Few labels in the underground boast the profile of , and few rappers on match the talents of . So his second record for the label came with great expectations, engendered by the success of 2001's , which catapulted him into the first rank of voices. As far as the expectations go, delivers on most of its promise. The beats are dense and the bass-lines dark, like street-level is supposed to be, with a jumble of murky samples and angled effects coming from every direction. And 's lurching, nasally flow and obscurist rhymes may not carry every lyric across, but do allow listeners to marvel at the few legible lines. With most of the productions coming from himself (along with mainstay ), lacks the catchy, sample-driven flavor of , but does set a standard for basement-level beats, with some of the best hashed-and-screwed productions heard on since the masterpiece . Bronx bombers stop by for an old-school horrorcore jam named head guests on a no-biters track called and appears on the highlight, the tag-team rhyme manifesto The album does, however, reveal a few problems endemic to independent in general as well as the label and specifically: to get and keep the respect of the underground, an artist is forced to push his sound farther, but it soon reveals a trap -- no production can be too difficult, no variation in flow too off-kilter, no topics or rhymes too bizarre in order to keep heads nodding. simply pushes too far. ~ John Bush