It's always exciting to see an artist begin to really fit into the niche they've chosen for his/herself. Prozak is a rapper that focuses on dark, brooding music with a morale. He wants people to take something positive away from his music, or at the very least, be able to relate to it. He's always had those intentions, but it wasn't until last year with the release of his previous LP,
Paranormal, that he decided he wanted to take his music completely in that direction. The result was a little rough, coming off as if he was trying too hard to make a personal connection with his listeners and ended up sounding not only generic, but a little preachy as well. His most recent work,
We All Fall Down, sees Prozak become much more comfortable with the style he chose, as well as improving on his technical ability.
As far as lyrical content goes, Prozak hasn't ever been one to say something he doesn't mean. He's quite the honest rapper, which definitely adds to his appeal as such a personal emcee. His lyrics are very straight-forward and easy to understand if you can keep up with his rather quick delivery throughout most of the album, which only makes him easier to relate to. Covering such topics as running out of time, feeling like there's no one there for you, not being understood, etc, everyone can find something in his music that they can connect with. He manages to come off as more sincere than corny, which, as proven by his previous album, is no easy task with subjects that are as beaten to death as the ones he talks about. It does help that everything he says is said with such conviction. His deep, gruff voice has more than enough power behind it to further demonstrate that he means what he says, and he wants his listeners to feel the same way.
This record contains three types of songs; the dark and ominous tracks, the somber tracks that make the album so personal, and the high- energy, rock/metal influenced tracks. Prozak's entire image is about being dark and scary, so he's definitely figured out how to make that kind of song work. Right off the bat, the first song on this album, "Divided We Stand", pulls off that creepy feeling so well. His voice and delivery fit perfectly with the production, which, in turn, fits perfectly with the subject matter. It's a match made in hell, if you will. As for the personal songs, like "Just Like Nothing" or "Before We Say Goodbye", he pulls those off pretty well too. His voice doesn't suit that kind of production as well, nor does he fit in with the more poppy yet catchy choruses from featured artists that a few of these tracks have, so it can end up sounding kind of awkward. However, those choruses are still perfectly fine by themselves, and Prozak's verses are delivered with such zeal that one tends to not even notice all the aforementioned issues. His flow is so unorthodox and unpredictable, and his rhymes transition so well into each other, it keeps everything interesting to listen to. You never know what you're going to hear next. That is, unless it's one of those songs with the rock influenced production. Aside from the track "Three, Two, One" (which is, again, saved by Prozak's verses) all of these kinds of songs sound so generic and uninteresting, but most of all predictable. There's not much variation in these songs, most notably with the track "Darkest Shade Of Grey". This isn't even really a hip-hop song, because the verses are sung, not rapped, with a Marilyn Manson-esque melody, and the chorus is nothing but a nu-metal riff with some angst-filled lyrics shouted over it. It's unnecessary, and rather boring to listen to.
Every artist has a period of time in their career where they haven't quite reached their full potential yet. Hell, some might go their entire career without reaching their full potential. Based on the strengths of
We All Fall Down, especially compared to Prozak's previous output, it's easy to tell that he's nearing the end of that time in his career. He's clearly a very talented as a rapper; there are no featured artists doing verses on this album, and he keeps it interesting the entire way through. If this album is any indication, he's going to keep advancing as a songwriter at a pretty rapid pace as well. It's impressive how short of a period of time he managed to improve on all fronts, even the ones that didn't necessarily need to be improved on.
We All Fall Down is an enjoyable album, but even beyond that, it's a sign of very good things to come from Prozak.
