I'm Awfully Sorry About This, But It Seems I Must Destroy You

In October, I wrote the following about 2Mex's then upcoming album, "2Mex is super prolific. What that means in practical terms is: more albums than anyone can keep track of, with no quality control. Will Strange Famous be the label to focus him into one solid, consistent album of pure top-shelf material? Or is 2Mex becoming the next Kool Keith?"

So, as you can surely gather from that, I wasn't in too much of a hurry to pick up the album and put it to the test. Being disappointment in this time of hip-hop's already dwindling expectations is no fun. But I finally got around to it, and I'm far from disappointed - this album is fantastic! Released at the end of 2010 by Strange Famous Records, it's called My Fanbase Will Destroy You; and considering my reaction upon hearing this, I guess I can't deny that I'm a fan, and so apparently, along with my fellows, I'm going to destroy you (sorry about that).

So to answer my own question simply, then: yes, this album presents 2Mex focused into one, solid consistent album of pure top-shelf material. The production, provided primarily by Deeskee and BusDriver - is brilliant. And 2Mex is proving to be one of the few underground (or any "ground") level MCs capable of great hooks. The way he eases between singing and hyper-kinetic complex flows is like what Outkast only manages in their very best moments. And lyrically, well, he's sometimes lays it on thick with the pop culture name-dropping, but he frequently kills it.

There's so many great moments on here... 2Mex breaking down the history of rare west coast underground hip-hop on "What You Know About," only to be followed up by a surprising east coast twist with a guest verse from Prince Po. A just-as-insane-as-you-could-possibly hope-for duet with BusDriver called "Career Suicide for Dummies." He even winds things up with the traditional, massive Good Life-style posse cut with eight or nine guest MCs for the final song, "AFC West."

I'll grant you that there is the occasional misstep... Guest producer Nobody delivers one of the most annoying, shitty beats in recent memory on "Press Your Luck." And "There's a Way," which is some kind of misguided attempt at crossing into the emo-folk genre or something, just doesn't work at all. But if you just skip over these two unfortunate messes, it's a surprisingly, strong, dramatic and engaging album with a lot of vibrant layers. Don't make my mistake and leave it dangling at the bottom of your to-do list, check it out!