BasementFlavor.com and 401HipHop.com Present
C-Rayz Walz and Vast Aire : Live in Providence, RI

Friday May 16th @ The Living Room - 23 Rathbone Street, Providence, RI 02908

Also Featuring Performances by:
Labeless Illtelligence, Reason (PDP), Marshall Law (Organized Rhyme), and Sneaky Pete.

Hosted by Storm Davis (PDP). Music Provided by Sterbyrock (PDP + WRIU 90.3)

All Ages - Cover $15 - Doors Open at 9pm

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Performances by:

PDP - Storm Davis / Reason / Dox / Sterby Rock
Esh The Monolith of Labeless Illtelligence
The Problemaddicts
Antfarm Affiliates
Ax Butane & DJ Janks
Hosted by Swerve One

SATURDAY APRIL 5 2008
THE LIVING ROOM
23 Rathbone St Providence RI
ALL AGES // doors 9pm // $10
Sponsored by AplombClothing.com, Muirphoto.net, Knowmore.org, and Classsick Screenprinting.

Keep Reading for all the details from Storm Davis himself: (more…)

“NOTICE: This is the REMIX of a Cas Uno review I had already done. If most of this review looks familiar to any of you, that would be why.”

It has been over a year since I first reviewed the “Guest-less Test-Press” of CasUno’s solo debut. I now have my personal copy of the complete version that gets rotation in my large music collection. Maybe, not as much as it should, but when you’re fighting with Mecca and the Soul Brother for my earwaves it’s almost always a losing battle for any artist. However, as you’ll see I still hold many of the same judgements as I did when first reviewing this disc.

For those of you unfamiliar with CasUno, he is an emcee, indie label honcho, and local loud mouth extraordinaire hailing from New Bedford Mass. When he’s not screaming on the culturally uneducated as a moderator of this sites forum, or running his indie operation “Labeless Illtelligence Records”, you can find him behind a microphone at either the studio or on stage at pretty much every hip hop event in Rhode Island. Somehow in his spare time he has managed to put together a full length solo debut titled “The Art of Pissing People Off” that I have had the honor of reviewing not once, but twice.

Upon many listens I’ve broken down this album track by track so that y’all may make an informed decision when buying this piece of local art. So, without making y’all wait any longer, here it is….

“The Art of Pissing People Off”
———————————————–

1.”Intro” - The album is set off proper by a smooth boom bap beat provided by Esh the Monolith. Complimented by some dope scratching by DJ A Tom Called Cooney.”Niggas fucked up by lettin me make an album” the vocal sample says it all. The 31 second intro serves its purpose well by getting the listener hype for the dopeness that will follow without getting too drawn out.

2.”The Greater Than Gawd Complex” - Cas provides the perfect retort to big headed battle emcees from all those imaginary nameless emcees that they feel the need to diss in every track.Dropping cocky lines like “this aint Waynes World,why you wiggin out?we know we aint worthy” over an insanely dope beat provided by none other than Joe Beats, of Non Prophets fame. This track should be appreciated by anyone not possessing the attitude he successfully shits on throughout the track.

3.”The Art of Pissing Ams Off!!!” - The one and only Ams Uno dropping hot bars and reminding us why we’ve loved him since the Clockworx days. He just kills it on here and shows his support for his label mate.

4.”Me 1st Attitudes” - While the name of the album is “The Art of Pissing People off” Cas seems to be starting the disc off by lashing out at the people who have mastered the art of pissing him off. This time he takes the mic and straight up molests people who think the world revolves around them. Al Bums handles the production, and Cas laces an extremely catchy chorus. Be sure you listen to the WHOLE track, thats all I’ll say on that.

5. D. Mott-stramental

6.”The Art Of Pissing People Off” - The chorus says it all on this one “Sometimes Cas Uno dont wanna be Chris Andrews, sometimes Chris Andrews dont wanna be Cas Uno”. D. Mott laces the tight beat for this one.

