Album: Czarface
Producers: 7L and Spada4
Release Date: February 19, 2013
Review: Inspectah Deck, Esoteric and 7L got together a few years ago and decided to create a new project called Czarface, focusing on the influence of comic books and late '90s sounds on their unique brand of hip-hop. Their second album, Every Hero Needs a Villain, was just released and we did an advance review of it a couple weeks ago. Spoiler alert: It's awesome. But now we get to go back and properly look at their first release, the self-titled Czarface with guests ranging from Ghostface Killah and Cappadonna to indie artists like Roc Marciano and Oh No.
Real quick though. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between all 10 members of the Wu-Tang Clan based on their vocal quirks. For example, U-God's voice is very bass-driven and bullfroggy (you think anyone else could pull off "Get Mine" from The Keynote Speaker?), ODB sounds urgent and wild etc. Those aren't complaints either; I love their sounds. Inspectah Deck always stuck out to me because of the bouncing way he uses vowel sounds in all his verses. With Czarface, it's a little trickier because he and Esoteric have somewhat-similar vocal tones. In fact the first time I listened to them I think I was four songs in before I realized they were both rapping. But again, no complaints. All it means is, when you listen to Czarface or Every Hero Needs a Villain, you just have to look elsewhere to be able to differentiate between emcees (and give them the respect they're due).
In my experience, it's easier to tell them apart by style than tone, mostly with how many 16th notes they leave open per line. Generally there are four 16th notes every time you tap your foot. If you look at the line "Shimmy shimmy ya, shimmy yam, shimmy yay," each syllable in the first "Shimmy shimmy" is a 16th note. You tap your foot once on the first "Sh" and a second time on "ya" and there's four even syllables contained in that one count. "1 Shi-mmy-shi-mmy 2 ya." So with the duo on Czarface, it's more likely that Deck will leave a few more 16th notes without new syllables, lyrically, than it is Esoteric will do the same. Esoteric tends to pack his lines more densely and use internal rhyming a bit more often than Deck, where Deck will instead play with the rhythm of the actual words more and rally them up for a strong ending at each line.
Once you've got that sorted out, you can enjoy the album a lot more wisely and casually than having to be glued to a(n admittedly great) site like genius.com.
So this album is so much fun from start to finish, it's hard to know where to start. It's as lively as Deck has sounded since Uncontrolled Substance, especially with similar music behind him. "Air 'Em Out" starts it off with a bass synth line and a hype hook - "He don't hear 'em out (oh!) / He just air 'em out (oh!) / He don't hear 'em out / Oh oh-ohhhhhhhh!" Deck pops off with his trademark street style too, busting lines like "Hands up in the air, my fam up in the square / I'm Dirty at the Grammys crash your glorious affair / Spazzin' on the air, smash 'em with the flair / With the bad South American that's dancing in the chair." Esoteric makes the first of an endless comic book references (as I highlighted with Every Hero Needs a Villain) here too, with "Put me on some anti-homicidal meds so I don't got a lot of feds / Whip backs and spider-heads, I'm Peter Parker on the ledge."
"Cement 3's" is a little more laid back but still brings plenty of fire, and its hook is a turntable sample of the line "Lyrics get hard quick cement to the ground" from Ol' Dirty Bastard's "Shimmy Shimmy Ya." Roc Marciano guests here, who you may remember from his work on the Wu-Tang/The Revelations compilations and Think Differently Music. Great classic Wu beat by 7L here, too, but definitely made unique through the skratch-happy DJ'ing.
"Savagely Attack" really grabs me. It has a tight beat that sounds like "Sickfit" from Madvillainy and the verses are just as masterfully written and delivered. Deck hits hard with "Basic, live broadcast from the ER / We are / Talk of the town without the PR / Savagely attack this / Rap master craftsman pack 'em in / Twist it on the floor like a backspin." I also really dig the symbolism of Esoteric's line "I'm a write-aholic, I drink ink 'til I vomit." Ghost is inspired by all the energy too, as his opener is an instant classic: "Look out, attack like a nigga on bath salts / Eat his face off, leave his body on asphalt."
On the back half of the album, "Let It Off" leads with a weird three-chord synth line that could easily have come from Super Metroid. It takes its time with its skratch hook and ominous, swelling strings and allows Deck and Esoteric two verses each. If you get to this point in the album and haven't realized it's just all-around great hip-hop from the first to the last, you've got problems. "Dead Zone" takes the opportunity to cram more great two-bar rhymes down your throat (this time based on horror films) as Esoteric fires off "Like the House of 1,000 Corpses you're bound to get bound and tortured / Down with your crown and fortress, zombies surround the porches" and Deck shoots back "Zombieland, waited to kill 'em, not with the shottie blast / Undead, cut off the head and burn the body fast."
Deck channels his inner U-God on "Poisonous Thoughts" with a few lines that have clear seams in the middle: "You see me push through, bully at the park / Do it like the crooks do, hoodie after dark." 7L keeps it low-profile here, not letting the music overshadow Esoteric's verse, which is a good thing because he has some crazy rhymes here. He uses an AA AB AA AB structure in part of it to set up some really involving lyrics. Check it out.
"I put the 'am' in 'ammunition,' 'cuz I am a hammer spittin'
Superman be on a mission but y'all change in a booth
Yeah my fam-a-lam I'm missin', but I'm handling my business
Keep the planets on collision while maintaining the truth."
"Shoguns," I'll admit, sounds a little herky-jerky or awkward, but it's got a fascinating and dark sound and Vinnie Paz really delivers on his guest spot, helping to smooth over some of the odd choices in flow by INS, Eso and Cappadonna. But even though it's my least favorite track for lyrics, it's by no means a shit song. Deck and 7L also really, really bring it for the closer, "Hazmat Rap." Nothing wrong with Esoteric here, but Deck's entire first verse flows as strongly as he ever has and 7L's beat is as dark as "Careful (Click Click)" from The W or something from Enter the Wu-Tang while still sounding totally unique. I'm quoting more Inspectah Deck lines here so deal with it.
"This is HazMat rap, scratch that
When this is rockin' see niggaz droppin' like the NASDAQ stats
Black poppin' like an ass that's fat
Trapping that cash, on top of that I'm getting ASCAP stacks."
Legacy: Once again - overall, Czarface is such a sick record. Even the songs that aren't my personal favorites have great uniqueness to them and they still bang it out. "Rock Beast" is highlighted by wavering classic keyboards and a tone and energy as upbeat as The Movement; "Marvel Team-Up" has a crazy smooth shared verse between Deck and Esoteric, thrown back every four or six bars. "It's Raw" has an almost embarrassingly too cool beat and is peppered with old 1980s pro wrestling samples, but its sampling is not to be outdone by "Word War 4" taking clips from a George Carlin routine about getting off your ass and living your life. It received around a 7 or 8 out of 10 score from most critics (aside from PopMatters who low-balled it in my opinion and gave it a 6). This first Czarface record helped revitalize Inspectah Deck, who has always banged it out but had a bit more trouble with The Manifesto than his previous records. Like Raekwon's Immobilarity or GZA's Beneath the Surface (or even Method Man's Tical 0), it's been looking more and more like The Manifesto was INS's one real hiccup during a legendary career. His previous three solo records, his two Czarface albums and his work on Wu-Tang group albums and other members' projects ("House of Flying Daggers," anyone?) all stand somewhere between "damned good" and "mind-blowing." More on Czarface's sophomore record when we catch back up to it on the Map.
Recommended Tracks: Cement 3's, Savagely Attack, Dead Zone, Hazmat Rap.
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