"Master of Fine Arts" - SOCE (The Elemental Wizard)
Thursday, August 27, 2009 at 10:51AM 
Review by Rex Stone
When you mix Creative Writing, Linguistics, Comedy, and a complete understanding of Music Theory, you get Soce (The Elemental Wizard) and his latest album Master of Fine Arts! Once you enroll into this college of hip-hop you begin with the basic, Lyrics 101, Delivery 102, and Ability 103, the problem with most rap students is that they begin to get cocky when they get into their sophomore year and Substance 202 requires the prerequisite Introduction to Emceeing 201. Striving for a 4.0 on a CD is a lot but the stellar production on this album is worthy of magna cum laude honors.
With songs like “Not Ready, “Break”, “Slippin Away”, and “You Know The Deal”, this artist has developed a personal and professional attitude toward his album through creative involvement. Master of Fine Arts seems to be one of the best albums put out this year but there is a major flaw…the subject courses don’t have any relevancy. The fact that Soce is also an entertainer doesn’t help the fact that the songs seem more comedic than thought out and skillful. It makes you wonder if all the hype about this artist is truly deserving of a master’s degree or is he really still working on a rap certification.
Whether or not you like the information that the “elemental wizard” is spitting to you, you have to respect that this artist has lyrics, delivery, and ability! Master of Fine Arts is a true representation of all the different genres and styles that out hip-hop has to offer. This CD has truly created a masterpiece that any emcee would be proud of and the movement should be proud of to. This rapper, producer, blogger, actor, and activist has definitely marked his own niche’ in homo-hop and it is definitely worthy of an A+!
I give this CD 4 out of 5 Rainbow Mics!
Reader Comments (1)
I agree, after listening to Soce's first two cd's, that the relevance factor pales next to the first two. The I identify with his struggle, situation, circumstance factor, which I expect, especially from a gay rapper, is not as strong as his previous cd's, but then as Soce says in his interviews, some songs are just about fun, and he prefers varieties in his themes.
Anyway Soce comes as close to perfection in his whimsicalness, his beats, his irony, and who can fault an artist who can rhyme crouton with futon. A must for any CD collection