Ill Bill - The Hour of Reprisal: Album Review
Ill Bill, The Hour of Reprisal (Uncle Howie, 2008)
Ill Bill was one of the guys in the group Non Phixion, that put out the album The Future Is Now, which is considered somewhat of a classic amongst dudes who spend too much time in their mothers' basements. This is his second solo album.
BABYLON
There's a recurring guitar squeal on this that has a borderline nails on chalkboard quality. And the chorus, by Howard Jones, who may or may not be the guy that does "No One Ever Is to Blame," or whatever it's called, is positively cringe worthy. Otherwise, this kinda cranks.
DOOMSDAY WAS WRITTEN IN AN ALIEN BIBLE
I'd suggest that Ill Bill borrowed some of the ideas for his raps on this from Prodigy's infamous blogs from prison, but that would be doing Prodigy a disservice.
TRUST NOBODY
The production on this one's a little bit "busy" for my liking, in a rap rock sort of way. And the chorus goes more or less exactly the way you'd imagine.
A BULLET NEVER LIES
Ill Bill kicks this one off by dissing my would be benefactor, XXL, as well as The Source. Aww dang... Then he spits the following: "I'm an American. I need a blow job and some pizza." Then Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks shows up and does his thing.
WHITE NIGGER
Here, Ill Bill explains how he can't be a racist, because he's a Jew, and because he didn't fit in as a kid. The chorus marks at least the second time this year someone's used the term kike in the chorus of a rap song. Three times and it's a trend. Who's gonna go there? Jay-Z?
MY UNCLE
A song about Ill Bill's infamous uncle Howie, and various other members of his family that have struggled with addiction over the years. The production sounds like it could be entrance music for the WWE. In a bad way, natch.
RIVA
I take back what I said about Howard Jones' work earlier on this album. The chorus on this one makes me wonder if these two guys from Bad Brains haven't spent the last 20 years or so smoking up with Uncle Howie.
WAR IS MY DESTINY
Obnoxious Phantom of the Opera horns + a truly ridonkulous death metal chorus = a waste of an Immortal Technique guest appearance.
SOCIETY IS BRAINWASHED
Complaining about how Primo is washed up is so five years ago. So I'm not gonna go there. At least this sounds like rap music. One thing I will say is that the second verse sounds like Ill Bill is just reading the Wikipedia entry for Behold a Pale Horse in rap form.
THIS IS WHO I AM
Another one that sounds like regular ol' rap music. This one actually sounds suspiciously similar to something from the first Capone N Noriega album.
TOO YOUNG
The production on this one reminds me of some of the stuff from 8 Diagrams. It might be a bit too musical for its own good. And that's not even counting the god-awful sung chorus.
PAIN GANG
Ill Bill, B-Real, and Everlast team up for a sort of white rap "Swagger Like Us." The chorus draws the connection you always suspected exists between the Bloods, CIA, and Hamas, but not in any way that's actually interesting.
U.B.S.
A rap song about the career of Slayer (yeah, that Slayer) a la Nas' Unautorized Biography of Rakim.
COCA MOSCHIACH
And I'm not sure if this was intended that way, but it kinda comes off as an homage to OB4CL. The production, of course, falls way short, but the Raekwon guest appearance is hot.
THE MOST DANGEROUS WEAPON ALIVE
I thought this was song was gonna be about a guy who's a really huge badass.
SOAP
Uncle Howie recalls how he was got a two to four for selling soap.
I'M A GOON
No one must have told Ill Bill about Plies' use of this term.
ONLY TIME WILL TELL
That guy Tech N9ne raps on this. As long as he's been around I've never bothered paying attention to him. But just now I noticed, he might actually be talented, if he wasn't such a weirdo.
COMMENTS: I figured I might like this, because I was a big fan of that Non Phixion album, and because I tend to rely on conspiracy theories to explain away my various failures in life, but this is kind of a mess. The production is way too rock-ish, in a Limp Bizkit sort of way. And Ill Bill isn't always a strong enough MC to carry an entire song, let alone an entire album.
BEST TRACKS: "A Bullet Never Lies" "White Nigger" "Society Is Brainwashed"
BONUS VIDEO: Uncle Howie hears "My Uncle" for the first time
