Mixerr Album Reviews #559

This is Michael Mixerr. I will review DA Blueprint by Mad Deep & Mental on MDM Records outta Detroit, Michigan!
DA Blueprint was released on cassette only on MDM Records in Detroit.

What's Mad Deep & Mental? It's a mind state. It's for every young nigga having dreams to be. So real. Mad Deep & Mental is for them hip hop heads. Rhythm, melody, and harmony is what makes the togetherness in music. It's the rap music! Mad Deep & Mental is a Hip Hop/Rap group of two dudes named Nostra and Young Kami. Mad Deep & Mental is one dope ass underrated Hip Hop/Rap group comin' from the Big D! MDM Records roster was Mad Deep & Mental, Papa Joe, D-Bone, and NHB (Niggaz Handlin' Business). Papa Joe produced, arranged, and mixed most of this album.

MDM Records and Mad Deep & Mental started in Detroit in 1993. To this day, Mad Deep & Mental still perform at live shows on the Eastside of Detroit often. When you listen to Mad Deep & Mental, just think old school hip hop meets gangsta rap and acid rap with added bass & drums.



Gettin' High 2 Get By is a real rugged grimey acid rap track mixed within G-Funk synths from the Gangsta Rap era. The volume is set to a high pitch. The percussion is quite distorted along with the entire track production. Many various distorted uncouth sound bits of noises are played at a high volume throughout the track. Gettin' High 2 Get By is a 420 track. So please don't get this shit all twisted! Okay?  Gettin' High 2 Get By is super dope madd ill!

Young Kamikaze is living deadly while he blazes it up until niggaz come and get him. As Young Kamikaze clocks the G's he rocks the beats. So forgive the words that Young Kamikaze speaks as he is from the ghetto streets of Detroit. He has no choice but to carry heat. In his hood is so much pain and sorrow. Niggaz are dying beside him. Will they feel him? Will they understand? Young Kamikaze is just a man trying to live life and getting high to get by.

Nostradamus sees G's in his reality, memories, and dreams of course. Nostradamus just wants to get out of this bullshit and live life. His dreams have been turned into nightmares. He wonders where to go from here. Times are hopeless. But… There's a thin line between paranoid and alertness.


Young Kami is living like a hermit in this world on the dark moody track called Mental Problems. Mental Problems is one sick dark, brooding dope ass track! The heavy pounding notes of the super heavy basslines really give in to the element of darkness that this track really has. Mental Problems is about dealing with the stress, anxiety, bitterness, anger, frustration of having mental problems. Hence the name.
The thick, super heavy bassline of Mental Problems will remind you The Unforgiven track by X-Raided on his 1999 album The Unforgiven he recorded from behind prison bars at Salinas Valley State Prison in California. Of course the sample used is Cebu by The Commodores. To put it basically, Mental Problems sounds very similar to The Unforgiven track by X-Raided.


On From The East To The West, Nostra and Young Kami explain how they have the East Coast and West Coast on lock.
From the East to the West niggaz getting snubbed. They all smoke sess (green-leaf or kush). Papa Joe makes some appearances on this gangsta ass track.


I Wanna See The Light is a nostalgic heartfelt sentimental rap pop song reflecting on the past of Nostradamus. The song I Wanna See The Light hit hard and home when I first listened to it. And when I first listened to it, it hit harder than a motherfucker! It really did! I felt it hard.
I Wanna See The Light samples Lady In My Life by 'King of Pop' Michael Jackson. The sample fits in perfectly with the song's theme of sadness and nostalgia.

Nostradamus often looks into these kids faces and he see this happy place he once lived in during his younger days. Before the pussy, the money, and the shady friends. He wore the pro wing afros and hand me down clothes. A nigga gettin' rejected by the hoes. But it was so. He was a kid who could smile. A happy child then. Nostradamus wishes he could go back every now and then. Remember them hot sunny days and ice cream. Nostradamus does. Way before the high rises when he was a little kid who didn't want a lot. Back when Nostradamus watched cartoons on Saturday mornings. Now this way before Nostradamus knew about what world he was born in. Before he knew the stress and pain that was hard. Before these streets had a chance to test his faith in God. He said it would never be easy and Nostradamus is a believer. But damn, he never said it would be hard either. Nostradamus wants to see the light. I wanna see the light!

