Search - K-Rino :: Solitary Confinement

Once Again - Rap Album Of The Year From South Park

tHoMaS | 12/29/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Overall it's good news for German K-Rino fans - the sometimes controversial concepts of K-Rino's last solo offering "The Blood Doctrine" seem just now to be put into perspective. On his fourteenth solo album "Solitary Confinement" our Houston native son relies on old strengths. Certainly, "Solitary Confinement" is no "all time classic hit" and it is no "No Mercy" or "Danger Zone." Neither is it his eighth "Book No. 7." But "Solitary Confinement" is an album that offers its own store of well-stocked hits and the world-wide Rap community once more acknowledges that the "Lupus Alpha" of the South Park Coalition has had not only a brilliant past but has an indisputable future as well. Notwithstanding the fact that SC is the fifth album in two years and that some ignorant critics have always claimed that the quantity would somewhere down the road cause the quality of the Rap-machine from Houston to decline. However, the talk here is not about age or quality weariness, quite the opposite. K-Rino is one of the very few old school representatives that neither allows himself to be held back by nostalgic feelings nor betrays his roots by surfing along with the current trend waves that flood the shark infested waters of Rap music today. No, here he has preserved his independence, his energy, his enthusiasm for the main thing and above all his irresistible need to share all of that wrapped in authentic Rap music. K-Rino has always remained true to himself throughout the years. Therefore, it is a positive thing that so many verbal projectiles are raining down on "Solitary Confinement" that one can hardly believe one's ears. Whether he is avoiding the pitiable state of Rap in works such as "Soul Merchants" and "Who Killed Realness", or enthusiastically bashing the "pretenders" in "Barbed Wire Discipline" and "Forensics", or in the stand out hit "Grand Deception," he persists with powerful words and symbols. K-Rino fights boldly and aggressively on all fronts like a U.S. Ranger in an afghan province without hiding the bitter truth or meeting death. Consequently, "Solitary Confinement" gives at its best, as usual, strong content that has been heard as well on other K-Rino albums: political, social and rap-specific, generally colored in autobiographical or religious shades. Some doubters think that, one can of course carry on for twenty years and somehow climb the next rung of the development ladder. Keyword: Concept Album. Here we must stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the opposition: that just shows off K-Rino's strengths! K-Rino's performance is beyond a doubt sublime. If he offers relatively little alternation in rap technique and simply maintains a parade ground voice in a song like "The Life of Love" - so what? Here the emphasis is on the beat. VP-Productions, Dope-E, K-Rino himself, Codeen, Spiktakula, Keyza Soze and Paragon are all on the production credits this time. The result is that the album at times lacks continuity in the beat technique and loses its flow of uniformity. While Paragon with "Soul Merchants" and "Grand Deception" and our man from Berlin Keyza Soze with "Barbed Wire Discipline" and above all the crisp "I Can't Tell" bring, in my personal opinion, the album's highest points, the rest of the crew bring rock solid material. Although measured against the two aforementioned productions they could stand some improvement. In so far as it may be desirable, in the future the control should be left to one producer. Really, why not Keyza Soze? K-Rino has therefore independently found a praiseworthy musical ending to 2009 and with "Solitary Confinement" renewed his incredible abilities and proven his endless creativity. That confirms his absolute and unbiased eligibility to what he will surely become in the next year: The Wizard and the Lyricist No.1!



Peace,

tHomas from Germany!"