Plenty of hip-hop artists or rappers talk about being from the streets and how that plays into their personification of being "hard" or being street smart even if they are not, *cough* Ja Rule *cough*. In all reality, when someone actually does rise from the grime of the streets, these people do not usually waste their time bitching about being hard, but they instead talk about real street issues, like women and how high the cost of living is, as the track "White Eagle" so brilliantly explains. That track illustrates so well what it is like for real musicians and real fans to come together to build a thriving scene. In a time where it is so easy to get caught in the facade of what the music world is like, it is refreshing to hear Dead Mics talk about going to local shows, playing local shows, and chillin' with the locals. So many rappers today follow the cookie-cutter guidelines of what rap "is supposed to be", that no one really wants to tell the game to go fuck itself in order to do what they want. Dead Mics does not rent cars for a fake ass album cover, he does not borrow jewelry for shows, and he does not talk about being rap-jaded. Dead Mics speaks the real. He talks about NOT having cars, jewelry and how he is damn near anti-jaded. Now that is what the real streets are saying. What a better way to change things up, hell, Dead Mics does not even have hooks for most of the songs. He does not have to because the shit flows so well. That is because it is real. Real talk. This album is whats up in NWI hip-hop.
