Lord Finesse - The Awakening

[Lord Funk]

This 1995 album from Lord Finesse was recently reissued. It's full of those rugged kind of beats the DITC crew were churning out by the bucket load in the mid-90s.

Finesse is no Rakim on the mic, but his simple-yet-effective punchlines and effortless flow generally hit the spot.

1. "Da Sermon (Intro)"
An opening church sermon skit that goes on for more than two minutes. Not sure why. N/A

2. "Time Ta Bounce (Interlude)" - featuring Doo-Wop
An intro-after-the-intro sort of thing. Classic sounding East Coast beat with Doo-Wop shouting out the album's featured rappers. And Finesse. Obviously. 4/5 (for the beat)

3. "True and Livin'"
Three tracks in, the album's first proper song. Finesse's flow is dope, but the beat lacks something. I'd have chosen a stronger track to open with. Maybe he'll ask me to sequence the album next time. 3/5

4. "O' Lord (Interlude)" - featuring O.C.
All the tracks here have interludes between them with Finesse's mates on them. This one's pretty crap. 2/5

5. "Brainstorm/P.S.K" - featuring O.C and KRS-One
Eerie beat with a good knock to it. All emcees deliver the goods. 3.5/5

6. "Taking It Lyte (Interlude)" - featuring MC Lyte
Nicest beat on the album so far - jazzy and smooth. Shame he didn't turn it into a proper track. Oh well. Still gets a 4/5

7. "Gameplan"
Finesse does that cheesy back-and-forth rapping with a girl thing, a bit like Positive K, although as far as I can tell he's not doing both voices. Might be wrong. The beat knocks but the female vocals on the chorus are horrible. Plus Finesse drops unintentionally humorous lines like "Give me a minute and it's over" and "My shit is butter-soft". 3/5

8. "Words from Da Ak (Interlude)" - featuring Akinyele
"We ain't even gonna disrespect this beat right now by rhymin'," says Akinyele. Thanks Christ for that, 'cause Akinyele is a pretty bad rapper. 2/5

9. "Flip Da Style"
Nice samples and a banging beat, with Finesse's standard bragging over the top. 3.5/5

10. "Showtime (Interlude)" - featuring Showbiz
This beat sounds a bit like Pete Rock did it. Then decided it wasn't good enough to use. 2.5/5

11. "Speak Ya Peace" - featuring Diamond, A.G. and Marquee
Great beat with dope horns and subtle vibes. Could have done without the wack female emcee, but shit happens. The fellas all murder it. 4/5

12. "Food For Thought"
This is the shit. It's a sort of this-is-why-kids-go-astray tale, a bit like 2Pac's "Shorty Wanna Be A Thug", although without a beat that sounds like someone made it on a Casio keyboard. The production is superb and the samples are used brilliantly. 5/5

13. "Da Kid Himself (Interlude)" - featuring Kid Capri
Is Kid Capri white? He calls himself the Caucasian Persuasion here. The beat is fucking great. 5/5

14. "Hip 2 Da Game"
Great track. The beat is perfect mid-90s East Coast boom bap with that smooth edge to it. Lyrics are flawless. Love this. 5/5

15. "No Gimmicks" - featuring KRS-One
Is it me, or is KRS-One not very good? I mean, Finesse isn't on Nas's level, but he kinda shows up the Blastmaster here. 3/5

16. "Actual Facts" - featuring Sadat X, Grand Puba and Large Professor
Great beat, everyone comes with their A-game. Wonder why it's a hidden track? 3.5/5

OVERALL: 3/5 Gets much better as it goes along. If he'd cut the crap songs and crap interludes, then turned the doper interludes into full tracks, he'd really have had something worth talking about here.

[eazye]

Review inspires me to check out the album as soon as possible.Props 

And to me Actual Facts is a 5/5 track no doubt

[Lord Funk]

Review inspires me to check out the album as soon as possible.Props 

And to me Actual Facts is a 5/5 track no doubt

If you're a fan of the mid-90s New York sound you'll find a lot to like here, it's just some of the first half doesn't really go anywhere. Guess that's a common problem when all your rhymes are bragging.

Yeah, "Actual Facts" is very good and it's grown on me a lot during the week and a half I've been playing this. Maybe I'd up that track to a 4 at a push . It's always good to hear Sadat and Grand Puba together at least.