Honor Killed The Samurai (studio album)
by Ka

Ka is the best poet in music, and the second best lyricist in hip hop. This is a top 10 album and the decade and I wish more people listened to it.

As it has already been pointed out multiple times, the album cover is so eye-catching it's impossible to ignore. It's not only about style, the samurai concept runs through the whole album both in a literal -that's obvious, I guess - and in a figurative - a warrior/artist who needs utmost precision while doing his thing if he wants to survive - way. It's an album I wouldn't easily recommend to someone whose tastes I don't know, because it's not the most accessible ablum. But if you get into it, it's a fantastic experience - and every time it seems even better than the previous, it just keeps growing on you. It's not an album you can just let play in the background and do something else, it requires your full attention and it unquestionably deserves it. The production keeps coming at you with unexpected twist after unexpected twist, so many unique and seemingly random sounds but in the end it all makes sense. And what to say about his rapping. At points it may seem like he lacks in energy, but that's his style and it fits the dark themes of his songs like a glove. The lyrics work both in one/two lines scale (for example the positive/negative antithesis "The harmony dreamin' had me constantly schemin' Rarely peace, and barely a beast, armed like a demon") and in verse/song scale ("Don't place win it, just no snakes in it, play the grass safely And trust every cut is nuts won't let 'em castrate me If happen to make cash, don't let the cash make me Regardless I'm a guarded artist, never graph hasty No fame, but became a favorite 'cause they know I labored That's when heart allow you market value, they overrate it That show is dated, slowly faded, could meet eternal Can battle hard against catalogs with one leafy journal Broke and filthy, innocence safe from cloaked and guilty Every session respectfully reppin', hope the 'ville see My civil aims - to get a little change and be still me Even if max bustin' back to dust, you can't kill sheep I need money"). There is nothing that even remotely resembles a weak track here, if you told me there are 10 equal tracks I would believe you, but if I had to pick a highlight it would probably be Finer Things / Tamahagene (if nothing else, it's the longest, so more time to enjoy!).