Crawl Before You Walk EP

Though his moniker may sound like he’s on some retro-futuristic biz, Candlewax’s golden Virginian Blake9 is always an advocate of/reliable source for funky beats going with rip-shop rhymes – i.e., the old one-two, nowadays being reduced to a dwindling, near enough sub-genre of hip-hop. He’s done past independent damage in tandem with Count Bass D and Time Machine, and received UK shine via Puma Strut, all the while steadfastly keeping his digging fingers dirty. This release’s mic monitors line up as two quite similar-sounding but very listenable rhymers: San Francisco’s Prego 3.5 and Blake9 go-to-guy Pasha the eMCee. Both release a cynical humour and antagonistic edge without any discernible switch in mic grip. As Pasha says himself, “I’m ready to kill but never will switch my style up”.
 
Always Something is archived funk with glamorous strings seemingly winding Pasha up, his blood pressure rising from personal beefs to anti-governmental rants, the end result sounding something like Definitive Jux in one of their more organic moments. Cold Rip is raw and direct to leave necks sore and justify its christening, seeing 9 clunk away with some grainy, gritty chimes over thick drum breaks to allow Prego to go off. Perky jazz-up Think What You Want, an advertisement in self-aggrandisement, has Pasha’s mack-like confidence rolling from the bedroom to the booth while Blake sips on a vintage number in the back.

Be that Way is another bandy jangle, Prego’s belittling of identikit opponents coming off like a teacher getting boosted out of taking the mick out of slow pupils. Let’s hope it’s irony when he calls out DJ Premier-wannabes over chops and scratches that owe a tiny bit of its inspiration to the man in question. And while Check It further follows the formula, featuring big twanging guitars and chest-puffing profiling, it’s a distinguishable demonstration of Blake playing to his strengths on what is a quality EP. The only pithy issue is that the material is already four years old, with Blake having cleaned 2004’s vaults but only now readying it for the digital, downloadable age.