RoGizz's debut album shows a young Chicago-based rapper with admirably old-school influences; interestingly, it also suggests that the goalposts have moved for "old-school" once again. At first, it meant appreciation of
Kool Moe Dee, then
Run-D.M.C., then
Public Enemy, then the Native Tongues movement and, with
Finally I Speak, it's grown to include Tupac,
Ice Cube, and the rest of the first generation of gangsta rappers. The lyrics of the song called "Back to '96" aren't nostalgic, but like the rest of
Finally I Speak, the song does recapture the time when
Dr. Dre was the hot producer and hip-hop turf wars were just about to turn bloody. Musically dark, with a sense of barely repressed anger simmering in the spare grooves, the album is nonetheless lyrically fairly positive, albeit no nonsense in its depictions of street life.
Finally I Speak isn't a breakthrough album in any way, but
RoGizz is a fairly compelling rapper. ~ Stewart Mason