The album has output from as far back as 1995 and not only do you hear the improvement in production and lyrical prowess, you also hear his voice deepen from an inexperienced teen to a confident man (pot smoking probably helped). If he is to explode, this will be the time for it to happen as his shit is the tightest it will probably ever be.

Classified, when not kickin' out some straight up hip hop beats, ranges from R&B to Reggae on the disc and brings in talent from his hood as well as highlighting the end of the disc on a track with Canadian hip hop pioneer Maestro.

Classified spits on a wide variety of subjects with hip hop being the most frequent. "The Maritimes" talks of stereotypical archetypes he tries to dispel by introducing the world to some of the big names in hip hop on the east coast. On other tracks he samples from artists outside the R&B and the hip hop world such as Hall & Oats, Steve Stills, Crowded House and even Canadian icon K.D. Lang.

The best song on the album has to be "Can't Stop," with Chino XL and Quake, as it has the best lyrical rhyme on the disc,"you supposed to be tough guy trying to look mean / nigga you fourteen / you couldn't out box Avril Lavigne;" although his humorous ode to the power of the ganja ("It's Sickening") with his brother emcee Mic Boyd is a high-light! Classified even give you an ABC of making a rap song with "Beatin' It."

If Hip Hop is to have some mainstream cred at all in Canada, Classified should, within the next little while, be talked about as a peer of other greats of the genre including Maestro, K-os, Rascalz ( MC's Red 1 and Misfit, DJ Kemo, Zebroc and Dedos), and Choclair. It's time for Classified and others like Cadence Weapon to take over.

• First
• 120
• 119
• 118
• 117
• 116
• 115
• 114
• 113
• 112
• 111
• Last