Artist: Sharp Skills
Title: Anno Rebelio
Label: The R.E.B.E.L. Firm
Release Date: March 27th, 2012
Reviewer: Josh Burkey
Tracklisting:
- Anno Rebelio
- Rebel Party II
- Business is Good
- How Bout It
- The One
- Fly With Me
- Earthquake
- Strength
- Lay My Life Down
- If You Try (Version Two)
In the Hip Hop culture, a lot of what makes a good memorable song is a good hook, with spitfire deliverance, hot lyrics and a decent beat. For the latest release from Sharp Skills, Anno Rebelio, the keys make it memorable one. I know what you’re thinking right now, I’m probably weird for saying this record is hot because of the keys. This is something that stuck out heavily to me. It’s actually a shame that his name isn’t as big as say Lecrae or KJ-52. This album is chucked full of a good amount of great beats, astonishing lyrics and, as mentioned earlier, spitfire deliverance.
The album opens up on “Anno Rebelio”, the title track, which contains haunting keys that make the 80s hair metal bands your parents listen to insanely jealous. It has a fan-friendly opening, only to be delivered with a powerful testimony and a lyrical road to redemption. The keys will keep you hooked, as this reoccurring theme in the record, whether it tries to be or not. The fun with the keys, doesn’t stop at “Rebelio”, it flows right into “Rebel Party II”. A song that demonstrates Sharp Skills inner KJ-52 or Rapture Ruckus. A fun song at best that unfortunately has an overplayed hook, that I’m not promising but guaranteeing will get stuck in your head for weeks after your first listen.
The first track to be released from this album is “Business is Good”, which is a song that at times comes off to be a little bit cocky of his skills as a rapper. I don’t know his story or his purpose for making this song so I can’t really judge his reasoning for writing these lyrics. However, the beat is solid and has once again breathtakingly good keys. However, his arrogance at times takes away from this song. Speaking of falling short on lyrics at times; you will also hear it on “The One”.
Tracks like “How Bout It”, “Strength” and “Lay My Life Down” make this album really shaped up to be an overall solid release. They all carry great deliverance featuring solid beats and fun keys that will make the listener dance, regardless of whether or not you like this genre of music. His intention was probably not to make the listener dance to tracks like these but that is the result. I give it to this dude; he knows how to make good beats and knows even better how to spit over them. “Fly With Me” is probably one of the most memorable tracks on this album. With the track features a female vocalist, mind blowing lyrics, and is borderline praise and worship don’t be surprised if it turns up in your Sunday morning service for worship. “Earthquake” is a song that is one of the different ones on this album simply for the fact that it features some solid guitar playing and one of the most epic closing instrumentals heard in recent hip hop culture. It sounds borderline cinematic to be completely honest.
OVERALL: This album is just all around good. There is literally not enough good I could say about this album! It’s very addictive to say the least. However, when you have the good; you have to have the bad as well. We unfortunately see that in “Business is Good” and “The One”. However, this album makes up for those two tracks by supplying you with passion on “Fly With Me”, cinematic keys on “Earthquake”, kingdom moving on “Strength”, party soundtrack songs on “Rebel Party II” and that’s just to name a few on this ten track album. This album is very recommendable. Anno Rebelio is an album that I hope people will be talking about as Sharp Skills starts to get his name out there.
RIYL: KJ-52, Rapture Ruckus, Lecrae, Trip Lee