OVERLORD X - WEAPON IS MY LYRIC (1989)

One of my favourite albums of all time from one of my favourite rappers ever. The voice, the beats, even the album cover - everything about this album is close to superb. You won't hear any soft, R&B, jazzy, for the ladies tracks on this ...

"Rough in Hackney" starts things out exactly as it says - it's damn rough ! Rough as in beautifully hard and raw. The track is your intro to Mr X and it's the perfect way to open this album up. Straight away his voice is magnetising - it's aggressive, raspy, raw and whilst listening to the album you can't help but be in awe of the way he's rapping with such a passion and intensity as if to save his life every time he's grabbing the mic.

"Kick Bag" continues in the same vein as the album opener except this song is even more rugged with a huge beat that has what sounds like a 200 galloon empty tin drum that's being belted to death - and it plain rocks. Nice horns in the chorus as well. Pure power, pure hard rhymes from the Overlord in this one - "They knowledge to my rhyme and the power that i give em ..."

Things slow down slightly with the more funky/less aggressive sounding "2 Bad". Lovely use of horns in this one as well as a choice bassline and some nice cutting. A similar sound is delivered to the eager listener on the next song "Go! It's Like World War 3" with a constant funky horn stab throughout and some fresh DJ work again. He drops some racially conscious rhymes in this one as well. A sorely missed aspect of current hip hop !

"Clap Your Hands" is a short'ish funky yet hard hitting track which drops tidbits of knowledge again despite the simplistic nothingness party feel of the track name. It also bring forth his alter ego, Lord V, who is basically Overlord X slowed to 15RPM on a record player. In all honestly i could've done without the Lord V gimmick (and he appears a LOT on the 2nd LP) but i like Overlord so much that this schizophrenic tendency never detracted from his music.

Lord V starts to make more of his presence known on the title track "Weapon Is My Lyric" and admittedly he works quite well alongside the Overlord on this one. Fast'ish paced track with a very familiar sample and has Overlord delivering smooth, rapid rhymes once again. DJ Supreme T puts in some good work on this one. "The Earth is Moving" is next cab off the rank and continues the vibe of the last track nicely (minus Lord V).

"Now My Day Begins" is one of my top choice tracks on here. It has a surprisingly addictive Wild West "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" type sample which would probably be corny if used differently but it's perfect here. Chopped up Public Enemy sounding horns give this track a hard, head-noddingly funky edge and the chorus vocal sample cutting up LL Cool J saying "notorious" is brilliant. Overlord delivers the goods vocally once again as he has done on every track.

"Brutal Bass" is this album's rap/metal attempt and it works a lot better for me than some other tracks of parallel breeding. It's somewhat along the lines of Mix-A-Lot's "Ironman" but the metal aspect of this one is less overdone. X sounds especially rough on this song and yes in case you were wondering the BASS is quite BRUTAL - it does bang hard.

Choppy, funky horns and a snappy, sprase, break your neck beat are the foundations of "Visa to Rock". X's voice is loud and clear on this gem at the forefront way above the beat and all you can do it sit back, let your head move back and forth and enjoy a supreme MC at work.

"14 days in Hell" closes the album out with a bang. Somewhat of a busier track than the previous one and it concludes the album with a taste of the style that opened it on the first couple tracks. In fact this track is almost a taste of what to expect on his 2nd LP which brings more of a busier Bomb Squad-esque sound. Lord V pops up to remind you of his existence again but he's just a slight background accessory here.

All in all a great mix of hard and aggressive tracks with a dose of funkiness thrown in for good measure. The great thing about Overlord X is i could never find a similar comparison in another rapper to him - US or UK - he always stood unique to me. "Rough in Hackney" - you bet he is. He'd still be just as rough after a sand and polish.