"The Wizard" has an easy-speaking, back-to-basics delivery and a smoldering voice, covering topics from the fallacy of success, dissing fakers, and comic books. (All three coming together in "Giant Man vs Ant Man") The beats recall Bomb Squad production, combining wide-ranging musical sample textures and dialogue with sirens and harsher sounds. Gary Campbell
Dusted beats and super-evocative rhymes from the lowkey brilliant rap renaissance man. Specs' beats are always on some conjurational magic - gliding, droning, bumping, incorporating environmental noises, etc. Rhymes are most powerful here on The Question - a beautifully melancholy memory drift through old Seattle in the face of the city's gentrification - "First avenue used to smell like Afrosheen". Add his casual-precise delivery and great voice and The Question thumps me hard in the soul. beforeihadapager
Wiz put a lot of work into this record, and it shows. It's a virtual embarrassment of hip hop riches, truthfully. Dense with crunchy drums, it's on par with productions by legends like Prince Paul or Dust Brothers, in terms of its complexity and jazzy feel. He has a real knack for layering disparate samples into unique, poly-rhythmic grooves. Wiz's rhyme style is clever, organic and abstract, and it melds perfectly w/ the beats. BLESS! G Lampa