''Half a Klip'' is the fourth

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

by American rapper

Kool G Rap Nathaniel Thomas Wilson (born July 20, 1968), better known by his stage name Kool G Rap (or simply G Rap), is an American rapper. He began his career in the mid-1980s as one half of the group Kool G Rap & DJ Polo and as a member of the Juice Cr ...

, released on February 5, 2008, by Chinga Chang, Latchey and

Koch Records MNRK Music Group (pronounced "monarch"), formerly known as Koch Records and Entertainment One (eOne) Music/Records, is an American independent record label and music management company based in New York City. It was formed in 1987 as a music div ...

. It was the first new solo release from Kool G Rap in six years, and its producers included

DJ Premier Christopher Edward Martin (born March 21, 1966), known professionally as DJ Premier (also known as Preemo), is an American record producer and DJ. He has been frequently lauded as one of hip hop's greatest producers by publications such as '' ...

Marley Marl Marlon Lu'Ree Williams (born September 30, 1962), better known by his stage name Marley Marl, is an American DJ, record producer, rapper and record label founder, primarily operating in hip hop music. Marlon grew up in Queensbridge Houses, Queen ...

, Domingo, and Marks. KL of

Screwball A screwball is a baseball and fastpitch softball pitch that is thrown so as to break in the opposite direction of a slider or curveball. Depending on the pitcher's arm angle, the ball may also have a sinking action. The pitch is sometimes known ...

, D-Roc and

Haylie Duff Haylie Katherine Duff (born February 19, 1985) is an American actress and singer. She is best known for her roles as Sandy Jameson in the television series '' 7th Heaven'', Amy Sanders in ''Lizzie McGuire'' and Summer Wheatly in ''Napoleon Dyn ...

appeared as a guest vocalists.

Background

''Half a Klip'' was Kool G Rap's first solo release since 2002's ''

The Giancana Story ''The Giancana Story'' is the third solo album by American rapper Kool G Rap, released by Koch Records on November 26, 2002. Its producers included Bink, Buckwild, Jaz-O, Knobody, Rockwilder and V.I.C., while AZ, Capone-N-Noreaga, Hav ...

'' and features nine original songs and two bonus tracks, showcasing the veteran rapper maintaining his gritty storytelling style while experimenting with a more contemporary sound. The album was initially set to be released in March 2007 and then was pushed back to September 25, 2007 before finally coming out on February 5, 2008. The song "What's More Realer Than That" came out as a street single in February 2007.Kool G Rap: Klip Half Full, Not Half Empty
/ref>

Reception

''Half a Klip'' received mostly mixed reviews from

music critics Music journalism (or music criticism) is media criticism and reporting about music topics, including popular music, classical music, and traditional music. Journalists began writing about music in the eighteenth century, providing commentary on ...

. Greg Watkins from

AllHipHop ''AllHipHop'' is a hip-hop news website founded by Greg Watkins and Chuck Creekmur in 1998. History The website was founded in 1998 by Greg Watkins and Chuck Creekmur. In 1997, Watkins registered the allhiphop.com domain to promote the artist ...

gave the album 3½ out of five, saying "The nine tracks probably are not enough to support ool G Rap'sclaim of being underrated; especially since some of them only run for about two minutes. However, they do keep you thirsting for more which is probably what G Rap was hoping to do with this one".

HipHopDX ''HipHopDX'' is an online magazine of Hip hop music, hip hop music criticism and news. ''HipHopDX'' has over 3.5M monthly readers, the website encompassing hip hop news, interviews, music, and reviews. The website's founder and CEO is Sharath C ...

's J-23 gave the album three out of five and said "The appropriately-titled ''Half a Klip'' may only be 9 tracks deep, but it brings the Kool Genius of Rap back where he needs to be. With production from former

Juice Crew The Juice Crew was an American hip hop collective made up largely of Queensbridge, New York–based artists in the mid-to-late 1980s. Founded by radio DJ Mr. Magic, and housed by Tyrone Williams' record label Cold Chillin' Records, the Juice C ...

captain

, Domingo and Moss, the Queens legend is backed by the right kind of producers. The only glaring weak spot on the album is "Turn It Out," a track that is just as cheesy as its horribly cliché hook; "riding to the club, candy coated on the dubs." That doesn't mean ''Half A Klip'' is flawless otherwise, other than on the original version of "100 Rounds" (from Domingo's ''The Most Underrated''), and "With a Bullet" do you really get the G Rap of old; spitting breathless flames at a rapid pace". Quentin B. Huff of PopMatters gave ''Half a Klip'' a score of five out of ten and noted " ool G Rap'srhymes are still gritty, grimy, and gory, and his flow is still intricately smooth, but the project as a whole travels lighter than you’ll want from an artist of his caliber". The Smoking Section scored the album 2½ out of five, commenting "While Kool G Rap has the resiliency of a war-tested veteran, ''Half a Klip'' is not his best work".

Track listing

References

External links

*
Half A Klip
' at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

{{Authority control 2008 albums Kool G Rap albums East Coast hip-hop albums Hardcore hip-hop albums Albums produced by MoSS Albums produced by DJ Premier Albums produced by Marley Marl Albums produced by Domingo (producer) Albums produced by Frank Dukes