A very interesting young man. An interesting young man with a thoroughly uninteresting fanfare by way of introduction but a fairly probing record in a genre dogged by a lack of exploration and true pioneering spirits. Born and raised in Toronto but ‘confirmed’ in New York City, this highly coveted producer has already worked with some fairly respected artists: The Bott Camp Click and Masta Ace to namecheck just a few. Port Authority though, is the Canadian’s first debut proper, an album put together with a bloodthirsty posse of high calibre Bill killers that include Kool G Rap, Masta Ace, Buckshot, Large Professor, O.C, AG, Ju Ju and Sadat X. Real standouts, however, are tracks like ‘War’, a baroque and beefy conflation of muscular jaw bustin’, some prickly boom bap and some killer-crooning by way of hooks, the lush, freaky, full-clip dreamscapes of ‘Speak Softly’ and the slo-flow funk of ‘Lay It Down’ featuring Roc Marciano.
Rawkus is back in the building.