Blaq Poet – Blaq Poet Society
Brick Records: 2011
Following the critical success of 2009’s The Blaqprint with DJ Premier, Blaq Poet returns with more hardcore than a perv’s hard drive with Blaq Poet Society, a 42-minute homage to beef that has nothing to do with Memorial Day cookouts. The only mentions of ribs are when he describes where he’s putting his pistol to. There’s enough shell-launching and other random acts of aggression to satisfy even the most fervent Grand Theft Auto player. If high temperatures bring what is colloquially known as “homicide weather,” among other terms, consider Blaq Poet Society the Queensbridge summer anthem.
Blaq Poet and album guests like R.A. The Rugged Man, Capone, and Vinnie Paz spend most of the album touting their hardcore credentials, combining punchlines with references to various firearms to remind us how it goes down if you get caught crossing them or the hood. The gutter content that strives for the 90’s New York sound over the booming production of Stu Bangas and Vanderslice draws many parallels to album guest Celph Titled’s lauded 2010 project Nineteen Ninety Now with Buckwild. Celph Titled, in fact, is responsible for one of the album’s more chuckle-worthy lines on the “Shootouts” remix: “Without a G pass, you could be murdered/cost you more than Yung Berg’s jewelry insurance.” Aside from the constant gun battles that dominate the album, the Blaq Poet gets his anthropomorphism game cracking on “Hood Talk” much the same way as Lupe Fiasco did on “Twilight Zone”, imagining the thoughts and feelings of lampposts, buildings, the sidewalk, and the bushes where the guns and the work are stored.
Blaq Poet can be applauded for staying in his lane, although it’s a narrow lane. While The Clipse managed to think of a million different ways of saying “Here’s how much cocaine I’ve sold, EYUGHH!” Blaq Poet isn’t complex enough to make robbery and shootouts interesting for 14 straight songs. Blaq Poets Society has crisp production but the repetitiveness of the subject matter undermines any freshness factor.
2 out of 5