All Nostradamus wanted to be was his momma's child. To wake up in the morning to see his momma smile. But all Nostradamus can see is the strain in her face telling him that the game is a waste. They kicked it about two times about the wicked world and how they wicked. His friends showed him crime pays. His mother says those are evil ways. But these are evil days. These days are evil.
God's coming to get us is how she tells Nostradamus the story. Nostradamus wishes he could agree. We all going to hell! Nostradamus wants to see the light for what it's worth. It just seems wicked things we done did on this Earth God turned his back to forget us. For what it's worth.

He ain't never coming to get us. She said God's supposed to forgive you for your sins if you repent. Nostradamus sits and shakes his head saying he's got to represent. His mother prays for his soul because she knows his heart is filled with good. Nostradamus tells his mother to pray for these kids in these neighborhoods and happiness. 

Nostradamus hears all these preachers preaching all this peace and love. Then Nostradamus sees these silly streets with these thieves and drugs. Sometimes Nostradamus wonders why they won't go out and preach to them. Preachers can't be scared of hoodlums, can they? Nostradamus fears no man. That's what they preach. And Nostradamus fears these niggaz shootin' on the streets. These kid's have ain't got no love. These streets are led by hot spots and gunshots that barely cease fire. That's why Nostradamus sits here and reminisces on those times that have passed and wondering why those times went by so fast.

But now Nostradamus is living like a big shot with a big salary! Suddenly gunshots bring Nostradamus right back to reality! The same kids dying and families crying. Now if there really was a God, would he let this happen? I wanna see the light!


MDM is beaking it down on Question Mark! It's all about this MDM thing. The drums & bass on Question Mark are super sick!! Kamikaze flows off the hardest on this song! It was a true kamikaze. Nostradamus was saying shit way before his time! This song is mostly about questions.

Steady Blaze is a song to blaze up a smoke to and light up another doobie. It's all about smoking that purple kush. Steady Blaze is a 420 song. So please don't get this shit all twisted! Okay? Steady Blaze is super dope madd ill! Steady Blaze samples Cebu by The Commodores. Steady Blaze is also a lyrical freestyle filled with classic rap. The DJ scratches and breakbeats are super dope! Sick!


Fuck Where You Reside is where Nostra and Young Kami tear up and lyrically destroy all directions of the compass on the map! Step into the dome! Nostra spits the rap game between your eyes. He breaks it down in styles. Nostra and Young Kami have been in the Detroit rap scene since 1984. This ain't no El Segundo. This is Detroit! Nostra and Young could give a fuck where you resides. Fake ass niggaz getting tossed. Fuck Where You Reside is a freestyle rap track.
Fuck Where You Reside samples The Notorious BIG - Juicy.

The Fuckin' Around Interlude starts off with Nostra rapping in a Jamaican Patois accent and beatboxing with breakbeats being played in the background. Later on in the interlude, Nostra gives shouts outs to various people and neighborhoods in Detroit.

Don't Stop The Music is where Nostra calls out politicians such as Delores Tucker, Deion Warren, then US President George W. Bush, and Dan Quale for going against freedom of speech in the music industry. Nostra calls out politicians for being hypocrites. So Nostra declares a lyrical war against his enemies and opponents in this song. Nostra and Young Kami don't like being told what to write, say, and produce when it comes to music. Politicians can't call that freedom of speech and freedom of expression if they and lobbyists control the music business industry. Politicians lost touch with the world.
These politicians called Mad Deep & Mental wicked because they curse out profanities on beats. They blame the world's evils on wax (vinyl) and cassette.

Don't Stop The Music samples Don't Stop The Music by Yarbrough and Peoples,  and The Show by Dougie Fresh. The samples are a hit! The Don't Stop The Music sample fits in perfectly with this political rap song henceforth the title.


Da Blueprint was a blueprint of Detroit hip hop and Detroit rap along with acid rap and G-Funk. Some soul too at that.
Mad Deep & Mental were so underrated and overlooked back in the days! It's too bad they never got the shine that they truly had deserved. I rate this album, DA Blueprint, 5/5*****!!