Album Review: EMC’s The Show
Friday, April 18th, 2008
After speaking with Wordsworth at Cincinnati’s yearly celebration of the Hip-Hop elements, Scribble Jam, I spent eight months waiting to hear the highly promising project from his newly formed group, EMC. This album, The Show, has finally arrived and along for the ride with Words is his longtime partner-in-rhyme, Punchline, along with Stricklin, and legendary Juice Crew member, Masta Ace. Sounds great, right? Well, keep in mind the Hip-Hop “super-groups” of the past that have failed to deliver consistent and cohesive works while praying this curse does not fall upon these great emcees.
EMC collectively serves up a concept album, making it near impossible to avoid comparison to the previous Masta Ace classics, Disposable Arts and A Long Hot Summer; especially considering all of EMC made considerable contributions to these albums. The Show starts off with the piano-laced “Who We Be,” a fine introductory and biographical brush-up on the different members of the group. The album doesn’t hesitate to jump right into concept mode and it sounds as if it may stick the landing by going right into another sure shot, “Leak It Out.” In this song, EMC provides us with top-notch lyrics from all four emcees and arguably the best verse of the album, courtesy of Punchline.
