CD Reviews

Trife Diesel | Better Late Than Never

Trife da Label (2009)

By CHRIS FARAONE | July 22, 2009

3.0 Stars

For anyone who best understands things in white suburban terms, hip-hop is similar to lacrosse. Much like the way that any able-bodied preppy chump can grab a long stick and play defense, any third-rate street thug with convincing anger can rock microphones. That said, just as it takes tremendous jockitude to make a star midfielder, such extraordinary curb poets as Wu-Tang affiliate Trife Diesel (formerly Trife Da God) pack more than just standard ghetto diction.

Although Better Late is being touted as the diamond-throated Staten Island rapper's long-overdue debut, Trife has scored plenty of highlight goals with guest verses alongside extended teammates, and with Put It on the Line, his 2005 duo effort with Ghostface. Better Late is agile — with didacticism ("Stronger Man"), autobiographical potpourri ("Better Late Than Never"), and even some good old Duke lax misogyny ("What Did I Do Wrong?").

Still, there's a clear difference between legendary buzzer beaters, like the Ghostface-assisted "Live Nigga Night Out," and shots that miss the net, like "Listen Carefully." Trife has an Ironman looming in his future, and given how long he's ridden the bench (besides which, he's far too strong an MC to suffer a sophomore slump), his hat trick might very well come next time he steps into the crease.

Mathematics | Return Of The Wu & Friends
As chairman, muse, and beatmaker for the Wu-Tang Clan, RZA casts a shadow big enough to shade all but a few marquee members of his extended family.
Rapper Sam Adams now on tap
Something equally remarkable and unprecedented happened this past week: a virtually unknown white Cambridge MC named Sam Adams landed in the top hip-hop spot on iTunes with his debut EP, Boston's Boy .
Slideshow: History of Guru and Gang Starr
Here is our salute – in photo, audio, video, and writing – to a Roxbury legend and the vast Gang Starr legacy he left behind.
Sleep | Hesitation Wounds
On the subterranean-rap-hustle manifesto "Get It," from his new Hesitation Wounds, Portland (Oregon) MC Sleep rhymes, "I'll murder a set. . . . I'm kind of a big deal, you just ain't heard of me yet."
Marco Polo and Torae | Double Barrel
Duck Down has reached beyond its Brooklyn-grounded rap roots in recent years, signing such acts as Kidz in the Hall and Boston's Special Teamz.
Busta Rhymes | Back on My B.S.
Increasingly surrounded by Soulja Boys and Lil Waynes, Busta Rhymes has of late taken on the look of hip-hop's Father Time.
Coolzey | The Honey
Coolzey is not the next big thing. Or even the next medium thing.
Man at work
It's easy to manufacture illusions of rap stardom. Any MySpace whiteboy with a few grand can fill a mixtape with big cameos, and for a little more, guests will even shout his name out. But though such pay-for-spray practices have kept established artists eating they've also compromised the organic dynamics that once pushed the genre forward.
The Big Hurt: Billboard Top Hip-Hop and R and B songs
This week, a jolly traipse through one of Billboard 's most artistically fecund charts: "Top Hip-Hop and R&B Songs." What wonders await?
Fresh Vetz | Vet Status
It's a bright sign for hip-hop when at least three promising subterranean sluggers ride flows comparable to that of the almighty Nas.
Two great flavors
"When I said that I wanted to use 'What We Do' as a single," Freeway explains, "people said it couldn't happen because it didn't have a hook. You know how the rest of that one goes."
Less

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY CHRIS FARAONE

THE TRIALS OF NADIA NAFFE | March 04, 2013
Young, attractive, ambitious, conservative, and black, Nadia Naffe should have been a right-wing operative’s dream.

HIP-HOP TRIVIA GROWS UP | February 26, 2013
In their fourth year of operation, the Hip-Hop Trivia squad is finally taking the night (somewhat) seriously.

OCCUPY DENIED DAY IN COURT | February 22, 2013
It took more than a year for Suffolk County prosecutors to come to their senses.

CZARFACE SOARS ABOVE THE CLOUDS | February 11, 2013
This week 7LES and Inspectah Deck drop Czarface , a full-length work of adventurous genius revolving around a metal-clad protagonist who feeds on destruction.

THE BPD ADDS INSULT TO INJURY | February 05, 2013
At times, this kind of decision makes you wonder whether the BPD is saving its best awards for officers who've been involved in the death of civilians.