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Conceived within the lair of Chicago’s legendary WHPK Wednesday Night Rap Show, the group known as Typical Cats deliver one of those rare hip-hop albums that hits hard in all aspects of the culture. Consisting of MCs Qwel, Qwazaar and Denizen Kane (Dennis Kim of I Was Born With Two ... > More

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Conceived within the lair of Chicago’s legendary WHPK Wednesday Night Rap Show, the group known as Typical Cats deliver one of those rare hip-hop albums that hits hard in all aspects of the culture. Consisting of MCs Qwel, Qwazaar and Denizen Kane (Dennis Kim of I Was Born With Two Tongues) and producer/DJ Natural, the Typical Cats album is a record that is nothing short of straight up hip hop, provocative lyricism, original concepts, and the raw energy you would expect from three of the most promising emcees in Chicago.

(from Amazon.com):

"Spawned from a Chicago radio station, the Typical Cats: denizen kane, Qwel, Quazzar, Natural, Kid Knish met -- forming like Voltron. From this album’s intro which features the vocals of Emily Chang (denizen kane’s fellow 2 Tongues member) to the crew’s finale in, "Thin Red Line", they come together perfectly.. with Dennis aka, denizen kane formin’ the head. Not only does he provide the listener with a hint of his poetic abilites, but he also comes through on guitars, "What You Thought Hops" -- the same guitar reprise used in the intro, but who cares, it works.

You like jazzed out piano loops? Here you’ll find some of the illest, piano laden intrumentals as the case is in, "Snake Oil". You want cuts? Well you are in luck because apparently he album’s producers, DJ Natural and Kid Kinsh do that too. On the albums primarily jazzy feel, former Blaze Battle contestant, Qwel, shows us how he rips it in, "Qwelloquiallisms". Meanwhile, Qwazaar comes off like a Chi-Town version of Rawkus Record’s, Pharoahe Monch. But as I previously stated, if these cats were really Voltron, it’d be denizen formin’ the head. In, "Snake Oil" his talent in spoken word becomes handy, where his delivery seemingly make his lines mesh perfectly with the tweedling piano in the background. In, "What you Thought Hops", denizen kane dispels all his critics, showing that no one will come between him and his love of poetry while at the same time comments on a prevalent issue afficting his community. "Are the 2 worlds I reside in, a high yellow phantasm/ of a undiscovered future, I am/ to bridge the chasm between my mother’s memory and my hazy present I/ so new languages outta the srcraps of my hand me down clothes..." later he spits, "...I can weave a family out the scarlet of the sin/ and write the world in which my seed will be at ease inside his own skin". Denizen, a socio-political activist in real life, realizes that music is not just a form of entertainment. Understanding this alone places him among the likes of Saul Williams, Mos and Chicago’s very own Common Sense.

Upon buying Typical Cats, I had no idea what to expect from this crew of four that created this album while getting blunted *one* summer. That must’ve been some good ganja because I’m lookin’ forward to hearing more of em. It ain’t just the herb talking though, because from start to finish each member’s skills come through crystal clear, only proving that their name: Typical Cats is really the antithesis of their skill the hip hop game."