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While I've been kept thoroughly busy by the barrage of mixtapes that have been dropped in the past 48 hours, here's one that I actually got to peep out a bit. Comin' from our new favorite bean town emcee Termanology is "If Heaven Was A Mile Away". Term provides one of the most consistent Dilla tributes ever while at the same time services his own needs, showing off his laid back flow over tons of Dilla's best beats, simultaneously releasing a good "rebound" project after his debut LP was met with only luke warm reviews.
Right away you notice just why Term would undertake such a lofty project. Despite what any naysayer might proclaim about it, term's flow sounds on point over Dilla masterpieces. Maybe it's the overall tonal qualities that just blend well, maybe it's the particular Dilla beats Term chose, any way you slice it, the fact is that no matter your opinion of Term himself you can't deny this tape's bump worthiness. Whether attacking the addictivly soulful "Dollars Circulate" or teaming up with Joell Ortiz, Sheek Louch, Freeway, Bun B and Saigon for "Say It", (one of my fav. collabo joints in recent memory) Term jumps things off very well and every one of the first 4 tracks should instantly grab ya attention, like they did mine. Moving into more synthy, classic Dilla'esque territory with "Spazz Out", "Down With The King" and the ill Justus League/Little Brother collab "Pay Jay", this is the point where I realized that Term had really done his thing on this time around. Bringing in his ST. The Squad crew for a number of the tape's better efforts that succeed in getting you amped up, Term delves back into Dilla's never ending treasure chest of classic and soulful instrumentals. The Smif N Wessun assisted "Enemies" goes down well and leads in perfectly to Chi King and Term straight destroying "Movie Clip", a nice concept track over a classic beat. Rounding things out beautifully the tape finishes with Term and some of his ST brethren kicking realness over the jazzy horns of "Boyz On The Ave" and then a ridiculous bonus track that finds two of 08's illest emcee's in Skyzoo and Reks rhyming over the amazing beat, cuts and overall just sounds of Dilla....damn...we missin' him still.
"If Heaven Was A Mile Away" explores many of Dilla's best offerings and does well to show that Term is a true Hip-Hop head in honoring his [Dilla's] never ending legacy. While I fully applaud and co-sign creativity like this there are a few joints on here that I didn't exactly think mirrored the rest of the tape's high quality and that I felt Term got a lil' lazy on maybe....*cough* "Only One Can Win" *cough*. Be that as it may, I'd rather focus on the good here, stuff like the incredibly dope "She Want A SuperSTar" joint.....man, I can't tell you how long I been waitin' for someone to freestyle over that jawn man. Don't get me wrong, the original with Busta and Rah was tight, but I love when shit gets re-visited and not to be disrespectful, but Snuk and Easy Money did they thing on that man, real talk, those story telling verses were well written and well executed. Term definitely has some talent in his "ST" stable.
All I ask of up and coming artists and cliques is to just be yaselves and make the music you ordinarily would, even if you wasn't signed, didn't get an advance and was out on the grind in ya hometown....just give us the real and you won't ever need to feel bad about nuthin'. "If Heaven was A Mile Away" is a prime example of all of those things and really a whole lot of other artists and fans need to pay serious attention. I've already checked out a few reviews/comments online for this and they ranged from unappreciative to downright jealous and ignorant. Many of which beckon for the bogarding of many of these instrumentals; beats that Dilla put out for the world to enjoy, time and again. Term has a right to those instrumentals as much as anyone else man, excluding the guys that really rolled with Dilla of course, be that Elzhi, Waajeed, Phat Kat, the bruthas from Slum Villa, etc., etc., but I seriously doubt any of them would ever try to tell Term to fallback on em'. The point I make here is that there are too many people comin' with all these sideways, "oh I wish someone else would done this project" type comments. SMH, that's just really irresponsible writing and observing right there. Term did his thing and while this wasn't a perfect ten, it was a pretty strong seven and a half, maybe eight and that's how you honor and respect a legend. He's no underground wonder, but he displays enough subterranean know how to successfully put together a dope tape, dedicated to the memory of one of the all-time greatest underground champions my generation ever knew and he did a good job. All you fog headed, envious few Chill with the hate and just take the time to ask yaself "What If Heaven Was A Mile Away"?
-BIG D O
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