is next with an acronymical breakdown of his name. “O is for the obstacle you thought I couldn’t overcome”. “Shoot under pressure like Kobe” is played, especially when Vinnie used the same metaphor earlier on in the album. The chorus was uninspired. Post-chorus, I’m not feeling King Syze’s voice too much, and also could have been mixed better. Paz spits last again with vicious imagery and multi-syllabics. “Suicidal, I with the uni-bomber sent me a package”. “Contra Mantra” introduces Crypt The Warchild with a solid flow and imagery, but his lyrics are basic. The chorus is catchy, but the content is unoriginal. Esoteric has a slick flow with some decent punch-line attempts but they’re pretty obvious (ie. “Ya’ll bring up the rear like a J-Lo convo”). Celph Titled claims the last verse with back-to-back punches with chuckle-worthy imagery. “Shoot the Uz’ through your house in Honolulu, Ooh child / I’ll throw a pineapple grenade at ya luau”.
“Drenched In Blood” has a grimy, steam-punk feel to the beat which reminds me of movies like Blade Runner and Ghost In The Shell. Planetary starts the first verse rides this beat very well, utilizing the rapid percussion. Crypt follows with some standard-fare thuggery, nothing spectacular here. Demoz is next with nice mic presence and delivery. King Syze is fourth with more basic lyrics and flow. Closing out the song is Paz with a recycled flow from previous tracks. “I carry four burners like the top of a stove” nice line but also very, very played.
“Spaz Out” is an operatically scored track that is straight battlefield music. Apathy flows expertly on this up-tempo beat, and dishes some wild lyrical picturing. Magnetic steps right in with a wicked flow, but couldn’t make out some of his lines. “Melons be drippin, took a wild Melanie Griffin to stiffen ya body from liftin’ the shotty”, sounds dope but the punch is vague, if there at all. The stiffen metaphor is there, but how does that connect to the rest of that sequence? Esoteric is third with punches that are on and off. While the “cougar” line was weak, the “Toy-Yoda” line was pretty clever. Excellent multi-syllabic rhymes. Last is Celph with a slight demonic tinge to his default delivery. His adlibs are hilarious. CT’s punches are hit or miss like the lame “Dreamworks intro” and “clothes at a nudist club” lines compared to the dope “*69 that” and “catapultin’ careers” lines.
We are greeted by a Rocafella-style beat on “44 Magnum” with The Warchild starting off. Solid multi-syllabics are the keystone to his verse. Des Devious has a strong delivery here, but offers generic, gangsta-themed rhymes. Paz stretches his initial rhyme scheme too long once again, but at least paints a vividly gruesome picture with his lines. Demoz ends the song with a couple decent lines like “Voices ain’t been the same since T-Pain came out”, but was almost as generic as Des on this track.
I was disappointed to hear an auto-tuned chorus in “Burn You Alive”, even if it was used sparingly, especially after hearing a few punches dissing the use of the effect. That said, it was still a nice chorus, but if you’re going to diss autotune on one track, then don’t go ahead and use it on another.
Surprisingly, the next to last track, “Suicide Girl” actually has a topic that does not involve straight maiming, torturing, insulting, and murdering! It’s on a glum beat with a pretty decent sample. Planetary starts off with nice storytelling, giving us the small details needed for character development. Mr. Nixon is on after the chorus with few insightful lines. “Ten years later, now she bobbin at head jobs / In and out of strip clubs like a career job”. Apathy closes out the song with some dope wordplay. The last track, Ultimatum, is a 10-MC deep track which is another set of battle rhymes that signs off the album after over six minutes of straight verses.
If you are a Jedi Mind Tricks fan, you will likely enjoy this album, and will have no qualms about listening to an entire hour of similar content. Each lyrcist brought some fire to the project, but Celph Titled stood out the most with his often-funny delivery and hard-hitting punch-lines. For a battle record, I expected a lot more from these artists though. A lot of the content on “The Unholy Terror” was unfocused and unoriginal in theme. Of the sixteen tracks on The Army of Pharoah’s latest joint, only ONE song wasn’t a battle track, and for such a talented group of emcees, this is upsetting. I’m sure even if war bars had to be the main focus, these artists could have flipped some songs in a more focused or original way to keep it interesting. This is the type of half-assed conceptualization that one would expect from a mixtape. This album’s redundancy becomes even more problematic when you factor in how long it is (1 hour, 10 min.). The beat production was solid, and I really enjoyed most of the beats, especially for “Drenched In Blood”. I recommend this album for fans of Jedi Mind, Celph Titled, and the other talented artists who appear on this record, but the standard hip-hop fan may find some error in “The Unholy Terror”.
$14 out of $20
-The MC Faceman
