I’m a big fan of hip hop and rap music. I’m selective in what I listen to, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from Necro, in his first album produced by Koch Records. Necro has been a part of the underground hip hop scene for years. Known for combining his love of heavy metal with rap and horror movies, I had no idea what I was going to find when I popped this CD into my player.

This review is being done live as I listen to the music. You will get my initial feelings and thoughts as I listen to the CD, and then I will provide an overall analysis of this CD at the end of this article.

The CD, Death Rap is Necro’s fifth album. It features 14 songs. Here is some information and my thoughts on each song on this album.

1. “Creepy Crawl” – I first noticed the funky beat had an old skool kind of feel to it. I can’t really even explain how weird the beat is for this song. I’m not sure where the metal sound came in on this, but most of it sounded like crazy rap to me. This wasn’t one of his best songs. We’re off to a bad start.
Grade: C-

2. “No Remorse” – I like the beat already. It has more of a metal feel to it then the last song. The lyrics are a bit more reflective of what I’d expect from a death rapper. I definitely like this song better than the last one. The chorus is a bit simplistic compared to other rappers. However, the rest of the lyrics are pretty damn fly. The background chorus sounds like a Gregorian type of chant and it’s pretty sweet. All of the elements of this song go together well.
Grade: A

3. “Some Get Back (Revenge)” – The lyrics, again, are pretty simplistic. I’m not sure if he was having an off day when he was trying to write for this album, but from what I know of Necro, he’s usually a lot wittier. The beat has that foreboding sound to it, but it is repetitious and I’m already getting a little sick of it. I can’t wait for this song to end. Luckily, this song was one of his shortest.
Grade: D

4. “Belligerent Gangsters” – One can only wonder what is in store just by looking at the song title. At the beginning I wanted to get up and start shouting “Fuck tha Police!” It just sort of reminded me of that type of song. The beat goes crazy and all over the place in this song and I’m not quite sure if I like it or not. Some of it sounds pretty ill and the other I just am not sure what he was trying to accomplish by changing the beat so drastically. I get the whole death rap feel in this song…and it isn’t just because the lyrics are kind of scary!
Grade: C+

5. “Suffocated by God’s Shadow” – Wow…this has a lot of metal in its sound. I just don’t expect that in the vast majority of rap. This song is definitely more of a death metal song. It seems like he can’t really merge the two without having some songs more rap/hip hop sounding and some more metal sounding. On this one, the lyrics are just plain stupid. I’m not sure what anything he says has to do with suffocating in God’s shadow. It’s like he just said it because it rhymed or sounded like it fit. This one is definitely my least favorite thus far, though it does have a few nice guitar rifts in it.
Grade: F

6. “Mutilate the Beat” – I like the name of this song. Let’s just hope it sounds as good as its title does. The lyrics and the beat appear to be slightly out of synch. The sound of the beat makes me feel like I’m in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. This song was very short and pretty pointless in terms of having a place on this album. The bit at the end where he comes back to rap after the song seems to end was just lame and didn’t add or increase to the value of this already worthless song.
Grade: D-

7. “Keep on Driving” – What are we in, the Partridge family? What’s with the Partridge sounding singers at the beginning? This one has better lyrics and a better beat once it gets into the actual song, though I feel it would be better without the whistling. Despite the weird, Keep on driving chorus, I like this song in comparison to the last 2-3 songs I’ve heard previously. I don’t think this has any type of death metal vibe whatsoever, and that’s okay unless you are expecting it.
Grade – B-

8. “Technician of Execution” – This is back to the foreboding feeling. It even mentions lists of things that can kill you from Muscular Dystrophy to AIDS. As someone who has a friend with MD, I’m not sure I like hearing a song called technician of execution that lists the disease as a killer. I can get his point, but what a weird song to write. The beat was okay and flowed with the lyrics, even if they were odd.
Grade: C

9. “Keeping it Real” – This sounds like “Suffocated by God’s Shadow” though it is more effective at mixing rap and metal. It has part rap, part metal, part rap and so on. It goes together okay and the lyrics are better than some of the previous songs on this CD. I’m not sure how in love I am with the metal sound on this CD.
Grade: C+

10. “Exploitation” – Funky beat. The lyrics are decent though I’ve heard better in his other songs. I can see the beat soon getting annoying as it is repetitious and not in a good way. The lyrics sound like they are an extension of “Technician of Execution”. This song is really short, which is good because I didn’t like it much.
Grade: D

11. “As Deadly as Can Be” – This repetitious beat isn’t so bad that it will get annoying instantly. The lyrics are graphic, so if you don’t like certain words you deem as bad I recommend you not listen to this song. This is the one I really noticed the offending lyrics in and though they didn’t offend me I can see the song offending others. Either way, this song is short. It is decent compared to most of the other songs on the album.
Grade: B-

12. “Evil Rules” – It starts off with a heavy metal feel. Where’s the rap/hip hop vibe? It’s so muted by the metal. The lyrics sound metal and they’re not as intense as other albums. I just don’t think I like this song much at all. It sounds like something you’d hear on WWE Raw. The chorus is just plain stupid!
Grade: D

13. “Foresnic Pathology” – This must be the acid trip song. It sounds funky, creepy, and the lyrics are very strange. I’ve been expecting that though. I guess the title fits the song, at least. That’s about its only redeeming quality. Did he say Dukakis looks like parmesan? WTF?!
Grade: D-

14.”Portrait of a Death Rapper” – Some woman who sounds like should be a Carpenter starts this song. This is the last one and I can’t say I’m disappointed to see it end. The rap sounds pretty good, but the rest just doesn’t fit together. The CD started and ended the same way…crappy.
Grade: C-

Overall, I think Necro has promise. He can rap. He can make music. He just needs to stop worrying about combining all these types of music together and just feel what he is writing/rapping/producing. I think this album fell short of his talent. I’ve heard past Necro albums are better. I only hope that is true. I only liked 1 song out of 14. That’s pretty bad. It sounded like a short, rushed, album and it wasn’t nearly as good as it could have been.If you are a Necro fan you might want this to add to your collection. Otherwise, I recommend looking this up on Amazon and trying the song previews out for this album before purchasing it.

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