Philly’s Reef The Lost Cauze has been buzzing in the underground community for some time now. With a reputation built as one of Philadelphia’s best battle emcees, Reef has been on a 10 year journey since his 2001 debut The High Life. Most recently heard on The Unholy Terror with cohorts Army Of The Pharaohs, Reef brings us another solo opus in Fight Music.

Fight Music teams Reef with DMV production team Chop-La-Rok, StU Bangas, J-$crilla, collectively known as Guns-N-Butter. The 13 tracks feature a guest list that includes  Kool G. Rap, Vinnie Paz, R.A. the Rugged Man, Big Noyd, Slaine, Akir, K-Beta, Bloodsport and Burke the Jurke. The high points of Fight Music occur when it lives up to the title. Tracks such as  “OPG Theme” feat Vinnie Paz and Burke The Jurke and “I’m A G”  and “Bosses feat. Akir and K-Beta succeed because of the energy brought my both by the production and by the emcees.

However,for an album called Fight Music, the overall energy of the album is surprisingly low. Tracks such as “Trigger Talk”, “Suicide Slang” and “Cut U Up” and are all okay, but just do not grab the attention of the listener. Reef does succeed with “Get Me Outta Here” ,where he breaks down some of his frustrations with living in the hood. The standout track of Fight Music is by far the dope  “Sun”, where Reef bares his soul. The success of the track is in  both the outstanding production and lyrical honesty, as Reef discusses loss of love, life and faith.

Overall, Fight Music is a good, but unspectacular release. The disappointingly low energy level brings the album down and ruins the potential of the early tracks. Guns-N-Butter lend good production and at times Reef brings strong lyrical content, but in this Fight, the album drops its hands.