Roger S. – The Illegal EP EP review
Roger S. – The Illegal EP is perfect old school garage house from the 90s. Production from older Roger Sanchez records are the best. You can hear some of the best music from garage on this record. This EP uses a lot of harmonics over many beats. Roger S. – The Illegal EP was released in 1994 on Todd Terry's TNT Label.
Yes I Do (Gumbo Mix) is an old Roger Sanchez production which was released in 1994. The pitch is set perfectly and the beats are not too processed. Harmonics are added to the mix of garage house. That is the reason why can hear a harmonica playing at various points in the song. Some people consider Yes I Do (Gumbo Mix) to be one of his best works.
Yes I Do (S-Man's Ruff Mix) is just as good of a classic as Yes I Do (Gumbo Mix). The only difference is more beats and distortion have been added. Although this mix is not as ecstatic as the other mix.
My Organ is laced with a harmonious organ backing the entire track in a house styled manner. No harmonics are added to the mix of garage house. My Organ is considered to be another one of his best works by his fanbase. The song would have been good to use at the opening of this EP.
5/5*****!!
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MC Overlord - All Good Things album review
MC Overlord’s album called All Good Things was one of the most overlooked hip hop/rap albums to have come from Austin, Texas. This album was overshadowed due to the success of Lil Black, Lil Breazy, and Tee Double among his other rap peers. The album is a representation of Austin hip hop at its finest.
The production on this album uses live instrumentation which is provided by a band. Yoggie Musgrove and Ter’ell Shahid provide some of the instrumentation. There is a heavier prescience of bass, drums, percussion, and vocals on this Overlord album. Alejandro Vallejo did a wonderful job with the drum programming. His songs such as All Good Things, Save Us, In The End, and Always have a positive message to them.
He keeps on getting better and better as he shows improvement with his lyrics and style. Not only was he an extremely talented emcee, he was an incredible human being with nothing but kindness. Austin Chronicle nominated All Good Things #7 on the Texas Top 10s in early January 2002 because the album was so good.
All Good Things was Overlord’s fifth album which was his first album he didn't produce all by himself. Instead the band Vallejo (AJ, Alejandro, and Omar) produced this album. Overlord always admired the Vallejo Brothers and their music. So he decided to partner up with their independent vanity label Vallejo Music Group (VMG) in 2000. Ter'ell Hunter (Ter’ell Shahid) and DJ Casanova contributed in producing his fifth album also.
Now the album was released locally in Austin at Lucky’s Lounge during South By Southwest (SXSW) in 2001. Overlord held a release party for the release of his album All Good Things at Lucky’s Lounge.
There was a lot of disagreements between the musicians of his band and his management label Lordship Entertainment in regards to this album. Here is what happened behind the scenes.
MC Overlord planned his separation from former label Lordship Entertainment in secrecy due to mounting internal disagreements over a new album release about a live album that was to be released by his management label. Now that album was supposed to be a 2 CD release with additional live material. The album was never completed as things never went past the planning stages. No songs were ever recorded or leaked.
However that plan was changed because Overlord recorded a different album with new material which would turn into an album called All Good Things. The album All Good Things was secretly put together while Overlord had planned his separation from former label Lordship Entertainment. Now All Good Things was supposed to be a double album issued on 2 CD format with additional live material.
The reason Lordship Entertainment did not release this album on their label. Mounting internal disagreements over a new album release led MC Overlord to have severed ties with Lordship Entertainment in the spring of 2000. However MC Overlord allowed Lordship Entertainment to have non-exclusive management rights for this album. Lordship Entertainment still managed his career.
MC Overlord tells and advises listeners to appreciate all the good things in life and not take them for granted on the song All Good Things.
Life is hard enough without haters and gripes. However life is never quite as bad as it could get or be. Overlord wants us as people to try to make some changes about the way that we. The good things in life don’t come for free. Nothing comes for free. Always appreciate the good things.
Negative will conquer and divide if you if let such a thing happen. That is what these lyrics mean. “Get out my ear with that negative vibe, yo/They only conquer if you let ‘em divide you”
Overlord tells people not to be brainwashed by what they watch on TV. He encourages people to stand for something and to pursue their dreams of what they want to become in life. Being true to yourself is the most important thing.
Overlord encourages listeners to get an education in these lyrics below.
What ever happened to community pride and roots?
Don’t let the TV betray and lie to you
Stand for something and try to pursue it, kid
Be what you wanna be in life
The way I did
No matter what
Yo you gotta be true to you
So here it is
Do what you got to do
Yo generation
Unite the nation
Get an education
And know what you facin’
I’m speakin’ on it
Cause I know for sure
Ya’ll should listen to a brother
Who know
I been around
Never fell off or been down
Kept you on point
Both then and now
If you down with my team
Stay on top of your dreams
And remember we should live
For The Good Things
In The End is about wondering how things will go for you in the future. Throughout out the entire song, Overlord wonders and questions how things will turn out for him .
