A-Class - Motive Response (Brake Fast Records)

A-Class is probably, be some distance, the single best and most dominant MC on the Baltimore battle rap circuit the past couple years. The list of events he's made an impression at just goes on and on: winner at Show Me What You Got, Word War (my bad, it was The Masters I was thinking of there) and the Scribble Jam preliminaries, runner-up at Style Warz and One Mic, etc. I interviewed him for Mic Life Magazine last year, but I didn't really get around to really jamming his solo album from 2007, which is for sale on iTunes and CD Baby, until recently. One thing really striking about this album is how short and concise it is: 12 songs in 30 minutes, most of them under 3 minutes, like every song is trimmed of the fat and is just down to the basics of beats and rhymes, and Brake Fast Records has some really strong producers. If you've ever seen A-Class perform, you won't be disappointed by the record, he's just a guy who's mastered his craft and shows it in a really direct, no-frills way.

A-Class - "Turnfiya" (mp3)
Usually it's not hard to single out a song from a release to post here, but this one I just kinda grabbed at the moment because it sounded good, but there's not really any weak tracks here.

Labels: A-Class, Brakefast Records, mixtape/album review, mp3