by: Danny West

The Follow Up to Defining What Hip Hop Should Be.

Close to a year after singles from Alchemist’s second studio album, Chemical Warfare, began to surface, the album emerged as a devastating force in the modern world of music.

Chemical Warfare’s title track features the infamous Slim Shady, and while the beat and lyrics to match is nothing short of powerful, the minute and a half track hardly seems long enough for a collaboration between two of hip-hop’s biggest names and yet the track is so masterfully slipped in between the album’s first single, “Lose Your Life”, and “Grand Concourse Benches” featuring KRS-One that album listeners will be too consumed with prolific sounds to notice the track’s shortcomings.

Alchemist, one of the industries hottest producers, established himself in the 90’s providing tracks for the Terror Squad, Royce da 5’9”, Mobb Deep, and Pharoahe Monch, his success has continued to this day, only growing stronger in recent years with 24 production credits since the beginning of 2008.  Chemical Warfare, produced entirely by Alchemist, is the follow-up to 1st Infantry, released in 2004 which provided just one single, “Hold You Down” that topped at 95 on the Billboard’s Hot 100 list and The Alchemist’s Cookbook, a digitally released EP which is available on iTunes.  The increase in the number of singles on his latest album is proof of at least two things, Alchemist’s heightened popularity and, of course, a general increase in his talent.

With him, Alchemist brought an overwhelming amount of star power to feature on the album including Maxwell, Snoop Dogg, Three 6 Mafia, Twista, Fabolous, along with many, many more – again, proof of the artist’s fame and talent.  And while this album has remained relatively unknown, word of its hard hitting tracks is fast spreading with review after review singing its praises, though this is not to say that the album will ever, in terms of modern day culture, be labeled a success.

Today’s artists, voice synchronizers in tow, rarely put out anything worth a second play, sadly enough though, in the world of ring tone rap, for many Chemical Warfare may not get a first listen, much less the second, third and fourth it easily deserves.

Good music is seemingly a dying breed, but Alchemist and those artists that eagerly took part in this album are proof that there are still a great many talents out there devoted to giving us what we deserve, relevant music rather than the noise that clouds the radio waves. 

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