Marvel Mike – V (EP Review)

Today’s review features the new EP “V” by Marvel Mike, a hip-hop artist from Burlington, Ontario, Canada, about 45 minutes from Toronto. As the EP title indicates, this is his 5th release – “V also serves as a peace sign, as if to say “peace, I’m out.” Mike’s first album came out in 2005. This is a self-produced album.

So let’s have a listen …

The first track on the album Dub to Speed is a dub beat with clips from his prior songs interrupting the flow. Unfortunately, the clips are not mixed as well as the beat, so not sure this works as the artist intended. Would have liked to hear a vocal flow over the actual dub track. This track goes on too long at 4:50.

Worth the Wait starts with a shimmering electronic keyboard riff. Funk beat. I’m surprised I like the vocals so much. That’s always a good sign for a hip-hop album. And the rhymes reverberate. The sign of a teacher.  I really like this song. No wonder the artist chooses it as his featured track.

The Game features a sports theme, as the song’s title would imply. I like the rhymes in this song, which is all about athletes and sports. The Game. Nice flow to the vocals. I’m not bonding with the cheesy keyboard drum beat though.

The fourth track Now and Then features a soul type beat, loving the saxophone. The vocal flow is really nice, got to give props to the artist, has a nice voice for this type of music. The words compare the artist’s past life to his current family life. The music is very simple, but effective. I like the record skips used in this one.

Track five Globetrotter starts off with an airplane sound which leads into lyrics about airplanes. The vocal flow on all these songs has the same rhythm, I would have liked to hear a little more variability from the artist. I do think the lyrics, however, are really well-written. I like hip-hop that makes me think. You too?

SCORE/Good:  I really like the lyrics on this release. The voice sounds nice and that is a plus sign for this type of hip-hop album. I do think the songs employ the same vocal flow, just set to different rhythms. I also would prefer live drums to the programmed ones. Worth the Wait is a killer song, maybe should be released as a single. Much love, Beth

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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