A Different Mirror

by Toki Wright

I caught Toki on stage at the Manifesto Hip-Hop Festival in Toronto last year, and enjoyed his energy and lyricism.

This, his official debut album captures all of those qualities. His songs display a strong performer coming into his own. He has bangers ('More Fiya'), but also more relevant and conscious songs, like 'A Different Mirror' and 'State of Emergency').

The album's best track is 'The Feeling', which features Brother Ali at the perfect point in the album for his more soulful approach to switch things up a bit.

Other appearances are by Scarub and I Self Divine. Most of the production is by Benzilla, although Brother Ali provides a few tracks (I had no idea he produced).

While Toki shouts out Minnesota repeatedly, this album has a very different feel from the rest of the Rhymesayers catalogue, and bears no resemblance to the Doomtree crew, showing that the mid-West has a lot of musical diversity.