Royce Da 59 Death Is Certain CD

Personnel includes: Royce Da 5'9", Ingrid Smalls, Cutty Mack.
Producers include: Carlos "6 July" Broady, Ty Fyffe, Asar, DJ Premier, Mark Bassin.
Personnel: Ingrid Smalls, Cha Cha (vocals); Chuck Alkazian (keyboards, drums); DJ Premier (scratches).
Audio Mixers: Charles Roane; Chuck Alkazian; DJ Premier; Asar; Rob Tewlow; Carlos "6 July" Broady.
Recording information: Isolation Records, Detroit, MI; MPA Studios, Canton, MI; Nation Studios, Southfield, MI.
Photographer: John Hooks.
For an artist with only one full-length to his name and no substantial commercial success to date, Royce da 5'9" went through a lot of rap-star drama, enough to fill his second, Death Is Certain, to the brink with his thoughtful reflections. It's a very personal album, shadowed heavily by his much-publicized beef with the Shady Records camp. If you don't know the story, here it is in brief: once billed as the next big thing from Detroit, following Eminem's breakthrough, Royce went from someone to no one as his big label deal with Columbia fell through, followed by an ugly war with Eminem and company that culminated in July 2003 with a street fight that got both him and D12 member Proof arrested and booked with concealed weapons charges. Royce thankfully has moved on and put aside his beef, for the most part at least. There's not a pointed dis to be found here (sans a few subversive ones about someone whose "wife is sniffin'"), just a lot of well-produced tracks with a refreshingly optimistic outlook. In fact, Royce sounds a lot like Cormega circa The True Meaning (2002) -- a talented, once-hyped rapper looking to get his career back on track after a fruitless war that had unfortunately sidetracked him and left him empty-handed. Like The True Meaning, Death Is Certain is a solid, lucid album chock-full of personal insight and forward-looking. As such, it's cathartic -- Royce has a lot of frustration to vent, and he does so at length here, reestablishing his once-lauded credentials in the process: "Beef" and "Bomb 1st" are seemingly conclusive epilogues to his war with Shady ("I'm against all this name-calling sh*t"), "I Promise" and "T.O.D.A.Y" are humble musings of self-awareness ("Am I a young MC or a one-hit wonder?"), and "Throw Back" and "Hip Hop" are mission statements of integrity (the latter another on-point DJ Premier production). There's nothing lighthearted about this album -- it's dead serious from beginning to end, accentuated all the more by Carlos "6 July" Broady's chilly throwback beats, which grace roughly half the album. In the end, Death Is Certain is certainly an underground album for the heads, one that's intended to clear the smoke and set the stage for the big comeback. ~ Jason Birchmeier
After his much-publicized feud with former collaborator and fellow Detroit native Eminem, Royce Da 5'9" emerges from Slim Shady's shadow with his sophomore release, DEATH IS CERTAIN. With a notable lack of guest rappers on this album, Royce stands on his own two feet here, backed by arrangements courtesy of top-notch producers such as DJ Premier and Carlos "6 July" Broady. Given Royce's past difficulties with Eminem and the record industry in general, it's not surprising that the formidable MC uses DEATH IS CERTAIN to vent his frustrations with fierce wit and vicious wordplay. Although Royce is considered mainstream by most standards, he reveals a strong underground hip-hop element in his rhyming technique and lyrical content. Standouts include the self-assured "Hip Hop," the relentlessly catchy "Throwback," and the imposing "Gangsta," all fine examples of a performer hitting his stride.