Review Summary: For it's flaws, this album is genuinely gritty and edgy. Insane sounding for hip-hop in the year of 1993 and highly influential to current day. An underappreciated Horrorcore pioneer's (imperfect) masterpiece.
Honestly, a bit long-winded and can get tired sometimes because Esham often doesn't extent outward from subject-matter about killing or ***ing, but something of his has got to get a 5 from me and this is his best record in my opinion. His previous 2 albums (3 technically) are full of lo-fi bombastic beats that are loud as ***, even compared to Bomb Squad stuff happening around the same time and this tames it down a bit, but it's still ahead of the curve by SO much. You can trace pretty much any rapper from Michigan (who doesn't do scam rap, obviously.) as well as horrorcore artists back to Esham.
Gravediggaz and Three 6 Mafia may of pioneered horrorcore but Esham built the city on top of that foundation and pretty much invented whatever the modern equivalent would be of for that genre. The beats on this are insanely structured with genuinely creepy atmosphere, full of weird samples; some of which are some pretty classic ones interpolated in completely different directions and overall showcasing Esham putting his foot in the game in a risky bold way. Where Esham's rapping lacks, his production makes up for it 10-fold. The humor on this is edgy, but it holds up to a lot of internet-era stuff that would be done today without the cringiness of something like Filthy Frank. This is maybe the most absurdist-indulging horrorcore record to exist and that's a hard thing to narrow down. This is like if Cannibal Corpse made boom-bap hip-hop, I can't wax poetically enough about just how influential this and Esham as a whole is. Not to mention he was only 19, 18 when Judgement Day dropped, and 17 when Boomin' Words From Hell dropped (which pretty much revolutionized what we would know as modern horrorcore now.).
There's probably a few skips here but 97% of this project has that pure classic quality to it.. A lot of it even sounds fresh for current times despite the Beastie Boys/Rakim type flows. What Funcrusher Plus was to indie hip-hop KKKill the Fetus is to Horrorcore hip-hop. It's a shame how Esham has sort of been forgotten to time, almost never being credited among the pioneers of this genre like Three 6, Getto Boys or Gravediggaz. Not to mention everyone from Eminem, ICP, and Kid Rock bit the *** out of Esham.. Even admitted to it and somehow ICP was the only one to actually properly give him his flowers. You wouldn't be wrong for solely attributing his downfall and later shenanigans to drug-usage but I think it's fair to say you'd go a bit insane too if everyone ran with your foundational sound and never gave you a single ounce of credit for it.
It's hard to imagine but this is what ICP would sound like if they were good. A very flawed 5, but this deserves it for being so ahead of the curve for me personally. If not that, more respect needs to be put on this man's name at the least. A lot of the "edgy" groundbreaking hip-hop we have today would not of been possible if not for Esham.
