Trobiz - The Beginning

www.myspace.com/trobiz
Location: Halifax, NS

Trobiz brings a solid sounding album, and after seeing him perform in Halifax with a full band including horn section, I get him. He's on that taking it back to the 70s soulful positive vibe tip. He's working toward perfection, but still has some steps to take. The choruses on this album stand out as the most solid part, always catchy, non-cliche and well supported. Trobiz has honed his beatmaking craft, and this album definitely displays that despite the occasional mainstream recycled sound. The only problem with this album lies in Trobiz's rhymes. So much effort has gone into each song, but the supportive lyrical mesh is not up to the caliber of which Trobiz is capable.

Politic Live - Adaptation

www.politiclive.com
Location: Edmonton, AB

A solid sophomore album from Edmonton's Politic Live. It's a diverse album fusing urban genres of reggae, hip-hop, r&b and soul, the latter two are in large part due to many female guest vocals. It manages to run the divide between mainstream and underground with solid production from the Mavericks team. A few songs are hurt by a lack of cohesion among the verses of multiple emcees, but solid choruses and beats usually make for a good cover.