While his flow reminds me a lot of Mad Skillz, I’m feeling Rise’s approach – mad accessible with a nice touch of cleverness. Request though: can emcees stop referring to themselves in the third person? I can’t stand it when professional athletes do it and I’m not really feeling emcees doing the same (exceptions made if you’re spelling out your name since that’s strictly old school classic material). Where was I? Oh yeah, DJ Spinna’s track is nice, vintage but not generic and I love the hook he came up with for “Do You Know Him”. I took a pass on “Cheater”, nice attempt at storytelling but reminded me too much of something Mr. Complex would do. That brings us to Memories which caught my ear with DJ Static’s whimsical track and another superior hook. I just wish Rise would fine that next level of rhyme skills – he’s cool where he’s at but could be better. - O-Dub

I initially got open to Rise on his appearance on Apathy’s “The Smackdown” (plug two), when he said, “I get your CD’s for free and only use them as a mirror.” On the solo tip, “Memories” is my cut, as Rise and Wordsworth think back to the days of junior high school (at least my days in Junior High), bringing back sweet memories of Kangaroos with the zipper, and playing Duck Hunt with the gun touching the screen. Nice production and a finely tuned sample working as a hook. Spinna’s “Do You Know Him” is also dope, but I’m kind of stuck on “Memories” at the moment. Definitely a solid 12″, and the best thing to come out of Eddie Ill & D.L.’s Photo-Synthetic  imprint yet. – Pizzo