DJ B Knockin - Cali Weed, Cali Love (Review)

DJ B Knockin-Cali Weed, Cali Love

Lyrics: 7/10

Beats: 8.5/10

Features: 7/10

Production: 10/10

Content: 8/10

OVERALL RATING:  8.2/10

On Cali Weed, Cali Love, DJ B Knockin brings rap back to what it used to be by making his lyrical content about real experiences. He raps about his life, things he's seen, and things he's done and about himself. He doesn't spit fake rhymes about having sex with a different girl in every song, or having incredible amounts of wealth, or being the biggest rapper ever to lace up a track. Using a variety of instrumental styles, from simpler beats in ‘Cali Weed, Cali Love’, to complex bouncier instrumentals in ‘Light Out’ and ‘Love You More;, to slower beats in ‘I Got What You Like’, he paints a vivid picture of what it means to be DJ B Knockin and reps California strong.

Knockin starts off this record strong, bringing a great rhyme scheme with a very unique, ethnic instrumental in ‘Cali Weed’. Though he doesn’t always maintain this lyrical strength throughout the entire record, tracks like ‘iStack’ are notable, especially for the features of J Mac and John J who also bring fantastic rhyming to the track. ‘Light Out’ is also a notable track because of its interesting beat, and the addition of B Knockin doing vocals for the chorus, an effort which is, in my opinion, not incredibly suited for his normal hip hop tone and style. The addition of vocalist Jacq Riot in ‘I Got What You Like’ is a very nice touch to this record, and shows Knockin’s ability to be diverse in his rhymes and style. ‘Cali Weed, Cali Love’ was also a notable track, at least from my prospective, because the “the force is strong in this one” Star Wars reference was amusing.

With an array of great instrumentals and with none of his features taking anything away from his music, but bringing their own unique touches, ‘Cali Weed, Cali Love’ is a definite MUST HAVE record if you’re a hip hop fan. DJ B Knockin creates 16 tracks full of himself, and although rapping about life and experience can become repetitive, Knockin is, not at all, tedious with his lyrical content.