There Is No Threat – Anonymuz Album Review

Track Listing

Sun Down
Feel So Good Part 2
818
Primal
Smoke
Fake Sh*t
Zion
Rxdical Forever
Saturation
25 To Life
No Threat

After years of toiling away in the underground scene, the hard-spitting MC from South Florida, Anonymuz, returns to the scene with There Is No Threat, an impressive album of American hip hop. Flaunting various tempos and orchestral beats throughout, There Is No Threat wraps everything up with a personal and dramatic series of lyrics touching on personal and societal issues.

The album begins with ‘Sun Down’, acting as a proverbial starter to the lyrical power of Anonymuz whilst weaving a hypnotic, melodic beat to accompany it. Counteracting this style is ‘Feel So Good’, a more commercially focused hip hop track which utilizes Anonymuz’s vocal range perfectly. From ‘818’ onward, the album increases in tempo, boasting a rapid tirade of lyrics delivered in venomous doses, juxtaposing nicely with the chilled, orchestral beats and driven drum kicks.

This all leads nicely into my favourite track of the album, Primal. This song in particular perfectly illustrates these contrasting styles and feels like the musical equivalent of fire and ice. The track starts out with a simple drum beat, following the same rules of “four to the floor” house music as Anonymuz fires off a pure inferno of rage with his lyrics. This suddenly screeches to a halt, dousing the rhythm with a more direct flurry of wordplay; the proverbial ice against the ice. All of this flows through to the last half of the album, swinging back and forth between these two contrasting styles before closing out on a high with ‘No Threat’.

There’s a lot to like with this album and some of that is thanks to the clever use of lyrics and intricate use of wordplay. Throughout the album this contrast between heartfelt, raw lyrics and orchestral backing tracks works surprisingly well and illustrates part of the reason There Is No Threat works as well as it does.

Of course, fans of Anonymuz’s previous material will find a lot to like here and the clever, poignant lyrics around societal issues and the price of success are prevalent throughout the 11 tracks. It may not be the best hip hop album released this year, but it’s certainly a statement of intent from the young rapper, continuing the trend of hip hop dominating the music scene right now.