Representing for Sacramento, CA comes Crazy Ballhead (www.crazyballhead.com) with his new filler-less album, ‘On The Horizon Of Another Massive Takeover’ on his own Walking Razor label.  Bringing a cool laid back style to the microphone, Ballhead’s latest release is a fine example of the quality of the music coming out of the underground as he flows, seemingly effortlessly, over the smooth production.  There are enough good tracks here to make it difficult to highlight just one or two for special mention with the fine self-promotion of, ‘Ass Out (…Got My Back),’ the excellent “keep your head up” reality rhymes of, ‘Hello Mis,’ the head nodding, ‘Snakes’ and the more vitriolic, ‘Fuck Em All’ being just a few examples.  Bringing some real skills to both the production (Check the back-spinning on, ‘When It’s Finished’) and vocals Ballhead’s album, far from tiring as it heads towards it’s finale, actually seems to grow as it cruises through the 13 tracks.  If this album gets it’s rightful exposure, there is every chance that Crazy Ballhead will indeed be heading for that “Massive Takeover” really soon. -DJ SLIM
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The album is a hodgepodge of musical styles, often focusing less on danceable beats than on ambient sound and the kind of sparse percussion that makes bass enthusiasts drive slowly. Organic-sounding guitar on songs like “Hello Mis” and organ on “When It’s Finished” mix well with futuristic, industrial sounds that hearken back to Afrika Bambaataa’s sampling of German techno pioneers Kraftwerk. The pure funk of “Snakes”--possibly the most marketable track on the album--will take care of your need to boogie.

The lyrics on Massive Takeover range from traditional battle-style brags and jabs to overtly political rhymes. The latter are evident on “Modern Problems,” a President Bush-bashing jam that also tackles the problems of inner-city blight, spend-crazy poor people and racist cops. Ballhead also includes his own Sacramento anthem, “The Valley Rumble.” “In Sacramento / Yeah these people know us / because we got graffiti writers and we got the flowas! / We got the DJ’s, B-Boys / we got the fashion. / We got everything it takes to make it really happen.” He’s proud of his town and equally proud to have grown up during the golden age of hip-hop, as evidenced by his use of old-school musical influences and lyrical references to Dougie Fresh and Run DMC.

Ballhead produced the album independently and is distributing it himself, just as he did with his previous three CDs. He also combines efforts with other indie-music types, including Underground Cartel, a Scottish hip-hop enthusiast’s noble effort to bring together underground artists from around the globe. This association allowed Ballhead to take his first European tour last summer.
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Actually not that bad. First listen through it all seems kinda bland, but he has a message or something. The Star Wars, More Machine Now Than Man sample on track twelve is almost worth the price of admission. Almost. Good thoughts nice try, but when all is said and done the album is bean curd.  Probobly good for you, but i'd rather have a T-bone.
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