Produced by Panik, directed by Davey Greenberg. Taken from Armour Of God, available now on Molemen Records.
]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/07/26/vakill-appetite-to-kill-video/feed/ 2 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/07/11/vakill-beast-ballad-feat-juice-crooked-i-rhymefest-nino-bless/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/07/11/vakill-beast-ballad-feat-juice-crooked-i-rhymefest-nino-bless/#comments Tue, 12 Jul 2011 01:58:14 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=36135

From Vakill’s Armor Of God, available now. Armor of God features 16-tracks produced by Molemen’s Panik & Memoriza, Jake One, Joe Blow, MGI & Bluntologist. Guest appearances by Crooked I of Slaughter House, Juice, Rhymefest, Nino Bless, Astonish & Vizion.

Title track to Vakil’s new LP, produced by Jake One. Available now via Molemen Records.

Latest leak, “Armor Of God,” is the title track from Vakill’s forthcoming LP, Armor Of God, which now has a new release date of 7-5-2011.The track is produced by Jake One.

Vakill – Armor of God prod. by Jake One by Molemen

Vakill’s debut video from the new LP, “Armor Of God”, “I Came 4 U” produced by Panik. The long awaited Armor of God album is set to be released on 6/14/11.

Armor of God features 16 tracks produced by Molemen’s own Panik & Memoriza, Jake One, Joe Blow & Bluntologist. Guest appearances by Crooked I of SlaughterHouse, Juice, Rhymefest, Nino Bless, Astonish & Mick Luter.
]]> http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/05/05/vakill-i-came-4-u-prod-panik-video/feed/ 0 http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/04/05/vakill-announces-armor-of-god-lp-release-date/ http://www.hiphopsite.com/2011/04/05/vakill-announces-armor-of-god-lp-release-date/#comments Tue, 05 Apr 2011 21:16:44 +0000 http://www.hiphopsite.com/?p=32512 [cont.]]]>

Molemen Records announced the official release date for Vakill’s much anticipated album Armor of God available June 14th. Armor of God features 16 tracks produced by Panik & Memoriza, Jake One, Joe Blow & Bluntologist. Guest appearances by Crooked I of Slaughter House, Juice, Rhymefest, Nino Bless, Astonish & Mic Luter. Check the exclusive studio footage.

As a teaser for his upcoming “Armor of God” album, Vakill drops a freestyle trailer. A cappella is just the calm before the storm and a subtle warning of what’s to come. The crown don’t move.

HHS: What’s good, how are you doing.

Vakill: Everything is going real well, the album seems to be doing real well.

For those who don’t know who you are, introduce yourself and where your from.

I’ve been rhyming this about ’88 but didn’t really decide to go hard with it till around ’92.  I rep Chicago Southside forever.  .

Before we get into the new album, “Worst Fears Confirmed” you mentioned that you were about ready to hang it up, why would you do that?

Nothing negative really.   The game hasn’t been made to me at all and basically life is good.  It’s not a negative reason; I just don’t know what my purpose is as far as my God given gifts.  Whether I’m supposed to take it beyond 2pac measure or maybe it something to just look back on and say I had fun.  I didn’t come into the game with any expectations I came into the game just having fun with it which is what is missing right now.

Do you feel that hip-hop is struggling right now?  Commercial music is all but lost, but even on an indie level the caliber of artist has really went down hill the last couple of years.

Hip-Hop is definitely struggling right now, the game is infested. People get into the game for the wrong reasons and they don’t have any good intentions.  A lot of people look at hip-hop as a quick buck scheme and they aren’t doing it from the heart anymore.  I remember when the indie level was keeping shit afloat, but that has dwindled.  You have artist putting out 8 different projects in one year and you can tell in the quality of music, it’s sad, very sad.  I had something to say and I wanted to get it off my chest.

The new album is called “Worst Fears Confirmed”, explain the title.

I think that the worst fear confirmed is for me to evolve as far as doubters and fans.  When I was first heard I was placed into a box.  We live in an era where emcees where placed in a box.  Before the internet came in to play, you were just an emcee.  You were either dope or wack, now you’re a punch line rapper, a gangsta rapper, a storyteller or a battle rapper.  It’s not just dope or wack anymore, everything has a title.  I’ve never read an old Big Daddy Kane article saying he’s a battle emcee; it’s just Big Daddy Kane.  Everything has to have a label on it, and when I came in I was placed in a box of being just a punch line rapper.  I’m so much more than a punch line rapper, my mind runs deep.  It exceeds just punch line.

To play right into the hands of hip-hop heads you actually enlist the talent of Ras Kass on the song “Introducin” how did that collaboration come about?

