With all the beats being master-minded and blessed by the hands of Agallah the “Don Bishop;” blaring horn sections, fast paced high-hats, obscure sequences and some of the fastest keyboard work on the east-coast are only the beginning. Opening with the high-energized title track, “Paris to Purple City Purple,” Shiest Bub, Agallah and Un Kasa, make valiant efforts in attempting to incorporate French phrases into their verses. On the other hand, the crew from Paris surpasses them, fearlessly diving into lyrical action. Now if we could only understand what they are saying?
 
    From New York to Paris, “Rap Is Around the World.” The track comes off as that “feel good single.” It works for the streets as well as commercial radio. Giving international love to hip-hop, Agallah raps himself in circles, literally. At times his word flipping strays from tricky and becomes confusing, unless repeatedly heard. Handing off the mic to French rappers, Tibesse, Djelass, Keny, Kris Daddy and Kipetchi, they take the initiative, riding the bass line and flipping their styles with out “Pari-style.” “Hip-Hop,” Comes off as the album’s rugged track, plastered with Agallah’s trademark marathon keyboard work. Some lyrics come into question as the phrase, “I’ll stomp your baby-sister with my work boots,” is uttered. It’s one thing to be gully, but damn, that’s some crazy shit.

     For every negative, there is a positive. Sounding like the ending score to a 70′s blaxploitation film, “NewYork/ Ville De Lumieres,” comes off as the best track on the album. In fact, it would have been ideal as the closing track. Despite Agallah’s questionable rhymes through out the album, he saves face with the line, “Since the east coast fell off, a lot of nigga’s been talk’n/ The east coast never fell off; I was just asleep in Harlem,” an obvious salute to the Game’s original west-coast line.  Things cool off with the slow jam,” Baby Girl.” Compared to other tracks that containing high energy, big splash symbols, it sticks out as extra. The French rhyming adds a nice touch, being that it’s the language of love, but making love songs isn’t Purple City’s strong suit.

     From the English aspect, Paris to Purple City, is nothing new from the habitual Purple sound. With additional guest appearance from Jim Jones and Hell Rell; it’s a wonder why Shiest Bub only appears on two of the ten tracks, leaving all of work up to Agallah and Un kasa. Always with a trick up their sleeves, there could be a method to the madness. The option to hang in the background, gives the room to showcase the French style of hip-hop and break the new comers to the general public. Don’t be surprised if in the next year or so, some of these rappers pop-up a Euro Dipset label. If so, let’s hope that it does a lot better than Euro Disney.

        The Purple City Byrd Gang, consisting of underground veteran Agallah, Shiest Bub and Un Kasa, is an offshoot of Harlem’s super group The Diplomats.  For the past two years, Purple City has flooded the scene with eight mixtapes, selling close to 80,000 copies.  Road To Riches is a culmination of their hard work over the years, as the album features the best material from their eight mixtapes.  However, unlike their counterparts, The Diplomats, Purple City lacks the charisma and catchy song making that has made Dipset a nationwide street movement. 

       Going into a Diplomats or Purple City album and expecting to hear great lyricism is foolish.  Even though the Diplomats lack lyrical dexterity, their unique flare, style, and charisma ooze out of every track.  Not to mention their outstanding beat selection, which always helps their cause.  However, Purple City lacks any of those traits.  Road To Riches is a generic gathering of various mixtape joints that fail to be entertaining.  The production aspect also disappoints, as Agallah and other in house producers handle most of the album’s beats. 

       These shortcomings are seen throughout Road To Riches, as the majority of the mixtape is plagued by mistakes.  With his amateur rhyme scheme, the irritating and squeaky voiced Shiest Bub sounds misplaced over the Latin influenced horns of “Broadway”.  Un Kasa does not fare any better with “Copz Iz Coming”, a simplistic synthesizer production effort that suffers from a case of the lame hooks disease.  The generic ladies anthem of “Late Night” by Un Kasa is another forced effort that sounds completely contrived.  In addition, the group collaborations of “Real Niggaz”, “Roll It Up, Light It Up” and “Come 2 Get Ya” all fail to offer any replay value and are simply dull street efforts.

      Mistakes and all, Road To Riches does manage to sneak in a few vintage cuts that succeed due to spectacular production.  The edgy guitar riffs and hypnotizing vocal sample of “It Ain’t Easy” takes a bite out of the Diplomats style, as the production elevates each emcee to a bearable level.  Not surprisingly, the album’s best songs come from similar production efforts.  “Winning” is a prime example, as Un Kasa and Bathgate blend well over the combination of a melodic vocal sample and light piano keys.  The mixtape classic “Purple City Byrd Gang” also makes its way onto Road To Riches, as the track’s hard-hitting drums and creepy chanting ends up as Purple City’s best track to date. 

      Even for diehard Dipset fans, Road To Riches is a below average release that does little to prove the trio’s worth.  The group lacks the necessary chemistry and charisma needed to make them stand apart from their Diplomat counterparts.  Purple City can be entertaining when they are on the receiving end of some great production.  However, those attempts are far and few in between, making Road To Riches just another mixtape.