h, the battle MC. In a live setting or a concentrated 12", he's able to amaze you with his off-the-cuff witticisms and cocky-yet-lovable demeanor. Unfortunately, these assets become heavy baggage as its repetitive nature can drag a full-length album to a dead halt. Affiliated with the established underground beatsmiths, The Molemen, Vakill has already made numerous guest appearances and released an impressive albeit limited longevity compilation of battle material titled Kill 'Em All. With this proper debut, Vakill plans to circumvent the missteps similar MCs as Chino XL and Copywrite have made by releasing an album that encapsulates more of his abilities than just his memorable punchlines.


Despite being lumped in the battle MC group, hearing Vakill will remind most listeners of Ras Kass. Besides having similar voices, the similarities lie in Vakill's penchant for dense-bordering-on-verbose wordplay and lines packed with syllables delivered so quickly that it reminds of early El-P levels of dictionary regurgitation. Despite this potentially off-putting penchant for dexterous wordplay, Vakill never sacrifices a discernible cadence for the sake of cramming in extra phrases. Additionally, the content of Vakill’s rhymes vary enough between raw battle tracks, moments of introspection, and excursions in storytelling, making the album well-rounded.


The most impressive quotables easily come from the battle-oriented tracks. On "Sickplicity," Vakill spits lines like "tattooed 'F-U-N' on my dick for Fuck U Niggas/While I poke fun at your bitches" and "I nut on CDs and shit on tapes/Far as vinyl, I'm the last cat you wanna see working at a fast food/Joint the way I spit on plates". While his relative offensiveness varies throughout the album, each song is packed with an immeasurable number of creative lines that can take numerous listens to fully absorb.


Whenever the verbal onslaught hints at repetition, Vakill switches up to a different style. On "Fallen", a somber piano and siren's call loop serves as the appropriate backing as Vakill takes on the persona of Don Murda, a would-be ghetto superstar dropped from his label for not reaching sales quotas. Underground darling, Slug of Atmosphere, plays the police officer trying to negotiate with Don Murda after he snaps and takes several employees of the label hostage. The other standout storytelling track, "Sweetest Way to Die", follows the demise of a talented graf writer who chooses suicide by inhalation over potentially serving a minimum of five years of prison time due to the 3 strikes law.


The main criticism of the album comes in the recurring and overt misogyny of Vakill’s lyrics. While various lines about fucking bitches are nothing particularly shocking and are chiefly used to add to the image of an impenetrable battle MC, it's some of Vakill’s introspective moments that will raise some ears. Saying "Wife's an acronym for wash, iron, fuck, et cetera" without a hint of institutional criticizing could infuriate some. Hopefully, I’m misinterpreting the intent.


Since the bulk of the production is handled by Panik and Memo of the Molemen, a cohesive, grimy boom-bap sound permeates nearly every track. Hard drums meet simple but effective loops of heavy basslines and piano or strings. The only production misstep comes courtesy of "The Flyer", where the chief sample is eerily reminiscent of Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings", destroying any genuine attempt at setting a dark, contemplative backing.


Nitpicks aside, this is an impressive debut album and a model blueprint for any MC known for his battling abilities who wants to translate that skill effectively to the long-player format.