By Odeisel

Maffew Ragazino Sr. Has been giving the business to mics like Nike over the last 12 months. All that work has coalesced into his first full-length album, Rhyme Pays, an album full of robust production and credible emceeing.“Blaxploitation” opens the album with frenetic 70’s chase scene energy. The Frank Dukes’ production has all the guitars and brass to have Shaft shaking down junkies for info. Maffew has his mind on success with respect to the street struggles that put him in this position. Vinyl Frontier (awesome name) lights a fire under Ragazino on “St. Maffew,” interspersing bursts of choir crooning throughout the bars and extending it on the breaks. The crisp track is headnoddingly delightful. Maffew brings heavy artillery, declaring, “You can’t fuck with dude you don’t want no trouble, T Roy, they’ll be reminiscing over you.”

The title track brings a groovy, jazzy mellow. Producer Beewirks works a string and horn composition along with a funky bassline while Maffew touts the decision to pick rhymes over crime despite the hood influences around him. The very dope refrain sums it all up nicely: organized rhyme, I’m too sexy for jail too fly to do the time. Word to Right Said Fred.

“Funky Drummer” is chopped up with precision on “Black Sheep,” while Ragazino interpolates Rob Base classic “It Takes Two.” Some slick wordplay, a shout to The Wire’s Clay Davis, some blaring horns and a Craig Mack vocal sample perfect the package. The first hiccup on the album musically comes on “City of God,” featuring Rockie Evans and the Mad Stuntman; essentially a reggae-powered version of Jigga’s classic “U Don’t Know.”

The mood gets pensive on “Mama I Got Wings,” which flaunts a mellow, string-supported melody. It picks up on “Lord Please.” The G Productions track finds Maffew like so many people in the hood, halfway believing in God but faulty faith comes when the God as genie model doesn’t work. Where Ragazino makes things different is that he admits that perhaps that lack of faith and his movements against the Way of the Higher Power have something to do with his struggles. This kind of introspection is what separates Ragazino Sr. from your average emcee.

Angelic vocal samples and a steady pounding drum snare combo lights up “Ashes On My Block.” Maffew tells a tale of the factors that take the hood under. Producer A.B. lays down a rich environment for rhyme to grow and Ragazino and guest rapper Triple OG till the garden with care. Maffew’s son opens the Vinyl Frontier-produced “Yowzers!” The 70’s flavor returns but with a sharp, festive approach that fits the freestyle format of the record.

Sha Banger and A.B. Combine for the track “Million Dollar View,” that kind of aspirational mama-I-made-it song that lives on everyone’s first album. There are skyline views, yachts, and the trappings of good living juxtaposed against the nothingness of their youth. “Magick Without Tears” is delivered in third person and full of combating imagery with shouts to famed Satanist Aleister Crowley framed against running commentary from Louis Farrakhan. Hard rhyming is the name of the game on “Slumlord,” a rugged rhyme track that delivers on its own but doesn’t enhance the album. Action Bronson guests on “Jordan Vs. Bird,” a dope collaboration that, again, rocks but detracts from the overall album narrative. Both rappers deliver but it’s more a spitfest than anything productive.

DJ Skizz adds some gravity of the grimy, whimsically-titled “Jane Fonda.” Ragazino proclaims himself the greatest of all time and generally pops shit for the duration. “Blue Rubies” is possessed of that early Wu-Tang flavor with off-kilter production and deliberately opaque rhymes that sizzle with effectiveness. Dope rhyme schemes and connectivity smother this beat with much success. “Isis” brings the album to a close with the same flavor from the beginning of the album. Maffew Ragazino gets personal and invites us into his reality with an intimacy that speaks to his heart as a rapper.

Ryme Pays is an earnest record full of superior production a generally solid narrative and gritty, confident rhymes from the host, who manages almost an entire album without guests. This effort is to be commended. There are a couple songs that could have been excluded, and some elements from another Brooklyn emcee (at this point, who doesn’t have Jay-Z in their genes), but Maffew Ragazino ultimately delivers a strong debut that will number among the best in 2011.

Out of out of 5

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