Artist: Illnoize

Artist: Illnoize

Links: https://www.facebook.com/iamILLNOIZE

http://www.datpiff.com/RayisDude-Illnoize-Hockstar-Presents-PSA-Mixtape-Vol-1-mixtape.391820.html

Hockstar Presents PSA Mixtape Vol. 1 showcases the MC talents of Illnoize and RayisDude. These MCs are technically proficient with unique flows; but it's their thoughtful personas that make it natural they would share a stage.

First, RayisDude. It's been said that writers should never write about the jungle unless they've been there. When writing is not rooted in experience, it'll be a superficial rendering at best, while offering nothing particularly penetrating. For the most part, RayisDude gets this right. At his best, RayisDude rhymes in thoughtful observation about the crowd around him. On "Chicago's Got Talent," he breaks down Chicago's neighborhoods, "South side's always laced with cops / And while my neighborhood is worried about those people taking parking spots." Turning next to his cohabitants, "Allow the word to echo / But nobody's listening / They're stuck inside their headphones." And finally, to its heroes, "So I'm screaming Michael Jordan / Never God's name in vain / But he's the next best thing."

And because rappers on the way up are best measured by who they are, and whether or not they know it, it's promising that RayisDude's persona is locked down. On "Suicidal Hands," he admits to being a "middle class white boy." Fortunately, this translates to having only one foot outside the gutter (while watching Channel 9 News' Tom Skilling): While he pops a pill for breakfast, he knows it's slowly killing him; and though he'll never touch cocaine, he'd never judge others who do.

As for Illnoize, he has a voice for rap -- a cross between Andre 3000 and ASAP Rocky. And his rhymes are just as good. I'd venture a guess that the Allman Brothers sampled, never thought to boast, "Causing delusion / Crazy confusion / People need this like a blood transfusion / Colder than a bobsled luging" or "Make words so delicious like alphabet soup."

And when Illnoize isn't topping southern rockers, on "Rollin" he sets up hooks like "Different color pills / Make me feel golden / Seeing pretty lights / Flow like the ocean / Open up my eyes / And I see that I'm floatin'" with skilled verse, "I'm steadily approaching the peak of my prime...now I'm feeling inclined / To go find a girl / So we can both grind / It's only 4 am / I know I got time / But I don't have rubbers / And I don't want kids / And I don't want to tell 'em they were born like this." Same goes for "Nobody Knows Me": Illnoize prefaces the refreshingly honest hook, "You say you might have heard of me / But nobody knows me," with the credibly biographical, "Kid from the 'burbs / Never had to mask it / Only gun I ever shot was made out of plastic."

So let it be said that Illnoize and RayisDude are what's next in Chicago's alt-rap scene. (And their label, Hockstar Presents, has got its finger on the pulse.) Each is scheduled to release his own EP, but this mixtape should tide us over with its suitably chill instrumentals and ear-catching samples by the Allman Brothers and even the Bee Gees ("New York Mining Disaster 1941").

*** The author of this review, Scott Green, plays the candombe for the following band: http://youtu.be/tMS73-1kCr8