This Week’s Mixtape Up for Review is DJ Kay Slay’s “The Art of War”

This mixtape got off to a bad start. The first thing I heard was an ad for a car dealership in Jamaica, Queens. I hope this isn’t the direction that mixtapes are heading. When I heard the ad, it reminded me of the first time I saw a commercial at a movie theatre before the previews started, a true sickening sign of the times. Once I threw up and got back to listening to this mixtape I liked what I heard.

Papoose is well featured on this mixtape, being a DJ Kay Slay signed artist. He showcases his flow in both slow and fast speeds on the first track “Faces of Death”, and goes at a more medium pace on “Riding Dirty (remix)” which also features the up-and-coming rapper Chamillionaire. In “Faces of Death”, Papoose gets thoughtful, talking about suicide and examples of ways in which we unexpectedly face death every day. Papoose has had previous mixtape success with songs on the thoughtful side like “Charades” where Papoose raps about his thoughts on the rap industry and “Mother Nature”, a track written about Hurricane Katrina. It’s dealing with tough issues outside the normal realm of hip-hop that separates Papoose as a rapper.

Cam’ron hosts this mixtape and the Dipset influence is big on this mixtape. The track “War” features Cam and Hell Rell waxing poetic about street drug wars. Jim Jones has a solo track on the tape called “These Niggas Gonna Die Tonite”, where Jim talks about the assassination of his enemies and the further prosperity of his friends. Dipset member 40 Cal rides the beat with one of the better flows I’ve ever heard from him in the song “It’s 40”. On one line 40 even gets a bit religious with a biblical line; “It’s 40, that N.Y. capital G, that corrupt the big Apple like Adam and Eve”.

This mixtape features rap veterans like LL Cool J on the track “Freeze” and Busta Rhymes on “I love my bitch”. It also manages to get some Southern influence into this mixtape with tracks from T.I., Young Buck and BG. Sprinkled in to the mixtape are a couple of freestyles, along with the usual mixtape shoot-outs promoting the newest Dipset album. Overall a wide ranging mix of the hip-hop industry, along with a lot of tracks your going to want to hear again make this mixtape worth going to your local Bodega and getting.

OVERALL SCORE: 9 out of 10

BEST LINE ON THE MIXTAPE:

“Think I won’t kill, I got more will than a fresh prince”

-Tommy Gunz