Wordsworth - Mirror Music album review

If skills sold, Wordsworth would be a rich man. Ever since his days freestyling at the "Lyricist Lounge" showcases, Wordsworth has been one of Hip-Hop's brightest young stars. Now with his long awaited debut release Mirror Music, Wordsworth is finally ready to live up to the hype placed upon him almost six years ago.

With Mirror Music, Wordsworth delivers a solid album that proves the freestyle emcee is capable of producing conceptual material on all levels. Words is no longer the happy go lucky teenage emcee content with rhyming about woman and parties. Instead, we witness the maturation of Words as he comes into his own on Mirror Music. Proof of this comes on "Trust", the album's standout cut that finds Words questioning how he treated woman in the past. The song acts as a message to his daughter, as her birth changed Words perspective on how woman should be treated. "I did a lot of things to woman I never thought was wrong, and had a different outlook once my daughter was born. There was many times I heard you wouldn't want no one to treat your sister that way, I said no, and insisted to play." Wordsworth would have never been able to make a track like "Trust" years ago. But now that he is older, wiser and more mature, Words is able to look inside himself and realize his shortcomings.

Besides producing honest and straightforward efforts, Words also excels with his story telling tracks. Simply put, Wordsworth is one of the best at producing short stories. "One Day" finds Words reenacting a day's events, as he vividly runs through everything he encounters. But unlike most emcees, Words is able to paint a picture that allows each listener to actually see and feel what he is spitting about. This is especially true on his noteworthy first verse. "5:30 heard the garbage man when dawn had began. My sister tries to wake me up banging my door with hard knocks, the noises in my neighborhood that's the alarm clock. Five trucks, gypsy cabs, loud honking they horns. Stereo goes off at 6:00, and not a minute before." "Twelve Months" is another vintage Wordsworth story-telling track, as he tells the story of Stan and Jerry and their adventures each month. While the concept sounds simple, Words keeps the song interesting at all times by pulling off a great story with a fantastic ending.

Even though Wordsworth puts forth an extremely solid underground release, there are a couple of problems that prevent it from truly being one of the year's best. First and foremost, the album's 20 cuts tend to drag on, especially during the second half. The album would have benefited from a reduction in songs, as the first 11 songs overshadow most of the remaining nine, especially in regards to the production. Sebb's fast paced synthesizer production on "Point Blank" fails to impress, as the beat fails to mess with Words' style. The same can be said for the more "commercial" sounds of "Don't Go", as the track's hook is down right awful. Da Beatminerz predictable production on "On Your Feet" is another extremely sleepy effort that should have also been excluded.

While Mirror Music's 20 plus tracks maybe a little too much to take in at first, in the end the album's finest efforts overshadow such disappointments. With his debut release, Wordsworth shatters the notion that he is a freestyle emcee unable of producing a good album. Maybe waiting all this time to release his debut album was the best move he could have made, because the Wordsworth of a couple of years ago would not have been able to produce an album like Mirror Music.