Kool Keith is a prolific American rapper and 54-71 are a Japanese experimental/hip hop/rock quartet. The result of this collaboration is best described as a concept album for a yet to be released (or imagined) video game. It further cements my opinion that Kool Keith's best albums are when he is not doing a "traditional" sounding rap album.

Some lyrics will be familiar with themes of phoney rappers and major labels ruining the music industry, fortunately the music is interested enough to keep these topics from becoming tiresome. "Extreme Workout" seems to be the albums first single and I can't help but wonder if G-rated lines like "you genuine nincompoops, you don't learn" is just to keep the radio censors happy (nincompoop hasn't been considered offensive since the 50's); speaking of which, I don't recall hearing any swears or derogatory terms through out the album, of course this is not a bad thing - just an observation.

With Idea of a Master Piece being lyrically and musically entertaining from start to finish it is bound to create a new legion of fans for Kool Keith and 54-71, it's just a shame (a damn shame) that it appears to be a Japan only release. I imported mine from Play-Asia for a very reasonable price. If you only buy one Kool Keith release in 2009 make it this one.

Track Listing

1. How long can u front

2. Extra cheese

3. Extreme workout

4. Major support

5. Number 1 draft pick

7. Position

8. Open sesame

9. The king is here

10. Cut em out the picture