Finally I Speak

RoGizz's debut album shows a young Chicago-based rapper with admirably old-school influences; interestingly, it also suggests that the goalposts have moved for "old-school" once again. At first, it meant appreciation of Kool Moe Dee, then Run-D.M.C., then Public Enemy, then the Native Tongues movement and, with Finally I Speak, it's grown to include Tupac, Ice Cube, and the rest of the first generation of gangsta rappers. The lyrics of the song called "Back to '96" aren't nostalgic, but like the rest of Finally I Speak, the song does recapture the time when Dr. Dre was the hot producer and hip-hop turf wars were just about to turn bloody. Musically dark, with a sense of barely repressed anger simmering in the spare grooves, the album is nonetheless lyrically fairly positive, albeit no nonsense in its depictions of street life. Finally I Speak isn't a breakthrough album in any way, but RoGizz is a fairly compelling rapper.