Starring regularly on HBO’s Entourage, being quoted in the Source Magazine without even having an album out, not to mention having two major label record deals with A-List producers like Mark Ronson and Just Blaze, you have to ask what went wrong with Saigon’s career? He carries the resume of your average, highly marketable street rapper, with a drug-dealing past and prison time under his belt. With what sounds like a slimy A&R’s dream come true, how did this man never release an album and end up a small digital music imprint like Amalgam Digital, after bouncing around from each Elektra, Atlantic, and Violator Records? Simple, he kept it too real.

In this day and age, with the music industry being less about album sales and more about disposable digital singles and ringtones, the era of the classic hip-hop album may be over. Saigon represents the last true New York emcee to graduate from the school of Biggie Smalls, and proves himself with his first full-length LP, All In A Days Work, produced by Statik Selektah, recorded in a span of twenty-four hours.

Bear in mind though, this is not the Yardfather’s official debut – somewhere in the Atlantic Records archives (and on various torrent websites) is an incomplete version of his fittingly titled official debut, The Greatest Story Never Told, which to this day is still unreleased. Statik Selektah takes that into account with the album’s first track, “To Be Told”, where Saigon hints that it is still coming over a vintage soul sample that appropriately sings “I’ve got a long time to go / I’ve got plenty stories to be told…”. This brand of soul sampled production propels the entire LP, allowing Statik to raid the crates without any regard for clearances. “So Cruel”, which Saigon dubs “I Ain’t No Joke ’09”, finds him spitting humorous freestyle rhymes over a bouncy, chopped horns and snapping drums.

Saigon offers his insights into the rap game on songs like the RJD2-esque “The Rules”, as well “Lady Sings The Blues”, where he spits a brilliantly penned verse about an artificial rapper who followed trends rather than being original. This story doesn’t end like Blackalicious’ “Deception (Don’t Let Money Change Ya)” however; here, a disgruntled Saigon faces facts, the phony repertoire actually worked.  Again on “The Reason”, he offers his thoughts on how emcees of the eighties like Rakim and Big Daddy Kane were lambasted for selling out, but today that’s the only way to succeed in the major label rap game. While Saigon’s stick-to-ya-gunz mentality earns him props and helped him deliver an incredible LP with All In A Days Work, again this approach has ultimately proved as his undoing in the major market. He laments “They try to say the way the king gonna last / is to come out with a ringtone smash / Tell ‘em kiss my ass / I got nothing but hit records in the stash / the game I don’t respect it / give it an epitaph.”

While we’ve all heard suburban-bred indie acts spit similar feelings about the rap game, it’s loaded with a ton more authenticity when these same sentiments are coming from a Brooklyn-based emcee like Saigon, especially coupled with Statik Selektah’s soulful, classically styled production. Not having to worry about crafting any type of ringtone single for this small, indie release, Saigon has finally transcended the mixtape game and delivered what may be one day looked at as the classic that officially launched his career – or sadly, overlooked as just another blip on the radar. - Pizzo