Album Review: The Regiment – A New Beginning (2009)

Album Review: The Regiment – A New Beginning (2009)
Rating: 4 out of 5 Potholes

Detroit is known to many a Hip-Hop head, especially after such luminaries as J-Dilla, Royce Da 5’9”, Black Milk, Eminem and countless others have properly thrust the town into its respective spotlight.  Enter OSI and IseQold, known as the Regiment who originally came to prominence as being a part of the Rawkus 50 which put out their debut record.  A New Beginning is their second time out, and needless to say, it is worthy of the praise.

Kicking it all off with “Real Talk”, which prefaces with a Barack Obama speech snippet, they get right into it, providing a reflective and head-nod worthy beginning with properly placed horns and flutes.  The production itself on A New Beginning is very much from the East Coast side of things, the beats are very reminiscent of Just Blaze, Pete Rock and 9^th Wonder, yet similarly utilize a Midwest aesthetic as noted by the sped up samples, which are from the school of Kanye West before 808’s & Heartbreaks.  But it’s the way that OSI and IseQold make them work in their favor by kicking lyrics of braggadocio and blending them with a touch of everyday man grinding analysis.

One would think at an astounding 19 tracks, that this album might have more of an earful.  However clocking in at 52 minutes is a huge advantage for the overall fluidity of the album and makes it a cohesive listen.  Add very minimal guest appearances (Buff1 guest stars on “Abstract”) and you’ve got quite a total package here for a sophomore effort. Many a standout come on 20 questions-esque “World We Live”, the hometown anthem of “Detroit (Home)”, and “Every Stripe”, which cleverly could come off as a Pete Rock B-side.

The only misstep of this record comes in the form of “Bounce”, which sounds very rustic, which isn’t a bad thing, but not when the tempo is very much in the vein of the club.  Consider that as the only misstep from the Detroit duo, who continue to create cohesive records about being everyday hard-working craftsmen from the 313.