Every now and then the world of rap needs a collective slap in the face from its predecessor hip hop. Maybe even a less volatile breath of fresh air from the good old days wouldn’t hurt either. In the words of newby Joell Ortiz hip hop is Carhart jackets, Timbaland boots unlaced, Champion hoodies, chicken wings, and French fries! In the infant stages of Joell’s career he is already proving himself capable of spitting up there with the best of them which has led to Aftermath’s acquisition of the undrafted free agent MC from Brooklyn. Unfortunately for the world Joell’s mainstream debut won’t come until later this year, or next year, or at least sometime before 2012, depending on the good Doc. But thanks to Joell’s already swollen underground presence the streets have demanded The Brick / Bodega Chronicles and Mr. Ortiz has indeed delivered the precursor to his as yet untitled Aftermath collection.

Joell opens up the album in a blaze on “125 Part I (The Bio)” by coming out and rapping in third person for about five minutes with little to no hook. Mobb Deep affiliate Big Noyd shows up on one of the album’s standout cuts “Night In My P’s”. Joell spits with the fire of Big Pun and the clarity of Fat Joe on “125 Part II (Fresh Air)” where he intricately spits “He’s kinda heavy, he’s gonna be hard to market/ plus he’s Latin is that who he’s gonna target/ so I’m big so was BIG so is Big Pun/ and you know like I know that you know that they both victims”. Joell celebrates the roots of our culture with his first single and should be rapper’s anthem “Hip Hop”.

On “125 Part III (Connections)” Joell does just that and enlists the help of Ras Kass, Stimuli, Graph, and Gab Gotcha to make the third installment equally as pleasing as the first two.Joell spits about the upsides and the drawbacks to being a light brown skinned MC in NYC and throughout the world on “Latino”. On “Block Royal” Joell jokingly spits about enlisting help from Akon to make a hit, a few songs later that joke becomes a reality with “Keep On Callin”. However Akon’s presence doesn’t necessarily equate to a hit for Ortiz. Production-wise “125 Part IV (Finale)” is the lowest point in the four part mini series but Joell makes up for Frank Dukes board woes with his leather like reality lyrics on the album’s closing effort.

Joell Ortiz’s initial effort though it’s only a warm up proves that real Hip Hop still lives in the streets of America. Most of the production on this effort is rather dry but with assistance from the greatest producer of all time Joell will surely deliver a more sonically pleasing effort next time around. With The Brick / Bodega Chronicles Joell displays his elongated word play skills and a raw lyricism that has not been stressed in our music as of late. Of course those of us under 20 will have a difficult time digesting a real gimmick free rapper but those of us who have been around the game for a while will definitely be salivating at the release date for Ortiz’s Aftermath effort!

VERDICT – 12 / 20
LYRICS: 4
PRODUCTION: 3
DELIVERY: 2
CONSISTENCY: 3