Overlord want to chase his dream without having to scheme or scam his way through life. He wants to be paid for what he’s worth instead of working for peanuts (very little). He wants to trust his friends without being betrayed. When you tell him that you’re down, can he trust what you say? He want to be a good uncle and to try to support his peeps. Clearly he wants a sign of the time. He has seen both good and grim.
He wants brothers and sisters that don’t fear love. He wants blue skies for his family and friends. Freedom for kin folk locked in the pen. See the world and all walks of life. The King’s dream was right. Overlord wants to know why we as human beings hate and refuse to adapt or change. We never learn from mistakes. So we suffer the same. We’ve lost so much already and much more. Future generations will suffer.
Ones Up was the buzz single that helped get this album on to Austin Chronicle’s Texas Top 10s list back in 2002. The single was an upbeat 2 minute long song which Overlord graced the mic with performed his best. The bass in this song follows a melody.
You will respect MC Overlord as a lyricist. He is tough enough to stuff these rhymes as he’s a hip hop terrorist. That’s why you are hearing this bass and a melody. It’s not a felony. His rhymes are on the market as he out to make money with his music. Girls be screamin’ for this microphone demon. He is respected by many as his pockets have plenty on the hard streets of Austin, Texas. He is a rap lord MC. Real name is Don but his friends call him Big D.
It’s the man with the jam and he keeps it real grimy. Comin’ up makin’ bucks. The heavy weight. Be in place for a smack up. Give him space and you’ll be safe. He doesn’t need an introduction as he down with the Vallejo boys at Vallejo Music Group. Overlord speaks the truth as he’s on a mission from God.
Over & Over is similar to Welcome to Atlanta due to the club lifestyle oriented lyrics. Over & Over was sort of the Austin answer to Welcome to Atlanta. Only the names of several club to do not get mentioned throughout the song. Instead the names of roads get mentioned.
Now every time Overlord comes through the club he wrecks the mic with his lyrics. Chicken heads in the club wearin’ skirts and tights. We don’t wanna be fightin’. If we do, we gone clash like the Rams and Titans. You know Overlord didn’t come to the club to joke. He came to the club to rap and perform. Overlord’s not a hater because he run with all types of folks. An MC to the fullest is what he is.
He is rollin’ up into the first class VIP section of the bar while his road manager (road dog/friend) gets bent (high or drunk). He’ll be keepin’ it hype while focusing sights on honey’s in tights for 4 night. This is the spot. The place to be. Reppin’ for the 512 (Austin, Texas) is what Overlord does. Overlord is running with this click late at night in the club. His click holds the club down with their music. Over and over.
They’ll be wildin’ out in the club while they’re up in your town/city. The floor is packed. There is a this fly female grinding with a serious flare. She appears to be all alone. She got most fellas scared. Watch Overlord’s steelo. Overlord ain’t got nothing to lose. You’ll be watchin’ them floss as we all bump and grind.
The party topples at 2:30 AM. Overlord heads to Ben White Boulevard (State Highway 71/TX 71) for some chicken and waffles. It’s time to grub with a caravan of hot girlies that he met at the club. Small talk occurs while Overlord is sizing up the girlies. He gets the bill from the waitress and pays for everything.
Overlord asks, “Which of you girlies wants to stay up late? I got a Sony Play Station snd dessert at my place.” 4 AM and the girlies are alone with Overlord at his place. So he puts on the slow jams. The tone in his voice changes. She tells him it’s time for her to bounce. Overlord calls for a taxi cab. He tips the cabby to get her back home. Then he’s back in the zone.
Save Us is the song which serves as a prayer for someone in the future generation to save the current generation. The song uses a harmonic organ which gives a sense/mood of sadness, happiness, and uncertainty. The song resolves in uncertainty at the very end. Honestly the song Save Us should have been the closer for this album instead of Fatman because of the mood and sound.
At the beginning of the song, Overlord tells us that even if it hurts that we must hang on. You need to take that pain. Don’t ever let them see your tears when you’re fed up and had enough. Do your thing. Enemies will feed and prey upon your weaknesses just to see what the damage will do. They feed on your open wounds. There ain’t no more saints out there. The world is full of backstabbers and outlaws waiting to creep. Be the better person. It’s all about the world you make. So you gotta be a leader if you wanna escape. They hated Dr. King and Jesus for speaking of change. Chances are they might hate you the same. Somebody save us.
Maybe you could be the one to save us. To save the current generation and future generation. You might be the only one that could save us.
People front, trip, and lie all the time. That’s the way that they play you. Take a deep look to separate the riders from haters. Separate the real ones from the fake ones.
MC Overlord calls out the Republican Party for their agenda in lyrics to Verse #2. He calls them out for not supporting those in need and their “every person for themselves” mentality. “Republican agendas/Try to force you to settle/If you take to escape/What they left you with/That’s the nature of survival/Little man don’t trip/Yo ignore all the rhetoric/They fill you with”
God loves everybody. So believe you are blessed. How else could you explain your endurance of pain or the depths from which your own family came? Look upon a world where results are tragic. Superman’s a myth. Our heroes are dead. You’re the only one to save whatever lies ahead.
A remix of the song Fatman from his 1999 album House Of Funk was included on his 2001 album. This version uses much heavy bass and uses a more livelier horns selection.
