Canibus & Pete Rock Tap in For ”C” (EP Review)

This is the 5th EP from Kingston emcee Canibus. Coming up as 1/2 of the duo T.H.E.M. alongside C.I. about 3 decades ago, they eventually split up a few years later & Bis would blow up in ‘97 after appearing on the LL Cool J song “4, 3, 2, 1” that later resulted in a beef between both parties. He would then go on to make a lengthy yet consistent discography with albums like Rip the Jacker being breathtaking at best & then Mind Control being unlistenable at worst. He just dropped Body Bag Ben-produced 16th full-length Kaiju this past winter after a 3 year break & it wound up being one of his better albums in his discography, even though the follow-up 1 Step Closer to ∞ was a little underwhelming. But when I found out that one of my top 5 producers Pete Rock was coming in to lace C from front to back, I had to check it out for myself.

“Princibly This” is an incredibly jazzy opener with ‘Bis talking about how life’s a bitch while the next track “Poet’s Palaquin” pulls from some Bollywood influences spitting bars like “They stealth bombed Wakanda after they killed Black Panther” & “You know this, still the dopest. Free the people like Moses, hyper focused with both barrels loaded ‘cause I’m a Poet”. The closer however is just a remix of the song they did on Time Flys, Life Dies…Phoenix Rise almost 7 years ago at this point except it’s more soulful & Bronze Nazareth is spitting a fresh verse on it.

Even though I’m a little disappointed that it’s only 2 songs & a remix, I still enjoyed what I heard & I’d definitely recommend it to the hardcore fans. Canibus sounds much more focused than he did on 1 Step Closer to ∞ & as far as the production goes, it’s pretty much night & day unsurprisingly.

Score: 7/10