Making his site and industry debut is the rapper based in Charlotte, North Carolina, King Calis. Callis' first official project is titled Brunch (Food For Thought), and his fifteen-track project should put him on all new listener's radar.
In terms of King Callis' actual ability to rap, let's just say he's got the goods. Callis is a new name, but you wouldn't know it by his confidence and swagger that he brings to each and every verse. This is not to say that every line he spits is gold, but he does have a mature and somewhat polished sound, which is rare to hear on an artist's debut project.
What makes Callis sound so developed is his delivery. This is one of the most crucial, as well as the most overlooked aspect in a rhymer's arsenal. Though, Callis does it with ease as he continuously adds the right emphasis on words, or stresses that certain syllable in a word to make a given line really stand out. So kudos to Callis for excelling in something most listeners wouldn't even think about.
To speak on his lyrical content, Callis is sort of all over the place. He teeters in and out of the cliche' rap subjects, to conscious and thought provoking rhymes. While I personally don't care much for the cliche' rhymes, this does make him appealing to a much broader spectrum of hip-hop heads. Additionally, King Callis loves to mention his crew within his raps. There is nothing wrong with this at all, in fact, this is more of an observation rather than a critique.
Speaking of a critique, there is one facet on this album that truly hurt the listening experience, and that was the addition of a project "host." For those unfamiliar with what a host does on a hip-hop project, they simply are featured talking on the tracks and kind of throw out the rhymers name and such. On Brunch, the host is a female that goes by DJ Daz, and by no means does the problem with the host arise because said host is female. The problem is simply that there is a host. It's fine to have someone speak on two, three, even four tracks, but to have a constant voice before and after a good portion of the tracks is just too much.It hinders the listening experience and takes away from the fluency of the album. This may just be a personal gripe, but other than this, I saw no problem whatsoever with the vocal content on Brunch.
To quickly touch on the production of this album, it could be said with great sureness that any fan of the 90's hip-hop sound should take a great liking to Brunch's smooth boom-bap flair. The beats come from a number of producers, but Callis did a commendable job at selecting beats that had common similarities, giving this album a great addition to its final sound. There's nothing too out of the water to say on the production work, other than the fact that its thematic, cohesive, and really compliments King's vocal talent and ability.
Lastly, even though album artwork has nothing to do with the actual music, it is often an overlooked aspect in the indie hip-hop realm. King Callis, however, wanted made sure that his first full-length had some aesthetically pleasing artwork, and although I'm no art expert, I can still say that this album's cover is pretty freaking cool! Now go give Brunch by King Callis a listen, and be sure to comment your thoughts!
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