Kong - Shackles Off

http://www.mediafire.com/?vq4mm3ijm2cddy3

1. Intro
2. Pure Poetry feat. Kandee, Ikon 
3. Babylon feat. Megalon, Spiega, 5th Element 
4. Broken Safety feat. Spiega, Ikon 
5. Weasal feat. Spiega 
6. It's Official feat. M.F. Grimm, Gabarah, Spiega, Ikon, Monsta X 
7. Shackles Off feat. Nhguav Rotkiv, Spiega 
8. Who 
9. Lifted feat. Gabarah, Monsta X 
10. Brown Eyes (Skit) 
11. Endless Nights feat. Gabarah, Monsta X, Ikon
12. What Had Happened Was
13. Ultimate Sacrifice
14. Slumz (Skit)
15. War feat. 5th Element, Spiega
16. Hated feat. Gabarah, Monsta X, RAVAGE
17. Blood feat. 5th Element
18. Red Tears feat. Spiega, Delilah

Kong, the rapid-fire, multi-syllable master of the MIC dropped his first solo album in 08 and was criminally slept on. the production is again classic NY underground, the always amazing Ravage the MeccaGodZilla handles 8 of the 18 tracks with the rest of the beats being done by various producers ive never really heard of (with the exception of Gabarah and Kong himself), I found it odd that X-Ray didnt contribute any beats but he does drop a few verses so its all good. Kong holds the album down wonderfully with his complicated verses but it is worth noting that at times he seems to lack energy and charisma, his rhymes would look very impressive on paper but he sometimes loses focus on some of his bars.

Along for the ride is partner in rhyme Spiega (my favorite MIC mc!) who contributes his vocals to 7 tracks essentially making this the MIC version of Raekwon's Only Built 4 Cubin Linx with Kong playing the part of Rae while Spi rides shotgun as his Ghostface counterpart. The rest of the guest features are the usual suspects and they all turn in fantastic performances, Gabarah especially seems to be begging for a Ravage produced album... 

One of the major faults of this album would have to be the songwriting itself, while Kong is an amazingly talented mc he's somewhat of a sub-par song writer, many of the hooks seem tacked on and honestly just are not all that engaging. Still fans of lyricism are sure to be impressed, Kong and his MIC brothers rip verse after verse with the technical skills that are sorely missed from hip hop right now, had the songwriting been a bit better this would have easily ranked among the best of the MIC releases. 

Overall 3/5