The Deez managed to create a nice little buzz for themselves with their Counterflow debut, Koolmotor, with new fans jumping on even now. This was an album that lived up to it’s title, as Fat Jon’s mellow vibes musically captured the chilly Ohio atmosphere, simultaneously running on a hyper-charged engine of up-tempo hip-house grooves. While Jon has supplemented this release with several solo instrumental endeavors, Kinkynasti is it’s official follow-up, now under the K7 Records banner. 

     Kinkynasti is a worthy sequel, even if it doesn’t outdo the original. By no means have Five Deez fallen victim to the sophomore slump, as this album includes some excellent material. Case in point is the incredible salute to Slick Rick’s “Hey Young World”, which rock’s the same title and hook here, but instead is propelled by a beautifully breezy Fat Jon track, this time almost speaking to the adults who were schooled on Rick The Ruler’s original some 15 years ago. The poignant last line of the song speaks volumes: “Intentions of politicians always contradict / because they importing drugs and deporting Slick Rick.” Much of the rest of the album picks up where Koolmotor left off, included here are the vastly up-tempo fast rap’s that would make Kane blush, such as “Funky”, “Tonight”, and “B Girl”, all of which are fun, although may be a little too fast for a world of slow-talking 50 Cent’s and Snoop Dogg’s. (But we like it).

    Meanwhile, Fat Jon’s patented aquatic soul creeps in on tracks like “The Ocean” and “The Rain”, and the Deez keep on this same vibe on their usual relationship-pondering joints such as “Kissy Face” and “I Like It”. However, Jon actually changes his style drastically on the bouncy intro track “Kinkynasti”, and the MF Doom-esque loops of “The Boostin Jam”, and furthermore, while these actually present two of the dopest cuts on the album, the more abrasive battle raps of these tracks don’t flow together as gracefully with the rest of the album. And it’s this kind of inconsistency which may keep Kinkynasti from being the sought after release that its predecessor is.  While Koolmotor somehow played like one continuous piece of music, Kinkynasti is all over the place. It’s fast, then slow; it’s vocal, then instrumental; it’s abrasive, then sensitive. However, don’t let that scare you - Five Deez latest does pack a solid punch, but the fluidity of its predecessor isn’t quite there.

Cats may best know the Deez from their 1999 little heard debut single “Blue Light Special”, which was shared with fellow Ohio natives Lone Catalysts and Mr. Dibbs. Their style has matured since their early years, and with Koolmotor, along with his other recent projects, (Maurice Galactica’s Humanoid Erotica and 3582′s The Living Soul) Fat Jon has graduated into one of underground hip-hop’s greatest new beatmakers. While the album may seem like a heavy plate to digest at first, after a few spins, the listener gets sucked into his brilliant audio landscapes, with beats so laid back that they almost smoke the weed for you. Whether the Deez aren’t terribly brilliant lyrically, they do have some profound moments at times, such as on “Instruments Of The Trade (The Word)”, where the emcee proclaims, “we just slaves to this word called time, check your watch. It’s the shackle.” But as emcees, they do host the cool-out well, blending well with whatever beautiful beats Fat Jon has orchestrated for them, be it the sexual sound-healing “Omni”, or the loneliness of rejection on, “Instruments Of The Trade (The Word)”, which ingeniously captures the cold of Ohio through the music itself. And while they sound completely unnatural kicking flossy rhymes on “Got Dough”, (be it intentional or sarcastic), for the most part they don’t stray off course too often, shining with equal brightness when spitting at hip-house speeds on “Ten”, or slowly harmonizing on “Sexual For Elizabeth”.

But with beats this good, the Five Deez could be rhyming about different kinds of fish and it would sound fresh – hell, even Shing02 , who rhymes entirely in Japanese, keeps your attention when he makes a cameo on the album, because the beats are so beautiful. And even if you aren’t open to the emcees, there is an instrumental album, which is perfect music to make love to your old lady by. Working as the perfect introductory piece to the Fat Jon’s production, as well as the Ohio scene, it’s only a matter of time before artists like Mos Def, Common, or Digable Planets (oops, shh!), start tapping Jon for production. So what does Koolmotor mean? Listen to the album and soon you’ll understand.