By Ahmad Awadallah

The West Coast has fallen on hard times on a mainstream level, but they have been thriving on the underground circuit for years with collaborative groups like Drums & Ammo. Their new EP Vol. 1: Extra Clip serves up a mix of different sounds ranging from Rock, New Age, R&B and Hip-Hop. But then what do you expect from a group that consists of four unique producers?

The West Coast foursome appointed some of the hungriest Bay Area rappers and despite their ability to spit, none of the rappers possess anything special.  The album is definitely worth a listen, but it’s hard to find anything worth repeating.

The record gets-off to a rough start with the Ammbush-produced and rapped track, “Keep it Lit.” The beat’s slow-tempo, high-hat cymbals, and bizarre synthesizer effects clash horribly and to make matters worse, Ammbush’s flow and bars are way below par.

Vallejo rapper Top Kat blesses the 6Fingers track, “Now.”  The record is so hard and its sound spews Hip-Hop with brolic drum machine notes. Top Kat fits well with the track and his wordplay is also on point with bars like, “Flow that overlaps extremely well/knowledge reigns supreme/busting down my brain cells/calluses on my hands read like brail/and the survey says that this emcee can’t fail.”

R&B artist, Rae Rosero, stops by and blesses the Al Jieh tune, “Addicted.” The track is a nice breather from a host of hard-hitting songs on the EP. Rapper, DaVinci, adds ruggedness to the soft soulful track. Rae’s suaveness and DaVinci’s raw energy complement each other beautifully and it definitely takes the slot for the best song on the album.

Another bright spot is the Rel produced song,” And We Mobb In That” which features rapper Bambu. The song has a New Age flair, with meshed, strong handclaps and cymbal notes. Bambu goes hard on the beat, but the track is only two-minutes long. There are tracks on the EP with weak production and poor rapping that are much longer. It would have been good to hear Bambu flow a couple minutes longer on the healthy laced track.

Vol. 1: Extra Clip was listenable, but there aren’t any real gems on the EP. It seemed experimental, especially with the peculiar beats and the selection of rap rookies. The album certainly introduces any unfamiliar listeners to D&A’s unorthodox style. One thing that can be said about the foursome is that their sound is globalized despite their strong West Coast roots.

  2.75 Out of 5

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