If this guy makes more than a couple thousand dollars off this album, I hope he dies. That is, unless he needs that money for a kidney transplant in which case there’s a good chance he will die anyways. Perhaps the first recorded rural rapper (he claims to hail from Baltimore, but I am skeptical), Emcee Height is pictured on the back cover of his new album I Have a Gun standing beside the most placid stream, ever. So whereas others of his genre are in dark alleys dodging bullets, Height enjoys the fresh air in the sunshine far removed from any peril besides perhaps a foraging doe.
The problem is simple. He lacks the most fundamental elements: a steady beat and tight vocals. Instead the listener gets eerie sound effects and awkwardly spoken lyrics. “These rap songs last long like nuts hang/ And MCs lose blood out from these fangs/ If ya’ll need the jaws-of-life you can get them tonight/ This MC is Height,” he explains in his generically titled and poorly mixed “Rap Songs.” Coupled with these major faults, there are also minor flaws, which have earned this album the worst rating I have ever bestowed. I actually heard a phone ringing in the background on several occasions! He becomes so winded from rapping, he gasps for breath for what feels like minutes! Probably worst of all, he has 18 of these tracks! I hope daze is going to pay for my lobotomy, otherwise I will have to stick a clothes hanger up my nose until the memories are gone.
Archived article by Chris Kakovitch
Red Letter Daze Staff Writer