Criminal Enterprise

I’d say it’s almost refreshing change when we get a production album out of Action! It’s so easy to forget he’s a beat maker when he keeps dropping ridiculous rap verses across so many albums! So in that sense this one gave a refreshing air about it especially when you pair that with the iconic name he has paired for the rap section! So I think it’s time to talk about this exciting offering!

This is the brand new album by MC -Myalansky and Producer -Action Figure 973 with features from
-New Villain
-EricTheRed13
-Ki Bohiti
-Jamol Gasol
-Sayzee
-Con$piracy
-hound
-THEFOODLORD
-Heartbreak Julio
-Skit God Lukey Cage
-Killyshoot
-Primo Jab
-Figerson
-Jalen Frazier
-Pinnland Empire

A huge roster for a huge album! I guess you could say this is their own personal ‘criminal syndicate’ in action here!

Firstly, I LOVE the spoken word introduction to the album by Action himself! But excuse this extremely obscure reference but it reminded me of the PS2 game ‘Hot Wheels: World Race’ intro of that guy kicking the game off ‘racers’ on that massive monitor! I don’t know why but his tone, cadence and vibe reminded me of that which is double dope because I still love that game!

When we discuss the production side of things, we see Action incorporate a steady stream of minimal instrumentals that feature a variety of layers that help push the ‘less is more’ narrative across this album.
I mean we can take tracks like -Everyday We Shake Dice how it starts with those distinguished keys that help guide the song into it’s full fledged state that would later consist of skeletal drum patterns, subtle bass and those same keys but in a secondary layer we get these shimmering high pitch keys that re appear every 10 seconds or so to add some different texture and tone to the song!
This song is also littered with snippets of dialogue from what sounds like a movie! As well as some under the radar vocal melodies that work almost as a sequence between the different MC’s!

We have songs like -Exquisite Dinners which has this heavy classical interpretation that I loved. Whether you’re talking about that old school vocal melody that loops across the whole track! That’s accompanied by this distorted chord progression that appears and re appear in quite an eerie fashion! This one also has some subtle strings that glide gently across the instrumental! This beat kind of reminds me of something you’d expect to hear during the original ‘Bioshock’ game!

I actually loved the surreal and magical tone of the finale track. That intro (the first 10-15 seconds) was unreal. I loved the combination of long elegant chords and glistening keys! It felt like I was in some fantasy adventure story with mages and fairies, subtle and ambient in substance!
As the song fully develops we get this smooth and soulful instrumental that consists of more shimmering keys, subtle bass strings, droning drum patterns with the same fantastical rhythm that the intro had!
For such a raw and in your face rapper I found it quite the shock that this is the beat Action would use to end it on but the more I listen to it, the more it fits!

When we discuss the MC side of things we get into a man who has defined himself as one of the sharpest with the pen being part of the legendary ‘Wu-Syndicate’ along side Joe Mafia & Napoleon and he himself deciding to be the centre stage artist on this album speaks volumes for not just Action Figure but the culture itself because for all the younglings reading this Myalansky ain’t the one to fuck with and this album will remind you why!

First of all, i love how he blends the two structures of ‘in your face, rough and rugged demeanour’ with ‘elegant, thought provoking street poetry’ and combines the two perspectives into one masterclass consisting of multiple different performative angles, vocabulary flexes and straight old school penmanship and rhythms that seems all but out of touch in the new era.
One moment he’ll be spitting a reminiscent story full of past consequences and remorseful thoughts and memories and the very next it’s straight Ebonics and ghetto language while incorporating a brash and bragging attitude that he’s spent decades to earn!

I really fucking love the fact that he’s on this record with the ‘cream of the crop’ in the underground scene in what feels like a ‘let’s see how sharp my skills are compared to the current day’ situation and for the listeners at home it’s early Christmas!
Thanks to Action I can hear Mya wrap alongside cats like New Villain and create that comic lore theatricals while spitting dope bars back and fourth like flipping pages in the latest issue!

Or trading vocabulary blows with -EricTheRed13 in a blockbuster main event! Only to have to face a cat like -Ki Bohiti next?!
In fact, trying to stay calm while we get a triple threat between Mya, Sayzee AND Jamol on the same cut? Is anyone else not freaking out over that? Three lyrical titans showing us potentially their best work in YEARS over this beat!

Man, for me personally hearing Myalanksky rock it with Heartbreak Julio was a fever dream moment for me. don’t get it twisted shoutout to Lukey Cage I’ve fucked with him since last year as well but Heartbreak has been CRUSHING it lately and the fact he could actually hang with a member of the Wu-Syndicate was absolutely unreal and goosebump worthy!

It was so refreshing to hear Primo Jab on this track! One of the most underrated lyricists in the culture today and he proved himself too with Mya in an impressive showing of bars back and forth! Same goes for the titans of Figerson and Jalen! Two cats I fuck with heavy! Of course the rest of the names were recruited for a reason and they shined bright also but for me those mentioned were my standouts!

Look, this ain’t rocket science (I know if I say this enough some nerd will eventually DM me, well I am a rocket scientist and this..) but until then this ain’t hard to understand! ACTION on the beats, a legend in Myalansky on the mic and underground’s FINEST on the features. If you need more convincing than that then with all disrespect this ain’t for you!