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A couple of years ago, my man Major passed along an album from a friend of his going by the name Mally From the 612, with a rather modest suggestion to check it out if I had the chance. The understated introduction to the Minnesota MC's debut, The Letter, left me unprepared for what I was about to hear, a showcase of one of the best new lyricists to arrive on the scene in years. There were a couple of moments on the album that were a little raw - more so on the mixing of the tracks than anything else - but in spite of that, the album maintained one of the top spots in my iPod rotation for the past two years. With his new album, The Moment, Mally has improved on every aspect of his craft as an emcee, from the depth of the subject matter in his lyrics to the wider variety in his beat selection, and put together a tremendous follow up to his debut.
Mally often points to Joe Budden as one of the main sources of his inspiration, and the level of introspection on this album clearly shows Joey's influence, to the point where you'll come away from listening to it feeling like you've just finished an hour long conversation with him. The most poignant song on the album, Never Knew Him, reflects on his absentee father, somehow managing to turn a very personal examination of their relationship into a head nodder. Perhaps even more impressive, however, is his ability to jump on an up tempo beat and still maintain the depth in his lyrics, as he does on the socially-conscious track My People, which we featured a couple of months ago. From start to finish, Mally never lets up, often continuing to rhyme well after the beat has faded out.
When Mally's on top of his game, he can spit raw acapellas and still catch your ear's attention, but what sets The Moment apart from his previous effort, The Letter, is the production backing his lyrics. While it's hard to complain about an album that relies primarily on old Dilla beats, as was the case with his first album, The Moment benefits greatly from the use of several original beats (in fact the one track that used a beat that I had heard before, the Menahan Street Band song that was used for Jay-Z's Roc Boys, would have actually worked better as an acapella). For a lot of emcees, particularly emcees who have yet to establish their identity on the mic, it's hard to get a true feel for what they're capable of when they rhyme over an instrumental that's already been used by another rapper, and the familiarity of recycled beats often covers up whatever deficiencies that emcee may have. On this album, we get to hear Mally break ground on new beats, and it's a marked improvement over his debut.
The production credits for most of the tracks on the album feature names that longtime readers of the site should be well familiar with by now. Mydus, Miami's king of the remix album, Clean Guns' Zilla Rocca and Redwine, who produced most of The Letter, have all put together some memorable beats. The album also features some standout work from a French producer named Astroblack, who's sample-based, up tempo offerings left me wondering how I had never heard of him before. There are seventeen tracks on the album, and with the exception of one beat - the previously mentioned Make the Road By Walking - they all manage to enhance Mally's impressive delivery.
Having recently graduated from college, Mally at one point during the album questions what he's going to do with his life. Here's hoping that The Moment serves as a rather impressive resume for a long, successful career as a full-time emcee.
Mally - Lookup, Lookout (produced by Astroblack)
Mally - Never Knew Him (produced by Redwine)
Mally's made the entire album available for free, so go get it!
Mally From the 612 - The Moment (zShare link)
After you listen to the album, head on over to Mally's MySpace page and let him know what you thought of it.
7/20/2007 08:35:01 PM posted by Fresh