In a world of increasingly accepted (and released) instrumental albums and/or compilations, N1S Imperial, the Sacramento beat-making duo of J. Pineda and E. Ramos, teams up for the release of “Stress Management“. 21 tracks and 47:41 minutes dictate the chapters and longevity of N1S Imperial’s curriculum into “Stress Management“. The overall vibe of the beats range in styles an techniques, from airy atmospheres, to head-nodding tracks that prove that N1S are committed to the necessary crate-digging and actually put together some nice tracks. Within each beat (track), N1S incorporates turntable scratches (of some sort) as well as a well thought out sequence of samples. “Stress Management” is as J. Pineda and E. Ramos states, “open music for open minds” or in a labeling term, “Mindphonic Music”.
Because there aren’t any lyrics, at all, through out the album there isn’t too much to analyze on it, other than the beats. With that, stand out tracks are; “Capital Stress”, which has dope samples of Chuck D. from the hit “Shut ‘Em Down”, “Hard 2 The Core”, “Encore”, which is break beat reminiscent and “A Dime A Dozen”, which is something that sounds like a ?uestlove/Roots track. The only real weakness in “Stress Management” is the fact that each track is 1:40-something (on average), again, bringing the total length of the album at almost 42 minutes.
All in all, this album is worth the while for any “beat” head, break dancer or emcee who appreciates good production and beats to freestyle or bust into a windmill over. N1S definitely represents the beat makers (and the West Coast) on “Stress Management” and, seemingly, have carved a little bit of a niche’ for themselves as a duo to be recognized.
Reviewed By P The Uptownkid for HipHopHotSpot.Com
