The Canadian/West Coast Hip Hop Veteran Moka Only provides the world with another disc (his 27th LP), a labor of lyrical love, presented in a box called the Lowdown Suite 2…The Box. Moka Only’s lyrics and voicing on the album is rhymensicent of Common circa 1998 and his soulful production is a reminder of the Philly neo soul sound that dominated the airwaves in the late 90’s. The sound is soothing yet very hip-hop. There is no doubt that Moka Only spent time combining ‘lo-fi sampling, mooding ambiance, and deconstructed beats’ and brings them to life effortlessly on this album. Here rhyme schemes are placed over rhythm and rhodes.

His out the box hip-hop records titles will grab you, such as ‘mothballs’, ‘lemon’, ‘fried rice’, and ’syrup’. It’s creativity like this that only groups like De La Soul used to get away with. And it is on such records that emcees like Bootie Brown of the Pharcyde, Kissey Asplund and Psy joins him.

Lowdown Suite is soulful and laidback. No modern day hook formulas reside here. Most of the tracks are like the old days of hip-hop when music was the hook, as jazz bars conversed with the chorus. But although vocal chorusing is present in ‘Clap Yer Feet’, one wonders where are the melodic hooks in soulful and vocally needed tracks like ‘Boohoo’.

At times the beat stays steady with the ear desiring tempo changes. And although there are 18 tracks of creativity, one questions if the content and tempo is so redundant, that the playlist should have been cut in half. Nevertheless, the album will make you appreciate artists like Moka Only, a rare veteran who hasn’t hopped on the trend train, but instead still gives audiences quality music on the low.

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