Being a librarian, one of the things you learn is never to judge a book by its cover so when I talked to Ambush Vin about his new album Tales From the Multiverse Volume 1, it was clear we had a good dialogue going about rap music and hip hop in general. Everyone knows that I tend to be in favor of music that stays true the roots of hip hop and does not cater to the bubble gum crap rap I hear on the radio. I am not a fan of the path that rap has taken over the years because these days when an artist comes out the beats are tight but their lyrics can be best described as a dead skunk that died in a toxic waste cesspool and the gods of hip hop weep at what has become of one of the most innovative genres of music. But sitting back talking to Ambush, it was clear that hip hop is not dead with his music.

As we chatted he talked about how nerdcore tends to be reluctant to branch out beyond the nerdcore community to expand the network. To quote Ambush, “Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell did a good job of bringing the style out there. But it’s hard for our artists to get out into the mainstream because of what the hip-hop game has become.” You cannot argue with that kind of logic. When getting into Tales From the Multiverse, it is apparent that Ambush understands that we cannot stay in our bubble and not expect rap music to evolve. Listening to this album it had a true hip hop feel with some nice percussion, bass, jazzy undertones with strings and a bluesy feel that holds true to how Ambush makes his music which is giving you a good product but remembering it is ok to step outside the box and venture into something different. I enjoyed the track Samurai Sunday featuring Aramis and Tekforce. I felt like I was a wondering samurai traveling the road of life and putting my Katina to use where it was needed the most. Ambush has shown me so much depth in his music even with Order 66. I found it to be transcendent with grimy but a futuristic spin on trap music in a sense. I loved the imagery in this song which id definitely worthy of a Jedi master who is beating down a Sith lord in a lightsaber duel.

The reason why this album is so good is because as I stated the conversation with Ambush was informative and we talked about that it is not necessarily that music that has changed, but an MC should be able to adapt their style to fit the times, so that means an artist who refuses to rap to a trap beat, should check their ego at the door and do what they do best which is rap and considering that some artist are so talented it shouldn’t matter if it is a trap beat or not just find what works and kill it on the M-I-C. Because of this, I’m giving this album a solid 9 out of 10. My only hang up was I wanted more tracks from Ambush due to it only being 4 tracks, but that’s because I am greedy and enjoy the lyrical soul food he’s serving up on his tracks. To hear and download his album for FREE, use the player below or click here.

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