Hip-Hop Island

Brooklyn rapper Buckshot has always flown under the Hip-Hop radar releasing aggressive tracks, yet remaining voiceless in the main game. This time around he teams with one of Hip-Hop's founding fathers KRS-One on Survival Skills. A fitting album title since KRS-One teaches a thing or two to Buckshot who still seems amateur next to this legend.

Survival Skills falls short when it comes to having a point. A bunch of MCs grabbing the mic and lyrically flaming the stage with why they matter. KRS-One sounds typical and delivers what one would expect from the classical rapper. Even collaborations with Talib Kweli, Smif and Wessun, K'Nann, Immortal Technique and Mary J. Blige leave little to enjoy.

Buckshot's delivery is on point, unfortunately he and his peers are lyrically inconsistent. Wasting a lot of time trying to be relevant when in reality not one MC has said anything pertinent. KRS-One tries his best to help mentor Buckshot to the top, but Survival Skills is a beginner's level album.