MOG

Rating: 8 out of 10
The Good: You can't listen to albums like this and say "hip hop is dead" with a straight face.
The Bad: While the content and the messages are here, Mike's lyricism & flow are lacking a little. The 2nd half of the album lags a bit.
Download These: "Pressure", "Can You Hear Me", "Woke Up This Mornin"

When Killer Mike officially parted ways with Big Boi of Outkast in 2006, many fans questioned his ability to stay relevant and succeed without a major record label. Since then all he's done is release the first edition of I Pledge Allegiance To The Grind (which won "best street album" at the Ozone Awards) and gained one of the biggest cult followings in underground hip hop. Killer Mike and his Grind Time clique are regarded as the closest thing to Ice Cube & The Lench Mob from the early 1990s. With our country seemingly on the verge of a depression, gas prices soaring, and jobs disappearing, IPATTG II is meant to be "the soundtrack to your success". In countless interviews (as well as several times on the album) Mike has stressed that this album is meant to be the companion on your journey to a better life. This is the album that should be playing when you're working out at 5am, and this is the album that should be in the background the moment you realize you don't want to sell drugs anymore.

IPATTG II takes on the huge task of balancing street bangers, crime stories, southern cadillac music, and poltiical tracks. The first half of the album is hard hitting and shows any doubters why Mike is held in such a high regard. "Can You Hear Me" details the transition from illegal business to legit living and manages to be one of the best tracks on the album despite the annoying auto-tuned chorus. Mike takes a page out of Kanye's book and has a nice little zinger at the end of the song directed at our government.

"knowing your husbands were sponsoring that
now the Iran contra is hunting you back
we took the crack and put it in rap
now your kids are high off that"

"10 g's" and "2 sides" featuring Shawty Lo are vintage Killer Mike street anthems, the latter being aimed at rappers who cash in on Atlanta cred despite hailing from another place. I initially assumed "2 Sides" was a T.I. diss since Shawty Lo recently launched a campaign discrediting T.I.'s Bankhead claims, but Mike doesn't seem to have any problems with him. "Super Clean, Super Hard" and "Woke Up This Morning" provide the requisite smooth pimped out flavor that populate most dirty south albums. The chorus on "Woke Up This Morning" is so addicting you almost have no choice but to sing along, it's definitely something to play when you're in a good mood.

"Pressure" featuring Ice Cube is a scathing track aimed at black politicians (and those holding other positions of power) who turn their backs on the community or may not have the best interests of the less fortunate brothers at heart. At its very core, Pressure is a song about standing up for yourself, banding together and not tolerating injustice. Mike has particularly vicious words for detective Marc Cooper, a black police officer that contributed to the barrage of 50 bullets that killed Sean Bell in 2006.

"to the one who said sorry, tell him kiss our ass
we don't need it muthafucka you can keep it for yourself
I wish you nothing but pain and bad health
I hope luck runs away from you, and wealth
no honor in life, no honor in death
you're a Judas to us, nigga kill yourself"

If that sounds harsh to read you should listen to the actual track (youtube video above), the pure disdain in Mike's voice is chilling.

Somewhere after mid-album, the fire starts to pipe down a bit and the album loses some of its potency. There are a few great tracks speckled throughout the latter half like "Bang", "If I Can't Eat Right", and "You See It" but the rest of the cuts almost seem like filler. One thing that was slightly disappointing was the closing song "Good-Bye (City Of Dope)", which is a stylish tale of the dope game. Unlike previous songs about pushing weight by Mike, this one doesn't end with a tragedy. I've always loved how he doesn't sugarcoat and glamorize the life of dealing drugs, but for this particular song he deviated from history. Killer Mike has worked hard at building a legacy of NOT peddling fantasies and lies about how the life of a drug kingpin is a great one coughcough-RICK ROSS-coughcough so it'd be great if he could keep that element going.

The album has a slight identity crisis in some spots, but in all honesty... Killer Mike is still more potent than most rappers when he's having an off day. I definitely recommend this one to all interested parties.