Ignite Mindz
Psychological Warfare

Originally from Winston Salem, this MC has a cool, comedic wit and vocal style that puts him miles ahead of the game. What the album may lack in production quality is quickly outweighed by clever rhymes and sweet hooks. The samples are hot- think A Tribe Called Quest in the early days-and he knows his way around a verse, so I wouldn't be surprised if his freestyles were worth bootlegging. (I am not advocating the thievery of music, but Ignite Mindz does offer a few free downloads on the website, www.ignitemindz.com.)

The other huge plus is that you can't resist the smile and nod when you hear Ignite Mindz' subject matter and its relevance to all the real people from your hometown (or someone else's).Now residing in ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Raleigh, it seems that Ignite Mindz won't exhaust his stash of N.C. specific subject matter any time soon. Songs about mullets just don't sound the same if you've never inspected one intently as you attempt to seem patient and calm at the DMV.

I just can't wait to hear him live. With lyrics like "Redneck gangster, chillin' in the meth lab- trailer park hustling-…." and samples from Pulp Fiction, Ignite Mindz is more credible than the usual local hip hop--along with all the homegrown flavor you love from the likes of Asheville's Granola Factory Express, not to mention the explosive attitude and boom-box-ability of other hip hop circles with hometown type roots, like Little Brother. Ignite Mindz brings the everyday back into a genre that has been overloaded with hype and buzzwords of late, and that puts him in a class of his own. Review by J.Lynn Pirch..:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />