Folks such as this reviewer in particular have been hearing about Illuminous 3 for a long time.  Sure, it took Freez, Mavin MC, and Franz Diego were doing every show for the past 9 years.   After releasing Room, Franz took it upon himself to ignite interest, hence releasing The FranzDiego.Com EP and the Listen to MPLS mixtape.  And the onslaught of material doesn’t stop, as Franz Diego releases Franz Diego, his self titled debut.

First things first: the production value on Franz Diego is superb.  Benzilla provides production on four of the album’s tracks, and they still prove why Benzilla is in demand.  You can hear it in the somber sounds of “Cloudy Day” and “Move On”.  It is especially brash and introspective on “Quest for Self” the introduction to Franz Diego, and the same goes for the women of the world on “Pretty” which features slick guitar work by Greg Envy.  PC also provides production on the introspective “Pearly Whites” where Franz talks about being a robot in the world,  while on “Grenadine” featuring Alissa Paris provides a very nice summer love feel.  Noam the Drummer provides the backing on “Sunrise”, which carries the old school jazz feel of yore,  and does the same on “Cool Out” where Franz provides a soliloquy of stress across various folks.

Elsewhere, you also have Fire Like Water providing the backdrop to “Duel Citizen”, where Franz speaks on his dual heritage and goes further deeper, while Brandon Allday provides the heat when Franz speaks on the female woes “Discipline,” and  “Father Song” is where Franz reflects on the differences between him and his father.  King Otto provides the Primo-sounding “Par Le Vu FranzD?” where Franz gets his braggadocio on and makes for the album’s highlights.

So at the end of all this, Franz Diego proves to be a rather introspective look into the mind of Franz.  While he does hop between different topics across the spectrum, its Franz’s cadence and  confidence that helps put all the tracks on his self-titled album into perspective.  At the end of the day…well…it’s just Franz being Franz.

1. FOUNDATION
Produced by Benzilla

Toki: This was one of the last pieces that we made for the album. I think I wrote it on the back of an electric bill or something. I wanted to sum up the reason why I wrote the album the way I did. There are so many mixed emotions that we have as humans where we often seem embattled with our own conscience. “Love/hate, pain/relief, life/death, contrasts of color, hunger and gluttony.” The album is organized in a way that from song to song makes these emotions look at each other in the mirror. I wanted to make a real honest album even if that meant I was the main character.

2. MORE FIYA
Produced by Benzilla

Toki: I read a negative review about this song because they thought I was going to be hugging trees the whole album. This song came first because I have to let you know I’m an MC/emcee. We used to spend all day capping on each other and battling. I had to bring that flavor into the mix. I told Benzilla as we were creating the record that I needed something hard and straightforward and he cooked this up. Besides that one review I’ve got nothing but love from Hip Hopper who truly understand.

3. DEVILS ADVOCATE
Produced by Benzilla

Toki: This is one of the first songs I created with Benzilla about 4 years ago. I’d been performing it for a long time and stopped for about a year and a half. As we were recording the album I told him we should go back and rerecord this track. It came out even better than before with all the practice. Each verse is 100% true.

I wanted to speak about how we make mistakes and continue our behavior even though we know we are doing wrong. I was surprised at how many people have related. We just shot the video look out for it soon.

4. GOOD
Produced by Benzilla. Background vocals by Mandi

Toki: I really love this song. I knew right away when Zilla played the beat that it would work. It has a very “windows down in your car” feel. It’s all about wanting to find someone that’s good for you. Originally I sang the chorus by myself but enlisted the vocals of Mandi to throw some extra flavor on top.

The funny thing about this song is that one of my rap friends, who’s opinion I value a lot, wanted me to leave it off the album. RSE really wanted to keep it. This is the song that I’ve got the most people saying that they can’t stop playing. I think I made the right decision.

5. A DIFFERENT MIRROR
Produced by Reg E Reg

Toki: To this date this is the most important song I’ve ever written. It is about the capture of African people, enslavement in the Americas, emancipation, Civil Rights, War, and the struggle of Black people overall. When Reg gave me the beat I closed myself off in a room and really mediated over it for a while. I purposely wanted the second verse to be longer than the first. It’s damn hard to perform live though. Ha.

6. RISE feat. SCARUB (LIVING LEGENDS)
Produced by Medium Zach

Toki: I met Scarub back on the first Paid Dues tour. The whole tour was a real awkward experience for me because I was the only person on stage for the whole tour that didn’t even have a verse. A lot of the cats on tour were cordial to me but didn’t know or think to ask if I could rap. Scarub was one of the folks that went out of his way to talk with me every time I saw him.

