Search - Kazi :: Plague

A Plague Upon Your Sold-out Houses!

Open Mike | Montreal | 12/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Stones Throw is unstoppable right now - since they dropped Champion Sound that label is absurdly hot and the fact that they're not getting mads love enrages me. Forget 2004 belonging to Kanye West - this year was all Stones Throw word bond.



Kazi isn't going to get rotation like MF Doom, Oh No or even Wildchild because this album is a little more obscure, even for Stones Throw standards, but that doesn't mean it's not worth a listen. You've got production almost entirely courtesy of Madlib's kid brother Oh No, who is bound to shake the "Madlib's little brother" title within a year at the most because his sound is spreading and heads are feeling it. Like Oh's contribution to the Wildchild LP 'Secondary Protocol' you will find a sound that is a lot more accessible than the sometimes-backpack meanderings of Madlib. I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled a J Dilla and broke into the mainstream here and there busting out the jams with the likes of Slum Village or one of those Bay Area outfits like Blackalicious or Jurassic 5 or something.



At the risk of losing love for this review I'm going to leave it here. I don't think this album deserves to get chopped up and 'reviewed' mostly because it's an album that, whether you intend to buy it or not, deserves your ears just to check what the underground scene is up to these days. Stones Throw is THE MOST slept on label in rap history. Roc-a-fella couldn't even dream of this kind of consistency.



That, and I won't bother reviewing this because the likelihood of you knowing Kazi is so minimal that if you know him already you probably copped this on vinyl five minutes ago."