''KILLmatic'' is the second studio album by American hip hop collective Demigodz. It was released on March 5, 2013 via Dirty Version Records. Recording sessions took place at HeadQcourterz Studios in New York. Production was handled by Teddy Roxpin, Chumzilla,

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 '' ...

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

, Skammadix, Snowgoons, Will C., and

Apathy Apathy, also referred to as indifference, is a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something. It is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation, or passion. An apathetic i ...

, who also served as executive producer together with

Celph Titled Victor Mercer (born November 16, 1980), better known by his stage name Celph Titled, is an American rapper and record producer who is a member of the hip hop supergroup Army of the Pharaohs, as well as the Demigodz along with Connecticut rappe ...

and Open Mic. It features guest appearances from

Eternia ''Masters of the Universe'' (sometimes referred to as the ''He-Man'' or ''She-Ra'' series) is a sword and planet-themed media franchise created by Mattel. The main premise revolves around the conflict between He-Man (the alter ego of Prince A ...

, Panch, Planetary, R.A. the Rugged Man,

Scoop DeVille Elijah Blue Molina (born October 15, 1987), better known by his stage name Scoop DeVille, is an American record producer, rapper and DJ. DeVille has produced singles and albums for hip hop artists including Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, N ...

and Termanology.

Pre-release

On November 23, 2011,

from Demigodz shared the first single, "Demigodz Is Back" from the Demigodz album entitled as ''Killmatic'' on

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

. The official video of the song was later released on January 18, 2013. The second single was released on February 5, 2013 called "Dead in the Middle". On February 7, 2013 released date, artwork and tracklist were revealed. The third single called "Worst Nightmare" was released on the same day as the album, March 5, 2013.

Post-release

The album debuted at No. 11 on the US ''Billboard''

Heatseekers Albums The Heatseekers charts were "Breaking and Entering" music charts issued weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. The Heatseekers Albums and the Heatseekers Songs charts were introduced by ''Billboard'' in 1991 with the purpose of highlighting the sales b ...

chart. The fourth and final single, "Raiders Cap", was released on May 13, 2013.

Description

"Demigodz is for true, hardcore hip-hop fans", Apathy said. "This ''Killmatic'' album was made to reflect that. We always try to keep it grimy, dirty, creepy, spooky and fucked up".

Reception

''Killmatic'' received critical acclaim from

music critic '' The Oxford Companion to Music'' defines music criticism as "the intellectual activity of formulating judgments on the value and degree of excellence of individual works of music, or whole groups or genres". In this sense, it is a branch of m ...

s. Jake Paine of ''

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 ...

'' gave the album a 3.5 out of 5 saying "If the title was any indication, ''Killmatic'' merges two things—seedy subject matter and Golden-Era style. References to David Berkowitz, porn runaways, dirty apartments and more litter this album" and "The other Godz are role-players within an album that doesn’t focus on concept nearly as much as style. To some, this is Everyman music from artists with the antithesis of Everyman abilities". D.T. Swinga of HipHopSite gave the album a 4 out of 5 saying "The who-gives-a-fuck mentality of ''Killmatic'' comes through in both its brazen lyrical content and its flagrant sample selection. The lyrical content is a contest of jabs, designed to shock the listener and instigate friendly competition within the crew". And that "As hip-hop music continues to deteriorate into something only used to sell bottles (whether it be champagne or soda), it’s nice to see a crew of dudes like Demigodz still holding it down after a decade plus in the game, especially when many of the cats that came up in their era have more or less hung up their mics".

Track listing

Personnel

*Chad "

" Bromley – vocals (tracks: 2-9, 11-16), producer (tracks: 1-3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12), recording (tracks: 1-7, 9-16), mixing, executive producer *Victor "

" Mercer – vocals (tracks: 2-13, 15, 16), executive producer *Tim "Motive" Cook – vocals (tracks: 3, 5-7, 10-13, 16) *Ryan "Ryu" Maginn – vocals (tracks: 2, 5, 6, 9, 11, 13, 16) *Seamus "

Esoteric Western esotericism, also known as the Western mystery tradition, is a wide range of loosely related ideas and movements that developed within Western society. These ideas and currents are united since they are largely distinct both from orthod ...

" Ryan – vocals (tracks: 3, 6, 7, 10, 13, 14, 16) *Ira " Blacastan" Osu – vocals (track 5-8, 13, 16), additional vocals (track 10) *Mike "Open Mic" LaRose – vocals (track 3), executive producer, graphic design *Daniel " Termanology" Carrillo – vocals (track 4) *Elijah "

" Molina – vocals (track 5) *Silk "

" Kaya – vocals (track 7) *Andre "Panchi" Davis – vocals (track 8) *Mario " Planetary" Collazo – vocals (track 10) *Richard Andrew " R.A. the Rugged Man" Thorburn – vocals (track 15) *Adrienne Law – skit vocals *Christopher "

" Martin – additional vocals & recording (track 8), producer & scratches (track 6) *Anthony "Tone Spliff" Mucitelli – scratches (track 7) *Luke Campbell – guitar (track 8) *Adam "Chumzilla" Mathiason – scratches (tracks: 12, 14, 16), producer (track 8) *Teddy "Roxpin" Rosenthal – producer (tracks: 4, 15) *Kris "Skammadix" Rey – producer (track 10) * Snowgoons – producers (track 13) *Will Curley – producer (track 14) * Marco Bruno – producer (track 16) *Chris B. Murray – cover illustration

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2012 albums Celph Titled albums Apathy (rapper) albums Albums produced by DJ Premier Albums produced by Marco Polo Hip-hop albums by American artists