Josh Martinez is a talented artist, who reaches fans through thought provoking rhymes, and smoothly clever word play. Josh makes being an emcee look easy, as he carefully draws fans deeper into his music with an interesting style, hype vibe, and natural emcee abilities. Josh is a great lyricist in the sense he has developed great flow, word play, and rhyme content. Josh’s rhyme’s aren’t plagued by gimmicky bling bling, or jiggy-ness, but rather insight, and fun, interesting lyrics.” Usually we don’t start off a review talking about the emcee’s qualities, but its Josh’s positive attributes that make “Made In China” a soon to be raved classic. The album features many songs previously released on the “Hali 100”, and a few new ones. “Made In China” is presented to fans professionally with plastic wrap, professionally mastered, and with a nice new album cover fitting of the creative nature of Josh’s music.
“Deny” is a track featured on “Made In China”, and its this track that raises the most conversation, and praise relating to this future classic. “Deny” is an epic track, epically 9 minutes, and 14 seconds in length. The amazing aspect of this track, besides the topic, is that the track is contrary to boring, nicely holding the listeners interest. The topic is Holocaust being examined by a variety of perspectives, deeming this one of the best songs the underground of hip hop has ever seen. It’s Josh’s ability to forge rhymes naturally with thought that make this song a true classic that will never fade. Deny first appeared on Josh’s ( formerly, and then known as Maxwell ) MAXimum WELLbeing EP which is a cassette-only release that only reached manufacturing, and distribution of 100 copies, most of which never left Halifax.
The best song featured on this album is “Deny”; however, “Big Mouths” featuring Kunga 219 from The Goods is an exceptional track that is a very, very close second. “Big Mouths” is a interesting track about those who ramble with their episodic tales. Very well put together song, and Kunga 219 lay’s down exceptional vocals, and some of the best lyricism a fan could want. Other notable tracks include “La Rambla”, “Outlook”, and “Chickenshit”.
“Made In China” is definitely an exceptional album that every fan should have in their collection. As previously mentioned, this album will be a future classic, featuring many great hits, and “Deny” which reaches a class of its own. Josh Martinez is a very talented emcee, and this album strongly enforces that point.
Track Listing
1. La Rambla
2. (sic) Muse
3. Outlook
4. The Cluuuuub
5. Big Mouths (feat. Kunga 219 )
6. Weed Weed
7. Magic Bullet
8. Chickenshit
9. Marxschism
10. Chord Changes
11. I’ve Got Devils
12. Letter to July
13. Breakdown
14. Deny
