Review Summary: “Tell me what I gotta do to get away from this hell.”
The underground rap scene was one that held a hardcore hip-hop revivalist approach during a time of commercialized hip-hop conquering radio waves. Artists like Jedi Mind Tricks and Immortal Technique paved the way in this niche of a genre.
Birth Of The Beast is the introduction of Beast 1333, an artist propped up to be the spiritual successor and the torch bearer of his predecessors. Beast 1333’s debut reveals itself as a record that places aesthetics over content. A record that showcases Beast’s qualities and potential but also blatantly exposes the issues with his songwriting and beat selection.
Birth Of The Beast is laced with skits of demonic tales while Beast’s lyrics give stories of secret societies and mass conspiracies. An underground rapper like Immortal Technique was known for his outlandish conspiracy theorist, Beast 1333 takes these ideals to even more absurd levels with claims of secret societies living in underground cities or the public being injecting with diseases disguised as vaccines. When not taken too seriously, these concepts add to the album’s personality and provides an interesting element that makes the experience of listening to this album, a memorable one.
‘The Biggest Secrets’ is a track where the rapper’s approach succeeds as his paranoid tales are only elevated by the truly haunting production. However, these stellar moments can be scarce as the production contains many symphonic samples that, to a flaw, match the outlandish lyrical content that Beast spews throughout the album. ‘Mark Of The Beast’ is exemplary of this as Beast spews about the same topic that is found through the majority of the album, all while over an exhausting and tired orchestral beat. These moments weigh down the record as Beast 1333 seems more interested in spreading his messages rather than focusing on his songwriting. Style over substance embodied.
The pitfalls of this debut are a shame, especially as the final third contains the best cuts on the record. ‘Dreams’, ‘Too High’ and the stellar ‘Final Farewell’ are where 1333’s most grounded lyrics become much more relatable. The subject matter on these songs remains dark with topics of drug addictions, personal sins and coming to terms with death. These tracks that contain his most sober and somber lyrics have production to match their mood with spacey, atmospheric beats. It’s at these moments that we not only get great memorable songs but also where we get to know the person behind the moniker rather than just Beast 1333, the persona.
Birth Of The Beast is an interesting debut that can provide a memorable listen but is unfortunately bogged down by the artist’s overambitious approach. When not highly fixated on spreading message of conspiracies, Beast 1333 shows that he can write some great content.
Recommended Tracks:
Final Farewell
Dreams
Too High
The Biggest Secrets
