Our Rating

User Rating

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

I haven’t stepped off yet. After taking a big chunk of time to take a break and widen my horizons of the hip hop world by dusting off the old records of “Illmatic”, “The Chronic”, “Paid In Full” and “Criminal Minded” and skimming and thumbing through famous Hip-Hop magazines and now I’m back on the forum to speak on a highly anticipated EP by a very slept on MC by the name of Saint Sinna who was formerly of Bio Killaz and Michigan Militia.

1. Intro – JessicaRabbit spits realier shit in this intro than the whole EP, real talk haha. I admit giving shit to Saint for being a lazy dude especially when it comes to new music by himself since he as playing “Dr. Dre” of 7th Seal Entertainment for a minute haha. Saint comes in rapping on what sounds like an Scott Storch instrumental with the orchestrated party single track which Storch is known for making. First I was thinking this was some whack intro but I consider it a track for it has 16 bars which contains wordplay referring to other rappers and has ill witty lines like “Make you wanna vomit / I’m a certified lyrical technician and your still hooked on phonics”. Sounds good but I wish it was a full track with a hook and atleast another verse then it would lived up to a classic track potential, especially since this is a reasonably short EP
7.5 / 10

2. Hell Fire – It wasn’t a surprise for him to be spittin’ something with this title labeled. The production is very similar to the first track, very Scott Storch-ish but what makes this an ill song is that it has a sampled scratching hook from “Affirmative Action” off NaS’ “It Was Written”. Very original, no one else is doing beats like these anymore nor does anyone incorporate scratching in their hooks neither and that’s what makes this song stand out than all his other material. What hurts the potential is that the song has only two verses along with numerous other songs. Flow-wise “Hell Fire” is what stands out more than the lyrics itself. And I don’t know if it’s the hook like I said or the flow itself that makes me think that he’s from the slums of Michigan while his pen or his writing process himself is from New York.
8 / 10

3. U Don’t Want It – Old track, tends to happen when it comes to solo albums in the underground now-a-days but then again a lot of people slept on this track aswell. The production unfortunately is not up to par with the “Intro” and “Hellfire”, comparing this to the last two this one is dry. Lyrically, this one stands out just as much as the “Intro” and is better than the ones off “Hell Fire”. The hook could have been a lot better, it’s catchy and could work as a single but for me it isn’t doing it for me.
7 / 10

4. Baldwin Brothers (Ft. Renigade) – Haha. Good shit, one of the more humorous tracks with his homie Renigade. Reminds me of old school hip-hop with the jaw droppin’ back-n-forth punchlines with no hook. Lyrics and flow are on point with the catchy beat that fits with the previous tracks. Breath of fresh air whenever I play this song and makes me think why isn’t there any more songs like this with Renigade?
8.5 / 10

5. Lordy Bring Me a 40 – Saint discusses his drinking habits and his love for it which has its negative and positive effects and one of those negative ones almost ended his life which he mentions in this song. The first verse really reminded me of how Lo Key flows to the point where it made me mention it, especially since he isn’t stressing his “SMX” voice that hard on this one haha, I guess it has something to do with the personal concept. The hook is ehh..alright, not as good as the ones off his past work of previous projects.
7 / 10

6. Infect In The Building – The similarity of production still continues on and this one reminds me of “Get Mixed” with the flow and feel, definately a good club single. On every M:I/7SE album it seems like there will atleast be an “Infect” pride track by default, especially this one where he makes references to all the big cats reppin’ the infection. Definitely something that would be hype track to perform at a club or live show, the only track so far that lives up to “Hell Fire”.
8 / 10

7. Never Break me (Ft. Lo Key and Malaria) – Another personal song about being resilient and not having anyone phase them from pursuing their musical careers. The guest line up is Lo Key and Malaria, which is perfect since all three have been hated on for this and that, another thing that caught my eye is like I said Loke is on the song, holy shit. I was starting to doubt that Lo Key would ever get a collab. with Saint done heh. Another thing that’s mentionable is that Malaria’s flow since “Back From The Dead” changed dramatically. Back then his voice and flow was more angry and stressed like how Eminem sounded back around the jump start of his career. Once I saw the line up on this one I expected only a “10/10” song with the moody beat, good hook etc but something about it doesn’t make me wanna label this a “classic” so I’m going to leave it up with an..
8 / 10

8. You And I – Another song that surfaced on his MySpace music player. This song reminds me of Lo Key’s “Dear Girl” song but way more serious and deeper. After hearing this it amazes me how your music changes your mood because with his flow and lyrics he makes the song almost paint its own little music video in your head and running images matching to all the step by step events and emotional spilled on this song. This song is the reason why Saint should incorporate his singing voice in his hooks more, that itself deserves to be the next big single by him, especially with the murky cloudy beat, dark times in a musician’s life put into record makes good music and the type that people could relate to. The only 9 / 10 deserving track because you can tell you took a lot of time with the “science” of this track and how serious this time of his life was or is…If I heard more songs or atleast hooks like this I would be typing up more “9 / 10” rating songs.
9 / 10

Summary: So Saint’s first solo project in almost 5 years? Definitely been too long. After hearing the full EP I feel that this free CD is to introduce “Saint Sinna” to more potential fans and to hold over his die-hards for his “Illmatic/Chronic” potential full length

Overall this EP was good for NEW Saint Sinna fans that are getting familiarized with his music. But for people who have been following him up might be disappointed for the short-length tracks and reusing of some past released songs but then again it doesn’t bring down my opinion that Saint is a lyricist and like I said this EP is for the new fans. Another thing that I was thinking was the chemistry that I heard with him and BadLuck on “xterM:Ination” wasn’t brought to the table on this one, why wasn’t there any BadLuck collabos? It’s like Dr. Dre releasing an album without a song with Snoop Dogg. It’s hard to say what I was expecting from this mixtape when he announced it back in Feb. because I was only focused on the solo LP.

For the die-hard fans of Saint, don’t be disappointed that there are older tracks for that the newer recorded material is worth downloading but I wish there was atleast 1-2 more exclusive cuts to make it up but then again it would’a defeated the purpose of this being a prequel CD.

Websites

MySpace.com/SaintSinnaMusic
MissionInfect.com

Record Label:

• 7th Seal Entertainment

Release Date:

• 11/15/2008

Reviewer:

• Graveyard