Kubiq "Kuboniqs"

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From Planet Asia's crew School Yard Massive comes Kubiq, who has had our attention ever since his first 12-inch from last year. Time has come to check out his debut full-length "Kuboniqs" - an album with interesting potentials.

Kubiq's debut album "Kuboniqs" has just been released on Heratik and this full length effort follows after two pretty nice singles. We got our first dose of Kubiq back in October, "Neva U" b/w "2K" definitely revealed potentials and March's "Yeah" b/w "Personal" showed that Kubiq could be the next challenger for a pole position in the west coast underground scene. This Bay Area lyricist is from Planet Asia's old crew, School Yard Massive, and musically pretty much in the same in the same bumpin', b-boyin' sound schemes as ASOP, Lootpack, Rasco and PB Wolf.

"Kuboniqs" seems like a big album with its 24 cuts in total but don't get it wrong, only 13 of them are acutal songs - the rest are skits and interludes. A bad sign maybe, and puttin so many skits on an album sure as hell puts the pressure on the rest of the album. And well, Kubiq launches "Kuboniqs" safely with the 12-inch tracks "Yeah" and the very dope "2K". But this album's real smasher comes in "Visions", on which Kubiq is showing all of his skills over this rough beat from Fanatik. Actually, it's impressive to hear this combination and although Kubiq may not be the most lethal of MC's - he's proving how dope it can get with a word-playing flow with interesting lyrical content.

Kubiq has a few of his fellow School Yard Massive MC's representing on the album along with a couple of other nice guests, but just like in "Visions" - I think that Kubiq's coming out nicest alone when he's backed with a FAT beat from Fanatik. "Fall In Line" is another one of these joints on "Kuboniqs", a solid street hymn delivering both beats and scratches top notch. But oh well, "How You Feel" is a nice joint and although the beat here sounds quite average - it's exciting to hear when representatives from School Yard Massive (Turbin, Dab, Prism, Shake & Planet Asia) rips this verbal massacre off. Their natural, unconditional love for hip-hop is obvious and "Listen Up" is another joint that goes like this, Kubiq is joined by Shake, Kemet & Rasco (all doing great) for this rhyme-slasher. Word-wrecking, word-playing. There's a whole lot of talent possessed by Kubiq and his crew, that's for sure.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: having just one producer making the beats on an entire album is a good thing. Although it's pretty rare in these days, I definitely think that it creates a more solid, uniform sound. If it's a producer who's good enough to handle it, that is. And Heratik Production's Fanatik is accomplishing this with pride on "Kuboniqs". Cause this IS a strong album, and Fanatik is not only a dope producer having the ability to create his own original sound - he's also making very varied beats for Kubiq on this LP. Apart from a couple of obvious mistakes, such as the tired "Live That Life", the production effort put into this LP definitely couldn't be much better. Take Kubiq's duet with ASOP in "Fans Of Rhyme" (in my opinion this album's DOPEST cut) as the prime example. The beat here by Fanatik is just crazy raw, no half-steppin', just pure hard core hip-hop tunes. The musical roots are also kept close to hip-hop with a little help from some of the finest in west-coast DJ's - DJ Design (from Foreign Legion), DJ Zach Twist, Mkqszoplc, Architec (of Homeliss Derilex), DJ Quest (of Space Travelers) and DJ Gamma Ray. They're all on "Kuboniqs", completing Fanatik's musical experience and strictly blessing this album with a genuine, original hip-hop sound.

Of course, it doesn't help how dope the beats are if the MC isn't any good. But these two elements really comes together on "Kuboniqs". Kubiq is an MC with a whole lot of talent, and although he might seem to be floating away from his sharp lyrical flow on some joints, most of the cuts on this album is dropped with a lot of personality and honesty from Kubiq. And with cuts like "School Of Yard" and "Long Range", is Kubiq also showing his appreciation to his School Yard crew even though I personally like his own, individual gems on here. In conclution, "Kuboniqs" comes as a surprising, FRESH wind blowing. The album should pick up all fans of Cali Agents, Stones Throw and then some. Kubiq is not only carrying the torch on for the Bay Area hip-hop scene, he also manages to come with an attracting originality that makes you wanna get back to "Kuboniqs" many times. I get the feeling that this album will live a long life. That's strong, very strong for a debuting artist.



Review by Abnorm