Track Review: Pillz (602 Mobb) – ‘The Wake Of Dreams’ feat. Al-ly & Unique De’vine

I received this link through a tweet saying “If you appreciate real music, check out our new video.” Of course, I’m skeptical when people say things like “real music.” The term is a slight bit ostentatious, but, to a degree, I can still understand why people say that. With a world full of emotionless garbage passing itself off as music, when you get something with a little substance it’s easy to use the term “real” to separate it from everything else. But that whole “real vs. fake” argument is used so much nowadays that it hardly holds any weight with me anymore. But that’s a whole other topic, plus I know I’m reading WAY too much into my man’s words, so let’s just move on to this track.

So the first thing I noticed was the smooth production, which was a bit reminiscent of a 9^th Wonder style beat. It was nicely layered and very easy to bob your head to. I liked the different samples used, but I especially enjoyed the strings and keys they used. It’s the kind of beat that I could easily see a lot of MCs rocking over, so, as usual, I was really interested to see what these MCs did with it.

When the first MC, Pillz, came on I liked the way he rhymed over the beat. He has a decent flow with that almost singy cadence that people like Brother Ali and Slug use at times.  That being said, his rhymes didn’t really interest me much. Not saying he’s a bad rapper; he just didn’t really hold my attention on this track. After a few bars I kind of stopped paying attention to what he was saying and just focused on how he sounded. When the second MC, Al-ly, came in, I got the same feeling. Nothing was overwhelmingly interesting from him either. Again, he’s not a bad rapper. He just seemed a bit average. Nothing special about his flow or his wordplay, but he still sounded fine on the beat. The third MC was Unique De’vine. Unfortunately, I didn’t really get anything unique or divine from her. She sounded like a lot of other female MCs I’ve heard so I couldn’t find anything exceptionally good or bad to say about her. Overall, none of the MCs stood out as they were all on the same level to me. I actually thought the video was better than the song. What I mean by that is the filming and editing of the video was more interesting to watch than the song was to listen to. It was filmed in a pretty cool area and seemed to be professionally done. So they definitely have that going for them. Some people might gripe that the video didn’t seem to have anything to do with the track. Personally, I’ve never found anything wrong with a simple performance video (Metallica’s “One”, anyone?) so I was fine with that.

This is one of those times when I think that I’m not necessarily the best person to send a track like this to. Just based on my own personal preference, it’s a bit difficult to be completely objective when I hear a song with the sound that these guys have. I don’t want to sound like I think everyone has to be a super complicated rapper. I also don’t want to sound like I think that everyone has to go against the grain as far as their flow or the way they sound on a track. It’s just that I’ve heard so much music at this point that I really can’t occupy my brain with stuff that I feel sounds average. But that could just be me. Not many people share the fucked up space that my brain dwells in. To others, sometimes, if an MC just sounds good on the beat, that’s good enough. Not everyone is looking for an MC with lyrics you have to decode, an exceptionally unique flow or subject matter that’s edgy. Sometimes you just want a motivational track with some genuine words. This track could be that for some people. It just didn’t do anything for me. Maybe you, the reader, can take a listen and let me know what you think? Either way, I wish these guys the best of luck.

“Dreaming’s for when you rest. But when I’m awake I need to take a risk, until the world knows an MC in me exists.”