The 2nd Comin’

Description

The 2nd Comin’ is the sophomore and final album by the American hip-hop group Freedom of Soul, released on Brainstorm Artists International in 1994, manufactured and distributed by Word. The album was recorded by Bob Moon, Mark Rodriguez, and Gene Eugene at The Green Room in Huntington Beach, California; and was produced by Toon, Cut No Slack, PeaceFiveEightySix, and Sup. Mixed at The Mixing Lab in Garden Grove, California.

On Freedom Of Soul’s latest, ‘The 2nd Coming’, there’s no cartoon demonslaying, no particularly mind-bending verbal gymnastics, it’s not even blatantly evangelistic. Just DJ CArtoon and MC Peace Five-Eighty-Six laying down mad creativity with an east coast meets west coast flair. It’’s so unassuming (and, on a record company level, unpromoted), it would easy to miss.

Since Freedom Of Soul blazed out of the gate with ‘Caught In A Land Of Time‘ in ’91, Peace (that a police code after your name, chief?) and Cartoon have dropped the skits, re-emphasizing subtlety of lyrical and musical skills in a gospel rap fields increasingly dependent on flash appeal and spiritual warfare imagry as aural comic strips. And unlike an increasing quantity of mainstream west coast hip-hop, you can dance to their mess.

That’s most blissfully evident on «Never Changes», where sweet Crystal Lewis adds bgv’s over a smooth club-crossable beat. But don’t keep yer feet still to the title track (more about the Soul’s soph album than about Christ’s return, but that’s cool) and the hardcore/soft sell conversion testimony of «Home» (with another Richard Pryor sample).

Elsewhere, the guys can just kick back on «Dusk ‘Til Dawn», a posse cut involving SFC‘s Super C and an unusually subdued T-Bone. Where that’s smooth, Peace’s denunciation of rappers who sell out for fleeting fame gets down ‘n’ dirty on «How Much It Cost?»

Even on an evangelistic plea like «Sooner Or Later», Freedom Of Soul exude an air of toughened friendliness closer to Lord Of The Underground and MC Breed than many of their Christian contemporaries. A ‘2nd Coming’ this righteous deserves a third in shorter order than the time between this one and the last. [Jamie Lee Rake, Syndicate # 41, 1994 (Vol. 9, Iss. 5)]

> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-2nd-comin/634579795)

CD tracklist:

01. The 2nd Comin’ – 4:52
02. Home – 3:44
03. Dusk Till Dawn – 3:34
04. Sooner Or Later – 4:16
05. Not This Record (feat. Brainwash Projects) – 4:30
06. Untitled (Hidden Skit) – 0:06
07. Never Changes (feat. Crystal Lewis) – 5:00
08. Soul Swinger – 3:28
09. Sonshyne – 4:02
10. How Much It Cost? – 4:28

Note: Simultaneously released on cassette and CD by Brainstorm Artists International.