Now the song The Call was based on a phone call MC Overlord made to his mother in 1988. Overlord wanted to pursue a music career and quit going to University of Texas at Austin to obtain a degree. He wanted to be an entertainer instead. That phone call changed his life. That was also the day his mother, Mercedes Robinson, stopped paying her son's bills. MC Overlord says, ”It was the hardest phone call I've ever had to make. She flipped out.“ The whole family on blast about the way his phone call with his mother went down. Still this stop Overlord's self-sufficiency, drive, and motivation of becoming a rapper.
4/5****!
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MC Overlord - The Black Theory album review
MC Overlord's The Black Theory album was released in 2006 by Vallejo's Vallejo Music Group (VMG) out of Austin, Texas. Production wise, Black Theory is one of his greater works. He seemed to used a handful of in-house producers that were up-to-date on the latest in high-definition quality production. The album was decent thanks to the help of DJ Panda and Drez One of their Goodvibes Recordings which Tee Double was signed to. The songs are classics which pay homage to hip hop. The classics which pay homage to hip hop are Tha Real Deal, Mic Check, Fall In, Remember, My Homey, Mamma Said, and I Thought You Knew.
DJ Crash, Ter'ell Shahid, Tee Double, DJ Panda, and Drez One lend a hand in production. Featured artists were Bavu Blakes, Ter'ell Shahid, Tee Double, DJ Panda, Drez One, Tony Harrison, and Joy Davis. Tee Double and Bavu Blakes are make most of the guest spots on the album.
The standout tracks were Tha Real Deal, Mic Check, Fall In, Remember, My Homey, Mamma Said, I Thought You Knew, Where I'm At, and Let 'em Out.
First off the intro was dope! The intro uses a hodgepodge of vocals samples over several track effects. Now the intro gets very deep and intellectual while explaining the definition behind the word ‘theory’.
I Thought You Knew is a song about the day to day realities people face such having to work three jobs and still be in poverty. MC Overlord delivers a powerful message at the end which tells to face life instead of live in a fantasy world. “Life is too short/Don’t be scared to face it” Austin rappers Tee Double and Bavu Blakes have a guest spot on the song.
My Homey was the underground buzz single which featured Austin soul brother Ter’ell Shahid. The song is a fusion of funk, rap, and soul.
Mic Check uses a tempo of 86 BOM over 3B Camelot and is played in D♭ Major. There is a touch of liveness used in this freestyle song yet there is a lack of acoustics. The song is great regardless.
Remember pays homage to classic hip hop with the 808 beats, low bass, vinyl scratches, and dope lyrics. Austin soul brother Ter’ell Shahid spits a verse on the song towards the end. This song was for the club people hence the fast upbeat pace.
Mamma Said is revisits the songs Always and The Call from his 2001 album All Good Things. That song picks up where both of those songs left off. You know the sayings “Mama said there would be days like this.” and Mama knows best.”? That is what the song Mamma Said is about.
5/5*****!
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MC Overlord - October album review
October is one of the most personal albums in MC Overlord’s discography. This album is a mixture of folk and rap. October is a folk rap album that is mostly acoustic. Think acoustic hip hop. Lead guitarist Jason Mozersky provided the acoustics. Jason Mozersky, Adi Welk, and other live musicians worked with Overlord on this album. Most of this album has a sad mournful but heartfelt vibe with songs such as Forever, October, and Stand. MC Overlord got personal on songs such as Forever and October as mourned over the loss of his longtime friend Cory Paul Ziegler.
Originally he was doing albums such as this one just to get his name out in order to raise money. It was Wan Santo Condo, a friend of his, who convinced him to complete an album of acoustic hip hop and dedicate the proceeds to a scholarship fund in Ziegler's name.
The whole album was dedicated to Cory Paul Ziegler after he lost a long battle with leukemia. The profits from this recording were donated to “The Cory Ziegler Fund” which went to a scholarship fund in Ziegler's name. The album/EP, October was something he started as a plan to commemorate a close friend. Now this album is more of an EP than an actual full length album due to there only being 7 songs total.
The song Forever commemorates the memory of close friend Corey Ziegler. Corey Ziegler lost a long battle with leukemia. The flutes and guitars used on Forever are subtle and quite settling. This song was another way he dealt with Ziegler's death.
The song October deals with the death of Cory Paul Ziegler who lost a long battle with leukemia in October 1992. Cory had been battling leukemia for 5 years since 1987. Instrumentation is compromised of an acoustic backing track which is Jason Mozersky playing a guitar. This song was the way he dealt with Ziegler's death. Corey Ziegler was one of his closest college friends when he attended UT Austin.
5/5*****!!
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Skeezoid – Acid Breaks EP review
Skeezoid – Acid Breaks is an EP full of breakbeats and repeated vocal samples over acid styled house music over heavy beats. The whole EP is electronically processed and filtered. Most of the songs are repetitive loops though however. Nearly all of these songs are instrumentals. The EP is a perfect tool for DJ’s to play at a rave or a club.
3/5***
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