Diabolic & Vanderslice – “Collusion” (Album Review)

Diabolic is a legendary underground MC from Long Island, New York who made a name for himself by battle rapping in the very late 90’s/early 2000’s. However, it wouldn’t be until 2009 that he would release his debut album Liar & a Thief. Which was solid, but he would eventually outdo himself 5 years later with the release of Fightin’ Words. But now, another 5 years has passed & he has teamed up with Vanderslice to help him return with his 3rd full-length album.

After the intro, we go into the first song “Think of That”. Here, Diabolic talks about returning to the throne of hip hop over a soulful boom bap beat. The track “Jitterbug” talks about not crossing him over an instrumental with a prominent keyboard & synthesizer while the song “Normalize” vividly describes the criminal activity he involves himself in over a perfectly sinister boom bap beat. The track “See the Light” with Nems gets cold-blooded over an eerie beat while the song “Who We Are” with Tre Mark Star, Coast & John Jigg$ is about how living rough made all 4 of them the people they turned out to be today over a spacious instrumental.

The track “Other Side” talks about living like he’s on his way to death over a vicious beat while the song “Once Again” is laced with deadly battle bars over a jazzy beat. The track “Simon Phoenix” boasts about his skills over a haunting beat & before the album finishes with the outro, the final song “Last Day” with Coast sees the 2 talking about keeping it live forever but the beat on here is just ok to me.

All that being said: I think this was a dope comeback for Diabolic. It’s a bit too short as it only runs a little over a half hour, but he & Vanderslice display a pretty great chemistry together from start to finish.

Score: 7/10