On one of the off days the Living Legends set up an extra show in Missoula, Montana and Scarub asked me if I wanted to do a set. I said “hell yes.” I went to my computer to put together my set and noticed that it had crashed. Yak Balz let me use his and I had Reggie send me tracks from MN, I downloaded them onto a cd, and walked on stage 5 minutes later. I got my chance to prove myself to everybody that day.

When I got back to MN I really wanted to make a track work with Scarub. I asked Medium Zach what bangers he had and this was the first beat he played. I think it worked out nicely.

7. NEXT BEST THING
Produced by Sevadar Sehaj

Toki: At the time Sevadar Sehaj was a friend of a friend that I only knew in passing. We connected and he gave me a few beats on a cd. They were all really sparse and mid tempo. I dug them because they were really different than what I was used to writing to.

One of the things that I had stopped doing in my writing up until this point was telling people why I thought I was the best. It was a bit redundant in rap to me. What I realized is that if you don’t tell people that you are good sometimes they don’t recognize it. The folks at RSE really thought this would be a good introductory song for me.

This song is also memorable because we had to shut the heat of in Zilla’s basement to record and my toes were freezing.

8. THE LAW feat. I SELF DEVINE
Produced by Benzilla

Toki: I’d been talking to I Self for a while about doing a song on the album. I told Zilla again that we needed some more very hard street beats to round things out. When he played this I knew we had a hit. I ended up writing my verse twice before I Self laid his down. The song is about the law that we face in a social-political form as well as the laws of nature and gravity. What goes up must come down. Whatever energies you put out into the world will come back to you. Karma.

9. STATE OF EMERGENCY
Produced by PC

Toki: I happened to write this right before a big Anti-war rally in Minneapolis and got to share it with a few thousand fed up citizens. I went back and forth about putting it on the album because of the Bush references. In the end I knew that the policies of the Bush administration still affect us today and to forget about and deny the last 8 years would be sheer ignorance.

In addition I really like the way PC makes his beats. They are always very soulful with strong drums.

10. TRUTH OR DARE
Produced by Benzilla

Toki: I really like to tell stories with my songs. I introduced this song on the first Canadian tour for Brother Ali’s “Undisputed Truth.” I got a lot people requesting to buy the song but didn’t have it available yet. Once while playing in Iowa City when I hit the punchline on the last verse a kid in the front row fainted. I just turned around and gave the DJ BK One the “OH SHIT” face and went back to rapping.

Benzilla’s sample choice for this was excellent.

11. THE FEELING feat. BROTHER ALI
Produced by Brother Ali

Toki: So you didn’t know Brother Ali could make beats? Well now you know. If you’re going to get on a song with Ali you better come with it or he’s going to make you look like a Park Board player trying to play in the Major Leagues. So I had to go hard.

Funny side note. This is the only song on the album that had the vocals recorded in a “professional” studio. The rest were at Benzilla’s house. Imagine that.

12. LITTLE GIRL
Produced by Brother Ali

Toki: This song takes the record for the most rewrites ever. I got the beat from Ali in Victoria, British Columbia back in 2007. I ended up writing the song about 6 times. If I’m going to write a song to my daughter it has to be correct.

The original beat for this song was also on Ali’s computer when it was stolen on the Ghostface and Rakim tour. He ended up having to recreate the beat a week before the album went off to press.

13. POISON IVY (AFREECAN AMERICAN)
Produced by Benzilla

Toki: This is the 2nd song that Benzilla and I ever made together. The message is all about how Black people are called African-Americans but historically have not benefited from the full extent of that “American” definition. When I travel to Africa we are considered “Black Americans” and we see how the popular images that are spread to the rest of the world make us look like we’ve received the full benefit of this countries exploits. I had to make the statements “I am and African” and “Am I American is that my dominance?” They are both very real comments.

Greg Envy came through and layed some beautiful bass on top. I also really dig Zillas vocal samples.

BONUS TRACK- GET UP feat. FELIPE of Los Nativos, SLIM, TRAMA
Produced by Reg E Reg

Toki: This is another one of those good ole crew tracks. This was actually Felipe’s first feature so I’m happy about that. Just a bunch of us wilding out in the basement talking about different job situations and money issues. Reg murdered the beat.

A Different Mirror is in stores and online retailers right now.  You can visit his website and check some tunes off the album right here.  In addition you can right click and save as here to download “The Next Best Thing” off the album.  I want to thank Toki once again for his friendship and his time in doing this piece with me.  It’s greatly appreciated.