With Stoupe abdicating the studio, the responsibility for carrying the album rests squarely on the shoulders of Vinnie Paz and Jus Allah, MCs so terminally uncharismatic they make Black Thought look like Jay-Z. A crew of guest producers step in to stuff Violence Begets Violence with sub-Luger trunk rattlers and RZA knock-offs that are a lot less spooky than their portentous titles would suggest (I’d love to be at the show where fans heckle for “Willing a Destruction unto Humanity” or “The Sacrilege of Fatal Arms”). As much as his own powers have diminished since 2000’s Violent By Design, it’s immediately obvious that his departure from the group has left Jedi Mind Tricks without a distinctive sound. What’s kept the group running since 1996, and what’s made them hard for rap critics to dismiss, despite Vinnie Paz’s increasing proclivity for homophobic rants and macabre horrorcore rhymes that would probably make Tyler, the Creator queasy, has been producer Stoupe’s harrowing, RZA-like production style. Jedi Mind Tricks make music for guys who feel like smashing shit, and who have a vague sense that their desperation has something to do with the powers that be. The results are often stomach-turning and difficult to listen to, but it’s nonetheless easy to see why this kind of music would resonate with a certain class of disenfranchised urban men where Talib Kweli or the Roots wouldn’t. Jedi Mind Tricks have always taken an aggressive tact toward socio-political hip-hop, though it’s difficult to call their recent offerings “conscious” since they’re more concerned with grotesque expressions of anger. They are products of their times and these are bloodthirsty times.” That Jedi Mind Tricks choose to open their seventh studio album by quoting serial killer Richard Ramirez where they might previously have alluded to Gandhi or Malcolm X should tell rap fans nearly all they need to know about the 2011 incarnation of Philadelphia’s longest-running underground rap group. “Serial killers do on a small scale what governments do on a large one.
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