We’ve heard Bischeop Csynnikal’s tales of hardscrabble adolescence and rough-and-rugged adulthood from local emcees many times before. What we’ve rarely been gifted with is a tough-guy rhymer willing and able to step outside rap’s formulaic box and cover unexplored terrain, both topically and musically. When Csynnikal does this, as on “Father’s Smile”—in which he tells his unborn child how growing up without a dad led him to death row—and the a cappella verse on the socially incisive “Illegal,” he’s on his A-game. Csynnikal’s lyrics and storytelling can be quite memorable; his voice and most of his beats, not so much.
Bischeop Csynnikal
1st of a New Breed **1/2