X marks the spot and in this case X also identifies the Overlord and his incorrectly spelt "Possee" with their "X Project" compilation showcase ...
"X Possee Theme" is the intro to this collection of tracks. Although listed as an Overlord X track it is really just an instrumental intro which i guess was produced by the man himself. It's a quite enjoyable intro, if slightly too long, which is simply a heavy beat with PE type whistles over the top, dramatic horns stabs and the Overlord X in "Lord V" disguise chanting "X Possee" which sets the scene for the album ...
"Kickin it Live" by the Freshski Dames comes in as the first vocal track. I've never been a big fan of female MC's but these two dames do bring it FRESH enough. Imagine the harder side of Cookie Crew mixed with PE and you'd have a good idea what this one sounds like. The PE whistle runs throughout this one as do sirens and some nice DJ work. In all honesty the girls are not great MC's and in fact at times they sound closer to talking than rapping on the mic but the dopeness of the music behind them really carries this one.
The king of the Posse, Overlord X, brings us a solo effort next in "The X and the V". In fact to be totally correct it's actually a "duo" effort as he rhymes along with his deep voiced alter ego Lord Vader in the background. As i've written elsewhere the Lord V thing didn't always sit too well with me but it's not too overdone here. The track itself has a pretty simplistic yet dope sparse drum break driving it and the Overlord comes with his usual rugged vocal perfection on the mic. The kind of track that could've easily sat on his first solo LP.
The raw, rather hardcore "X Army" by Dark Heart spins next. Driven by rather fast drum machine programming, alarm sounds in the chorus and speedy MC delivery this one is quite rugged and rough in the best possible way. For some reason some of the tracks on this compilation sound more like 85, 86 old school style hip hop but this actually sounds a lot more like 1990-91 hardcore UK Kold Sweat style. Must mention that DJ Vietnam "works the wax" beautifully in this one as well. Great track.
Female MC Kandy comes at us next with her "Ain't Got the Time". This one is an example of going back towards the mid 80's sound i mentioned above, probably mostly due to the fact that the song uses a sped up Spoonie G bassline, basic drum programming and a lot of words echo and fade themselves out old school style ie. "i ain't got the time time time time ....". It's a pretty good song though and Kandy (or Kandie as she spells it out on the track - different from the album cover) is a much better MC than the Freshski girls.
Super T and Sir Preme T hit us next with their DJ only track "Return of the Breaks". Not too much elaboration needed on this one aside from the fact that the DJ's go to work nicely over an instrumental version of Kane's "Raw". At 6 minutes long, it does get a bit boring after 3 or 4 of those minutes but that's the only weak factor of an otherwise decent DJ track.
The rough voiced Stingray delivers the "Project X" track next which is a very raw and funky James Brown laced effort. The curious thing about this one is that Stingray actually sounds a lot like "Overlord X standing 3 metres away from the mic" or to put it differently Stingray sounds like X except that his voice doesn't boom and resonate through the mic as clearly or loud as the Overlord's does. Anyway the similarity is a definite bonus and i really like this guy. The familiar and very funky bassline (from Stetsasonic's "In Full Gear") doesn't hurt the appeal of this track either.
Midrange (R.I.P.) has talent to tell you about on his "I Got Talent" song. This one rocks very hard on a deep, heavy, funk beat beat on the slow and low tip. Midrange actually has a very interesting touch to his voice where he seems to drift between many sytles and accents - touches of a Silver Bullet "almost" growl roughness and then back to more clear clarity and then slightly into other varied emphasis on various pronounciations - it's quite weird. Whether it's talent or not can be left up to the individual listener but it's not a bad effort really.
After hearing Stingray and now the "Suckers" effort from Magnificent Sam i'm starting to think that Overlord X has been letting his alter ego's run wild and that the Derek B/Easy Q split personality phenomenon has a lot to answer for ! Magnificent Sam sounds 98% like the Overlord with the only slight difference being that Sam is marginally less clean with his articulation of words on the mic. Anyway the track itself is solid, if not somewhat 1987 generic sounding with it's beat and funky soul horns. If i could stop thinking of him trying to sound like X i'd probably be more into this track.
"X Possee Reprisal" is the outro and is nothing more than a re-run of the Intro.
There's a news broadcast message at the start of this album which states that "The X Posse could single-handedly change the face of music as we know it today." ... unfortunately that ambitious claim wasn't anywhere near the truth. However it is a solid little compilation with a couple outstanding tracks and certainly nothing wack or weak. None of them come close to the Overlord X himself though (even if a couple of them did their best to sound like him!) ...
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