The windy city has been responsible for birthing several respectable hip hop acts in recent years. With Chi-town’s different flavors of emcees, picking one to suit your musical needs is almost like selecting ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Enter Vakill, who first made a name for himself with the surprising debut album The Darkest Cloud, which was chock full of witty one liners, clever punch lines and rewind button moments. With the Molemen back at the helm to provide the backdrop, Vakill wants to deliver to the listener a double scoop of super lyrical battle emcee flavor, with his sophomore album, Worst Fears Confirmed. 
 
    Being such a skilled wordsmith, the bar is set significantly high for Vakill to produce an incredible album. The problem with most super lyricists (think Chino XL, Royce 5’9″ and Ras Kass) is creating an album with production to match their lyrical firepower. Memo and Panik make significant strides to provide Vakill with a worthy backdrop throughout Worst Fears Confirmed, but at times Vakill leaves the production in the dust.
 
    Take, for instance, “Monstaz Ink” which Vakill stuffs full of monsterous one liners (“So many Makaveli mini me’s in the game/its an outbreak of smallpox

” and “I’m a pimp/pussy fall in my lap like a strip club full of clumsy crippled bitches”) and while Panik’s production does it’s best to keep up with the at times off beat flow of Vakill, it is tough to compliment an emcee of Vakill’s caliber. But there are times when the production holds up. Moments such as “Farewell To The Game” are backed beautifully by Memo, as well as the title track where Memo’s production compliments Vakill perfectly. Vakill is one of those emcees where you would love to hear a shift in gears with the production. Memo and Panik are solid, yet it feels that something is missing within the confines of the album.
 
    Lyrically, there is not much to complain about if you are looking for some serious wordplay. Vakill is just nasty as an emcee. He brings to mind artists such as Royce 5’9″ and Ras Kass and what do ya know? Both Royce and Ras make appearances on the album with “The King Meets The Sickest” and “Introducin” respectively. Both tracks are adequate courses in “Tear-an-emcee-a-new-asshole 101″ with each emcee trying to outdo the other. Strangely, both tracks sound alike by no matter because you’ll be caught trying to catch all the ridiculous punchlines in both.
 
    The album does feel as if it is missing something. Variety maybe? Memo and Panik’s production gets beaten to death by Vakill’s lyrical demonstrations, but sometimes a shift in gears is needed. At times the album is a bit too dark for its own good. Nonetheless, Worst Fears Confirmed allows Vakill to continue to blow listeners away lyrically and it is only a matter of time that the rest of the world will take notice.