Record Review: Vinnie Paz-God of the Serengeti

Vinnie Paz-God of the Serengeti (Enemy Soil)
By Nathan G. O'Brien on Scene Point Blank

Paz enlisted a number of beat-makers for Serengeti—Havoc, DJ Lethal and C-Lance among them. Things get heated early with a DJ Premier-laced banger, “The Oracle.” Preemo’s hard-knocking boom-bap, turntablism, and sample-based hook provide the platform on which Boxcutter Pazzy spits his signature hard-rhymed lyricism: “My hands are made of stone, cut from that Madusa shit/Big gold chains, we was on that dookie shit/Still roll with the kids I stole the Gucci with/I punch you dead in the face, so fuck the music shit.”

Similarly, Marco Polo’s beat for the Blaq Poet feature, “Crime Library” unabashedly annexes the familiarity of the East Coast’s hardcore rap history, with chest-thumping drums, looped eeriness, record scratching, and a hook comprised of the oft-used Onyx “Throw Ya Gunz” sample—“One gun, two gun, three gun, four/Yours, mine, it’s all about crime!”  ...Read entire full-length review on SPB.