7. Scan-stramental

8.”10 Things I Hate About You” - Hateraide by the gallon on this track as Cas hates on haters.While it may not sound like the most original content, the way he flips the wordplay and the crazy ill guitar sample
flipped in Gibrans beat make this track well worth several listens.

9.”The Art of Pissing Romen Off!!!” - Romen if personally one of my favorite emcees, listen to this drop and you’ll see why. He’s on the disc supporting his man CasUno.

10.”There You Went (Featuring Missing Elements)” - A smooth mellow joint with the beat provided by Missing Elements. probably the most emotional song on the disc. Cas holds it down, but M.E. steals the show on this one, along with the dope guitar playing of Ben Broderick.

11. Mekalek-stramental

12.”The Superior Slang Sultan” - Indeed, anyone who has been in the sometimes ‘interesting’ position of talking to Mr Uno knows that it can sometimes get to the point where you just have to stop the convo and say “what the fuck are you talking about?”. Cas is the king of elevating the artform of slanguage and he flaunts this over a funky beat provided by DJ Mekalek.DJ Mekalek also provides cuts.

13 D. Mott-stramental

14.”Insignificant Others” Feat Kate - While Cas drops a really dope verse speaking on forgettable false freindships, and Ase provides him with a dope oriental backdrop to rhyme over.This track has one downfall in my eyes. Kate has mastered the art of pissing Anime off. Someting about her voice just bugs the shit out of me, but she is defintiley alright on the mic and has a really good delivery. Although she only does the chorus that is still too much for my ears to take.Thats just my opinion though.

15.”The Art of Pissing Sean Jackson Off!!!” - Yet another local celeb showing face to support someone who may be the most popular artist among his peers in the local scene. Sean holds it down as is to be expected, but Gibrans throwback beat is the star of this drop.

16.”I Aint Got Another Me To Be” (Feat. AmsUNO and Roc Solid) - Cas’s verse kills it, with lines like “even Angela Bowers aint the boss of me”. AmsUNO delivers an incredible verse. Hopefully they do “duplicate
him for the million Ams march”. While Roc Solid turns in a slightly above average verse to round out the track.

17. headcASE-stramental

18. “Anti-Social Intervention” - Another dope Missing Elements beat, and solid performance by Cas.

19.”The Art of Pissing Jezuz Off!!!” - The artist formerly known as Jezuz, now going by Messiah Carrey takes everyone who ever went to the old UNITY events right back to the bathroom of the Met cafe. Once again showing support for his homepiss.

20.”Independent Like a Phuck” - Awe yea, “thats the joint, thats the jam,turn it up,play it again!” This is my current favorite track. I cant even describe how ill it is, cop the disc and hear for yourself. DJ Mekalek did the beat. Incredible.

21.”Outro” - not featured on the promo disc.

There are some bonus tracks that I will make you buy the disc to hear. Trust, they are as ill as anything on the album.

so as a whole…..

Pros - Cas combines the wondsmith abilities of a Sage Francis, with the powerful raspy voice he was gifted with over beats that could be rocked just as easily by a Jay-Z or Nas. I dont see how anyone who calls themselves a fan of hip hop music won’t find SOMETHING to love on this album.

Cons - Like I mentioned Kates voice irritated the shit out of me, but thats a personal con. While all the instrumental interludes are very dope, I think some of them could have been left off the disc. Also, while I think Cas’ flow and voice are original and dirty some listeners may find it hard to follow.

Beats: 5
Rhymes: 3.5
Life: 4

(My grading system is based on the 3 most important things an album must have on a 1-5 scale:
Beats: The quality of the production.
Rhymes: The emcees ability to write and effectively deliver dope shit.
Life : Represents the overall listening enjoyment of the album.)

This album is currently available , for any addition info or for booking information contact Crisconodisco@yahoo.com

*This Review is copyright K.Goncalo, 401 Hip Hop Reviews - Showing Fox News what Fair and Balanced are Since 2005″

Contact the critic: Anime@tmail.com