On 'Reagan' he really sounds like Sir Luscious but with Killer Mike content.

And obviously 'Don't Die' is a pure AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted homage by the most obvious descendent MC of Early Cube along with the producer most reminiscent of The Bomb Squad (now that I think about it, isn't Don't Die the title of that Korn/Don-Mega-Era-Cube song from one of those weak War & Peace albums? It was something close to that).

Speaking of AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted, did anyone hear T.I. pronouncing all three 'k's inside the country's name during his verse while still keeping the pattern intact then hitting the next mark exactly where the last one was.

That little nugget (sorta like Big ending his verse with 'Dont Tempt Me'' as Meth quietly says 't-h-o-d-man' underneath right behind him to finish spelling for Big on "The What") was slick enough that you could almost miss it but serves as a small reminder that T.I. has an all-time elite-level-flow/delivery even if I haven't really like an album of his much since King (and this is still a 'skip around a bit' disc).

And El-P does his damn thing here. He manages to sound like himself/Def-Jux while keeping it streamlined to feature the MC rather than take those detours into dissonance that sorta leaves me cold on some of that Company Flow/Fantastic Damage stuff.

As a result after only three full listens I can already tell this is my favorite El-P-helmed-album since Cold Vein.

El-P is sorta like a producer version of Bjork singing. They're already bugged-out & unique enough that it actually serves them better (like El-P here & on Can Ox's album or Homogenic for Bjork) to try keeping their crayon work inside the lines because it's still gonna come out some crazy shape & color rather than doing weird-for-weird's-sake that can end up as some inscrutable, inaccessible chore listening.

Oddly enough even though Mike spazzed all over this thing he may be the weak link here if you had to name one mostly because his voice & earnest sometimes accusatory tone can get wearing over the course of a full album. I could have used another feature or two because basically it's Mike for the entire album after T.I. finishes his verse on track one.

I'm not even a huge fan of El-P as a rapper but when he finally shows up for a verse on Butane it's a welcome relief just to have some variation in the vocals & on top of that he kills it.

Killer Mike while I always liked him on Kast records, loved a few solo songs & have a 2/3 mixtapes.....I guess I'm just not invested enough in his persona or his sometimes stringent social commentary to not start feeling a bit full over the course of a full-album (even if it's about the same length of Illmatic or that Curren$y/Alc EP).

That being said, I understand that this is his magnum opus & I won't begrudge him that. Props to him for making the collaboration.

Guess it just made me realize how much I'd love to hear him make a 'Soul Survivor' type of album with a bunch of certified MCs.

I wanna hear Casual on one of his beats. An El-P/Wu posse cut. Have Mike go round up some Dungeon Fam for a joint. Money Jam Boys with Peedi or Beans. KRS having one of those late-career blackout moments when he gets a real track & a collection of top-tier rappers to compete against in front of a different audience. Give a young cat like Kendrick a shot at it. And on and on.

Petty criticisms & greedy wish-lists aside however, make no mistake: this album is the aural equivalent of Tug McGraw recording the final out of the World Series on top of Mt. St. Helens in 1980.