A Road To Nowhere
label: fordafresh

producers: scientific, momo, pns, meaty ogre, tony vinyl, panik, others.

guests: prime, the landlords, cosm, elevation, jargon.
year of release: 2002
 
You can consider the underground / independent hip hop 'scene' the farm team. You have a bunch of cats that haven't (yet) made it major league. And while some will, some won't and it's not always easily explained by the skills the guy possesses. But often enough it's simply due to timing, as well as attracting the right person's eye. Enter Verbal, one of those cats who still mingles in the farm team, despite him having the skills, the image, the persona, that'd enable him to play with the big bucks. Heck, he even has more skill and more charisma and more character than many of those that play in the first team. He's still got the hunger that makes so many street ball players better than his counterparts wheeling in endorsement deals. Verbal is good, and so is his short "A Road To Nowhere" album.
Verbal is from Chicago, who starts to truly make a name for itself lately. He's cocky and he opens the record with a multi voiced "Intro", produced by Scientific (and you need to excuse any misspelling of the producers, but the printing is rather bad, hence hard to decipher), who hooks up a simple piano offering that strolls forward. So the record really starts once "Don't Forget" plunges forward, as Prime and Verbal stick to this Momo beat to do some braggadocios spitting. The flow is definitely not flashy, but it's effective and Verbal twiddles the words nicely into continuity to polish off all edges. The rhymes are still boasting on "Can't Be", but this time Verbal speaks on him in third person over a PNS beat, that's relaxed and humble. This puts Verb' nicely into the position of being able to seemingly neutrally portray and big up himself.

tracklisting
1. Intro
2. Don't Forget feat. Prime
3. Can't Be
4. Fuck Hip Hop feat. Elevation
5. I Applaud You
6. The Definition
7. Kings Of The Ring feat. The Landlords & Cosm
8. It Don't Matter
9. The Sickest feat. Jargon
10. A Road To Nowhere
11. Latasha
"Fuck Hip Hop" further tunes down the vibe, as Meaty Ogre sticks to a bass line, a shuffling drum and quiet vibes, while Verbal teams up with Elevation, to further spit the bragging words. And that must be Verbal's favorite thing to talk about, while not the only thing as "I Applaud You" derogates a women, well in a not too charming kind of way. And we are not too mad once this is over, as it signifies a low point on the album. We rather check out the blatantly bouncy "The Definition" where Tony Vinyl kicks something for the freestyle lovers, and this makes it hard to not see a battle progress in front of your mental eye. And quite obviously Verbal spits the appropriate verses to this head to head combat.
The next song, "Kings Of The Ring" was already released on The Landlords' album. Cosm is also featured on here, and the Stowaways production struggles to sound right on this record, as it strays away from the gritty and effective boom bap that makes up the rest. So we progress to "It Don't Matter", where Verbal again gets reflective, pondering some relationships, including the one to his own life. This thoughtfulness is quickly neglected again on "The Nicest", that also features Jargon, with one enjoying to diss himself, while the other one follows the more regular way to big himself up. The title track "A Road To Nowhere" then again features PNS behind the board, and with this we truly feel like being transported back a couple of years, because in style, flow, flavor and spirit this sounds very early nineties and thus it's a pure bliss. With Verbal again kicking inspired verses that go beyond the loud mouthing, we are truly drawn into this. And we equally enjoy "Latasha", that contains many of the same qualities, with the words being of a love story type.
So what really seems to be nothing too special is especially nice due to its crossover appeal, that at the same time does not neglect anything we demand in hip hop. The lack of complexity and over the top-ism is only solidifying the position we'd like to hand Verbal. This is one of the rare cases where solid is actually good.
review: tadah
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