bigd99999's Full Review: Kkkill the Fetus by Esham
A lot of rap fans look at Esham as the one old school emcee who never made it past the underground and often wonder why. To me, that's like wondering why ECW never made it to the mainstream, why Arena Football had to paper tickets, or why Canibus never went platinum. Esham is a niche rapper with a niche style who caters to a niche audience, pure and simple. Esham belongs on Psychopathic Records; it's the one place where he can make the most money without producing platinum records due to the sweet distribution deal that Psychopathic offers as well as the creative freedom they give their artists.
That word “creative” might not be the best word to describe Esham’s rap style even though it sort of is considering what was popular at the time. A lot of fans have described it as “acid rap” or “horrorcore”. I find it ironic that the psycho-controversial “Insanity Rap” style that made Eminem so fashionable back in 2000 was mastered a decade earlier in Detroit by people like Esham, Champtown, Awesome Dre, and yes… The Insane Clown Posse. In 1993, when cautionary tales about crime and introspection was just starting to rule the rap game, and albums such as Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), Lethal Injection, and Doggystyle became rap favorites, Esham was dropping KKKill The Fetus and pleasing a small assembly of acid heads in the urbs of Rock City.
Prior to KKKill The Fetus, Esham’s first two albums Boomin’ Words From Hell and Judgement Day dabbled in the horrorcore style, but still sounded like traditional hip hop records. It wasn’t until KKKill The Fetus where Esham really found himself and his comfort zone. KKKill The Fetus is a dark album, perhaps one of the darkest in hip hop. It is nihilistic, brooding, psychotic, and violent; there is no light at the end of the tunnel here.
Esham as an emcee is really nothing to write home about. His gravelly voice is certainly different and certainly acidy and can take some time to get used to, if you even can. The main focus of Esham isn’t exactly on his rhyming ability either; he at times sounds like a raspy-voiced Erick Sermon or Guru, and doesn’t exactly use intricate cadences or inventive rhyme schemes.
Production-wise, KKKill The Fetus, specially for 1993, sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard until the days of Def Jux and El-P (which is an immediate turn off), just not as pretentious. Lots of grainy synthesizers, low-quality drums, scuzzy loops, and preternatural samples, if you can even call it that. This is far from DJ Premier and even farther from Quincy Jones.
But main reason this album is even talked about is because of the subject matter. I already mentioned the album was nihilistic and whatnot. Well the subject matter on KKKill The Fetus ranges from borderline-psychotic gun-toting tales, to disembowelment of bodyparts, to rape, to an almost satanic-level of violence. Yes, everything you heard on The Marshall Mathers LP years later. Esham even encourages suicide on various times in the record, which prompted a few fans to believe that he was a Satanist, and others to believe he did music to encourage bad teenage behavior.
But amongst all of the gimmicks, there are political messages about racist cops and discriminatory government agencies sprinkled throughout the album. In addition, there are other songs where he talks about women, both in good and bad ways, which kind of says to me that all of this is just Esham playing a character and that he’s human after all.
KKKill The Fetus is an exporation of the psychic mind. It’s almost as if Esham was just frustrated with his life and just spat whatever. A lot of the songs are two minutes or less and there is very little in terms of song structure or organization; it’s a garbled mess of thoughts and sounds.
All things considered and after warring through 21 tracks of psychoticism, KKKill The Fetus is a rough listen. It’s like an even dirtier version of DMX’s It’s Dark… And Hell is Hot, except about a fraction of the quality. That’s not to say that it is all bad because there certainly IS some good found on the LP, but I can’t encourage a large group of people to actively seek it out, specially considering that it is an anomalous release and extremely niche. Of all the people reading this, I have a feeling only a small percentage will really enjoy the record. Me? I can appreciate it and like the good and bad, but it’s just not the kind of music that I feel like listening to. The bad outweighs the good like Yokozuna did Hulk Hogan in 1993. This record is fucked.
Track List & Rating
1. What Is Evil (NOT RATED) 2. Symptoms of Insanity (***) 3. Runnin' From Me! (***) 4. Voices in My Head (***) 5. No Singing / Misery (****) 6. Jackie (**) 7. Game of Death (****) 8. Hot Booty (****) 9. I Thought You Knew (****) 10. If This Ain't Hell (**) 11. My Understanding Is Zero (***) 12. Perpetration (****) 13. Freak Nasty (***) 14. Headhunter (*) 15. Kkkill the Fetus (*) 16. Don't Blame Me! (***) 17. You Still Hoe'n (****) 18. Sunshine (***) 19. Get on Down (*****) 20. 666 (*) 21. Helter Skkkelter (**)
2 Stars
Authors Note: I wrote this review with a bit of a different style. I didn’t put ANY song citations or example and just speak about the entire feel of the album, mainly because a lot of the songs sound the same.
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