Artist: Terrorwrist
Album: No Subways in Jersey Part 2: Revenge of the Seth
Smoking more weed or snorting less coke, Terrorwrist lays tread with a lot of fuel. He lays lines from irreverent to dirty (“I smoke stogs after brushing my teeth”). I also believe he is the only emcee I have ever heard tell the soundman to “Turn my motherfucking mic down”. It’s not just wit though; he really plans on screaming so damn loud that a hot mic will lead to feed-back.
Terrorwrist’s production is solid and varied. Even the muddled freestyle on “Annoying Beat” is compelling – this is due, mostly, to the infectious quality of said ‘annoying beat.’ Organ, funk guitar, record static and a Phife Dawg sample pepper “Mismatching Socks State Champion”, a thick, rolling drone that epitomizes the relationship between music and verse: the vox and jams play in comforting loops of full-notes, or four-beat bars. “F5” and “F6” are a pair of ethereal joints “to smoke pot to”. They seem drawn out, but the snare on both tracks is particularly crunchy.
Guest producers are well-placed and indispensable: Thesandman makes nice use of the Zeppelin classic on “Whole Lotta Love”, and Bean The Left Hand of God helms the beat on the brassy “Unstoppable Ish”, which sounds like an unapologetic endeavor into a cheesy soundtrack from a late sixties television special; the track is really too damn groovy to not rock a ruffled tuxedo shirt while bobbing your head in your rundown Edsel, naw mean? (Unfortunately, Bean’s other joint, “Done”, is tuned a bit close to the FM dial, save some well placed tenor opera samples.)
Terrorwrist saves his most rapid lines for the minimalist “Figure 8”. The song teeters and gives way to slam poetry; dig the alliteration of the line “If this is indicative of things to come”. Generally, Terrorwrist focuses on the finality of Hip Hop (“..till it crumble with busted vinyl and broken mics and graffiti painted over”), and pleasure-seeking (“Sit around, smoke, watch cartoons”). Enjoy the ride, but don’t rely on the trains, which may leave you “pac[ing] Penn Station for thousands of minutes”.
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