'PRhyme' Album Review: A Short But Well Done Album

After streaming the "PRhyme" album VIA NPR's First Listen, it is revealed that the combo of DJ Premier and Royce Da 5' 9" is quite the success.

Royce is one half of Bad Meets Evil with Eminem being the other half and one fourth of Slaughterhouse featuring Joe Budden, Crooked I and Joell Ortiz.

Now, he has yet another supergroup to add to his resume as he teams up with DJ Premier to produce one of the realest pieces of hip-hop to hit the game in terms of old school beats and raw lyrics.

Premier channels Adrian Younge's instrumentals to enhance his mixing and create art.

In the opening track which shares the title of the album Royce evidently sets the tone for the entire album by utilizing his witty verses and blunt delivery to warn fans and rappers on what the are about to hear. Though the majority of the album is filled with features it takes absolutely nothing away from what Premier and Royce was trying to accomplish.

The duo didn't need an enhancement from other artists to make their album better and the solo tracks are proof of that.

However, "Dat Sound Good" is a marvel of a track featuring Ab-Soul and Mac Miller. Soul and Miller are young but very accomplished lyricists at their young age.

The beat is classic Premier and Soul and Miller give some of the best verses fans have heard since their latest projects respectively.

Being featured on an album of this magnitude speaks a lot to their talent and they did not disappoint on the track.

Other features include "You Should Know" featuring Detroit's Dwele who lays down a few soulful lyrics for the track. "Wishin" is another track with a feature as Common graces this track.

"Wishin" is right down Common's alley.

Common is an old school rapper once considered to be underground before breaking into the main stream.

The Chi-Town rapper made sure to tap into some of his best to help enhance the track and give it a freestyle-feel; slowing it down before Royce jumps in and demolishes the track further.

"To Me To You" features Jay Electronica, an artist signed to Jay Z's ROC Nation label. He generated a lot of buzz in years past and began to resurface after being featured on Big Sean's "Control" track also featuring Kendrick Lamar.

The song is smooth and is a nice break before things heat up in "Underground Kings" featuring ScHoolboy Q and Killer Mike.

"Underground Kings" is a hard-hitting in your face hip-hop song and the two artists chosen couldn't be any more perfect. Q is a member of "Black Hippy" alongside Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Jay Rock.

Yet another supergroup member branching out to help Premier and Royce create a masterpiece.

If that wasn't enough, Killer Mike who is half of the group Run The Jewels alongside El-P is also featured on the track.

Run The Jewels is know for their hardcore rhymes and Mike was a perfect fit for this song.

The closing track is a feature with Slaughterhouse, who were originally supposed to be on the entire album according to NPR. Each member lays down their verse in their signature style to add some more diversity to the features.

Premier also worked with Slaughterhouse when he served as the house DJ for the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher.

All in all the album is authentic hip-hop from the features used to Royce individual lyrical efforts. It was skillfully put together and Premier and Royce along with Adrian Younge all deserve some pretty heavy credit for this album.

If there is any criticism that can be given to this album, it would be simply that it is a little too short.

All of the tracks were so good that hip-hop fans might just want a little more out of it. Either way, there is no getting past the fact that the album is well done.

Fans can head over to NPR's first listen to hear the album before it's release next Tuesday, December 9.