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The other day I was walking by the neighborhood bootlegger and he was banging this one mixtape, Elevator Music by Wreckonize, on his five dollar boombox loud enough to make me stop and take a look at his suitcase full of CDs. The rapper on the tape sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember where I had heard him before. I copped the tape - it was either that or the latest from G-Unit's JV Squad, and I've heard enough from Yayo already this year - and eventually remembered that Wreckonize was the dude that won one of MTV's "amateur MC" battles a couple of years ago.
For those who don't remember, at one point MTV decided to set up a bigger-budgeted version of 106 and Park's Freestyle Fridays, apparently in an attempt to discover the next Jin. The first year, Reignman (last seen getting cut from Diddy's Da Band) won the battle. Wreckonize was the second, and final, winner of the contest, beating out a blind mc for the title. As part of the contest, Wreck signed a deal with Roc-A-Fella, though he was soon dropped from the label. Since then, he's been working independently on a mixtape trilogy (Elevator Music is the second in the series).
With a few exceptions - notably Eminem - most battle rappers have a hard time transitioning their lyrics from punchlines to storytelling. On Elevator Music, Wreckonize manages to break away from his roots as a battle rapper, even dropping a few political tracks (he's not a big fan of our dear Leader). As with a lot of mixtape MCs, he sounds best over other rapper's beats, though there are a couple of tracks on here with original beats that are worth checking out. If he ever does manage to get another chance on a major label, Wreckonize could be a rapper worth keeping an eye on.
A couple of tracks off of Elevator Music:
Gassed Up
Funny Cuz It's True
To hear more of Wreckonize's music, and for a link to purchase the Elevator Music mixtape, hit up his MySpace page.
5/1/2007 5:28:29 PM posted by Fresh