A History of Violence

by Jedi Mind Tricks

You have to love these guys. They have become so talented at giving their fans exactly what they want that listening to one of their cds can take you straight back to the early 00's.

Vinnie Paz is hilarious. His voice retains its usual deep, menacing growl, as he spits out violent and intolerant rhymes on one song, and gets all preachy on another (this time railing against media images of women and how they influence young girls - because I guess he'd be a hypocrite if he talked about violence on TV). He loves to shout out people's names, and he can ride a Stoupe beat like no one else can.

As for Stoupe, his beats are still wonderfully barocque, creating a dark, threatening atmosphere, but sounding rather beautiful at the same time. This album avoids some of the excesses of his more recent work, as he instead focusses on providing Paz with lots of space to fill with his large voice. The interludes on this album are not as pretty as some of his past ones, and 'Those With No Eyes' strangely includes a long audio sample of some guy ranting about how bad things are now, which was also used to intro a song on Erykah Badu's most recent album.

This album features the return of prodigal Jedi Jus Allah, sounding one thousand times better than he did on his own boring solo album. It's nice to have him back, as his voice balances Paz's, and keeps the songs from becoming monotonous.

There are the usual Army of the Pharoahs guests, and as usual, they sound pretty good too. This is a great album for the hardcore JMT fan, but it's also got lots to interest more casual listeners. Now we just need Stoupe to drop his solo album (hopefully it's just instrumentals).