A-Diction – The Three Year Itch

A-Diction – The Three Year Itch

To be honest, there hasn’t been a whole lot of impressive local Hip Hop releases of late. With the exception of a couple blokes who have set radio waves alight, the majority of the scene has been unusually quiet. Maybe it’s because everyone is in the lab creating classics. Maybe. Hopefully.

Anyway, two MC’s who have been hard at work – Boltz and Breach, collectively known as A-Diction – are back with their latest release, The Three Year Itch mixtape. The fellas dropped an EP back in 2005, which was well received in the scene, and whilst Breach was travelling, Boltz dropped his solo album on Soulmate Records in 2007. And in preparation for the debut A-Diction LP (Walkin’ Alone), the boys smashed out this mixtape to whet the appetites of the people. And mission accomplished.

Hooking up with Formula Recordz and ditching the standard mixtape format, A-Diction have hit the fans with at least 50% original production from big names such as M-Phazes, Mules, Ciecmate, Doc Felix and more. That is quite a rarity in Oz as most folks would lean towards using majority industry beats due to the production costs, so big ups there. Also, for the most part, the industry beats used are blended with other ones to create a much more interesting listening experience.

Now it has to be said that every time I’ve heard a new A-Diction release, both MC’s have improved from the last one – with things like flow, lyricism and content. Once again, this has occurred, with Boltz’ honest and generally laid back style injected with a ferocity that hasn’t been heard from him thus far, while Breach’s punchlines are most definitely funny as shit while still flowin’ crazy.

Feature-wise, the boys roped in label mates Syntax and Choose Mics, G-Force, Doc Felix and Hungry Humans’ Raven, who delivers a ferocious verse, bringing out the best in both Breach and Boltz. Topically, A-Diction generally touch on more than the usual braggadocio and bullshit. ‘Memoirs Of A Skate Park’, helmed by Phazes, sees the fellas reminiscing on their youth and time spent on the decks; ‘The Lesson’ is Breach’s time to shine, speaking on the politics and bullshit in the local Hip Hop scene with surprising honesty and accuracy; ‘Raise Bars’ with Raven is the straight spittin’ track where all three MC’s get busy and flex, with Boltz showing and proving the most here with an impressive technical verse while the beat changed up for each MC, making things much more interesting; Mules comes through on the beat on ‘Back In The Day’, a topic which a lot of MC’s have touched on lately but the boys make it their own; and the self-piss take ‘Chose To Rap’ humorously explains why the guys decided to pick up a mic.

So all up, this mixtape is solid, with few missteps. Being a mixtape, you’d expect filler tracks but everything here seems as if it was well thought through and aimed at building anticipation for the upcoming album. Most definitely worth investing the megabytes for the free download, and stay tuned for the LP.

Down The Three Year Itch mixtape FREE here:
http://www.formularecordz.com/adiction/

(Formula Recordz)

-Cee-For.