“If I’m not nice on the mic, then show me somebody who might… give me some competition/let me hear something that’ll make me wanna listen/’cause everbody hustlin’ and everybody spittin’/everybody smokin’ and everybody sippin’/I’m powerful, I strive to do different (listen)/So who readin’, who writin’, who teachin’/who keepin’ all of you out the streets when/guns and drugs is giving them a reason to run around acting like a heathen (damn!)/I’m still in B’more, so yeah, I’m still believin’ that wack rap cats’ll fall back (and) stop speakin’”
Not even half way through the first full-length song on this album and I was sold. You’ll see their name and think “okay, they’re a spiritual group because they feel that God is illa (iller) than all.” While that may be true, being spiritual or even Christian is not the running theme. Now others might be saying “aah, just like Ol’ Dirty Bastard once said, the black man is God, so does that mean that these guys feel that being a self-proclaimed God is iller than most, and if so, more than who?” Whatever the proper definition of their name is, what I do hear on Gods’illa: The Album is the kind of rhymes, flows, and production that brings to mind the best of groups like Heltah Skeltah, Originoo Gunn Clappaz, Smif-N-Wessun and Black Moon. In other words, there’s a sense of brotherhood and friendship that comes from being together for a few years, it doesn’t sound like a rush job or something manufactured. Each of the guys have distinct voices so it’s not like you’ll hear this and go “now is this verse from the same guy I just heard rhyming for the last 45 minutes”, I myself like hearing individuality in their deliveries and I do hear it here. As they say in “Glaciers”, it’s all about blasting “verbal shots” because they may be “slaving for paper” due to the fact that they still have to be grinding in order to survive. They are willing to fight in order to make a living, and that fight is done in the means of writing intense lyrics.
With that said, don’t expect them to come off as 24/7 street soldiers or anything like that, they do manage to have a bit of fun and spirit in a Pharcyde sense, but also don’t take that to sound like they’re rhyming nothing but jokes in high pitched voices. There’s just an attitude that I like because it sounds as if they’re all in the same room, making smirks at each other, and going “yeah, I wanna out do you for the love of what we as a collective represent.” When you have special guests dropping rhymes with Acem, Truth and Powerful, they become a part of the family too, it doesn’t sound like any of them are trying to 1-up on each other for the sake of future credibility on their resumes.
Gods’illa will hopefully continue to do what it takes to get themselves heard, but I hope this i no way diminishes the united spirit I hear here. They sound hungry, and that makes this even more of a vicious attack on the senses, as the verse I quoted above shows. What’s the time? Yes, it’s time to get Gods’illa.
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This Is Book's Music 