We have mutual friends.  The game runs in circles everybody knows everybody.  Whether it’s indie or major everybody is rubbing elbows if you’re out there.  I just happened to know somebody who knew him right off jump street.

I’m sure you have heard that you are compared in voice and content to Ras Kass, do you think you sound like Ras at all?

Not at all, I think I settled that with the record on the album.

The entire album is produced by the Molemen camp, Memo, Panik, etc.  The only track that isn’t Molemen produced is the Chemo produced “Flow Fever”, but everybody wants to know….who is Chemo?

Chemo is from Britain; I’m branching out a little bit, finding and tapping into to new talent.  Actually, J-Zone was supposed to be on the album but we got a lot bigger plans with J-Zone.  So that tells you I’m not going anywhere.  This is like my biggest record to date.  The artistry is really showing on this album.  I can see both sides now.  I understand how people felt when they heard “Darkest Cloud”, thinking it’s some super lyrical throwback 90′s type shit.  I wrote most of that album in 2001 and it came out in 2003 and now it’s 2006.  It’s been 5 years and I’m a grown man now and my mind is in another place.  I can’t do that in 2006, the world has changed and my mind has changed.  I’m not trying to bring it back I’m trying to let music progress, and be what it is.

Do you think the Chicago has finally got it’s just desserts, or do you think that people still overlook the city even though Kanye, Common, etc have really blown it up?

Naw, not really, they know us and they have learned that Chicago has talent.  Even off my album they are learning.  With this record I have people hollering at me that I never thought would have given me the time of day from all walks of life.  Those types of things have me teeter tottering on hanging it up or going hard.  I’m going to tell you right now, if I go hard it’s going to be a problem, right now I’m just having fun.  Thing is nigg*s is doing numbers on accident, Kanye is just having fun he’s not trying to go triple platinum.  When it’s from the heart it’s always like that.  What makes Chicago so dangerous is now that we are relevant.  Chicago music isn’t that run of the mill music, we have conversations, we have discussions.  The world is realizing that Chicago has something to say, we aren’t just punch line rappers, we have something to say.

So is this the last album we will see from Vakill, or do you have that fire, that hunger back for hip-hop?

Definitely, it has.  With the first album people thought they knew me but they didn’t know shit.  The “Darkest Cloud” was Vakill from 0-60, but with “Worst Fear Confirmed” has a feel good record?  People can’t believe I would have a feel good record because there wasn’t anything like that on “Darkest Cloud”, it was the darkest cloud.  The only way I can stay in this game is have fun, when I stop having fun. I’m gone.

Any last words?

Listen to the record and listen to the record for what it is.  It’s always hard to have your second album accepted.   Follow up albums are just as tight, but you have to loosen your grip on the debut.  All I’m saying is respect the work for what it is, grow with your artist and respect your artist.

” 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.

Vakill, who strikingly resembles Ras Kass in vocal tone and subject matter, loves to wild out with outrageous lines like those found all over “Sickplicity”. “I’m math with Godly wrath,” he brazenly rips on the cut. “One to grow on like Pinocchio eatin’ pussy while he takin’ a polygraph.” Panik produces that track that dumps a generically sung chorus for DJ Premier-esque precision scratching. To go a step further, the Molemen’s beatmaking style throughout this LP and much of their other work suggests they just might be the finest purveyors of DJ Premier’s timeless production style aside from Primo himself.

“The Creed” is another head nodder, compliments of Memo’s emotive string arrangements. More notable lines spew from Vakill’s mouth, including “My definition of on point effects hemophiliacs and virgins all in the same manner / One prick and it’s all over.” Also among the memorable contributions is “Forbidden Scriptures”, a piano peppered posse cut fashioned by Panik that’s tightly laced by Breez Evahflowin, Jakki Tha MotaMouth, Camu Tao, and Copywrite. Though Slug shows up on the album’s most cliche’ offering, a track examining the life of a fallen rapper (yes, we’ve heard it before) appropriately titled “Fallen”, Vakill wisely handles most of this outing on his own and isn’t in need of much back up.

Lest you think Vakill’s got nothing but punchlines, he flaunts earnest storytelling skills on his most personal track, “The Flyer”. It’s a tune concerning his crumbled relationship with one time close pal and platinum selling rapper Twista. “A friendship was crushed with the gentlest touch / And oh yeah / Congratulations on Adrenaline Rush,’” he says. Vakill’s still clearly troubled by this longtime beef and if Twista hears this poignant tune, a reconciliation should be in order.

Staking his claim as a multi dimensional rhymer with a posse of lovingly traditional beatsmiths, Vakill’s piercing couplets mean bright skies lay ahead for an MC with The Darkest Cloud.