Review Summary: K. Sparks delivers an album of sophisticated rhymes and delivery, a talent that simply cannot be ignored in this industry.
Lyrical ability has always been an incredible component in the making of a great emcee. While some songs use simpler rhyme schemes that entertain us for the present moment, there are those among that title that choose to make use of other styles. Those more complicated flows and lyrical structures more times than not will lead to a classic production. We have to be entirely honest when approaching the Hip Hop genre though. A guy like K. Sparks was simply not part of the repertoire that my iPod had to offer a couple of months ago. I was looking through some respectable blogs and found myself upon this guy called K. Sparks and for whatever reason, I imagined Tony Sparks from Ironman getting ready to bust out the raps. This of course wasn't this case and I decided to get a live stream of the album just to see what I was dealing with.
K. Sparks is a New York native and if you know anything about Hip Hop you realize that "The Apple" is the great breeding zone of many great emcees. We could easily think of guys like Wu Tang and Jay-Z coming to mind so it is safe to say for the most part that it's important to keep a relative focus on the area in the upcoming years. You never know when their just might be a second coming of the golden era about to ascend from that area (one could only hope anyway). When I listen to the rhyme scheme of a guy like K. Sparks, I immediately draw comparisons between him and the lyrical complexities of people like Nas, Skyzoo and Lupe Fiasco. While many others could easily become part of this list, Sparks seems to embody the characteristics of all three in his rhyme scheme and the influences are really undeniable. You can see the positive message in an almost "Lupe" inspired influence in a track like "Sunshine" where K. Sparks maintains this need to draw a more positive view of life even though times might get hard (and believe me, for a lot of urban youth, this is certainly the case). I notice the Nas aspect too, that aggressive tone that almost descends into a powerful bombardment of rapid pace words flying over your head, almost as if Sparks has gone into a fluster of anger on a track like "Drummer Boy". While all of the Pajozo produced instrumentals on here sound nice, this one track really shines with a featured verse from fellow underground associate "JD". Finally, some of you who are more familiar with Skyzoo's work might get a little confused as to how there's any noticeable comparison there. Skyzoo sometimes descends into an almost philosophical debate with himself on certain topics and you'll notice that influence on the track "Everyday Struggle".
Together on this album "Tomorrow Today" the concept seems to approach a realistic concept that we all avoid throughout the day. We sometimes say, "Oh, I'll put that off tomorrow and deal with it next week" or "There's no real need to worry about that oil change today". At least from my perspective of the album, I feel that Sparks is dealing with an all too common problem in most of our lives in that we often put things off that should really be addressed at that moment. Let's take a look at the lyrics from the opening track "Welcome" and you'll see exactly what I'm getting at.
I’m addicted to winnin I’m bout to overdose
so get my good vein shoot it up lie robberies
dealers in the hood, corner stores and lotteries
K. Sparks has obviously take the social conscious rapping route, but what's so wrong with that? Of course you have to be in the right mindset to bump an album like this, but it really is a thought provoking album. K. Sparks delivers an album of sophisticated rhymes and delivery, a talent that simply cannot be ignored in this industry.
