Zion I

Potential can be a bitch. Proclaiming that a group has potential is a backhanded compliment at best, implying that that group may be decent or even great in the future, but only in the future. For the past few years, Zion I has been heralded (or dismissed) as tomorrow's bride, the next group to break out of the Bay Area's underground hip hop scene -- someday. But with the release of True & Livin', it appears that day has arrived. Blending needling, razor-sharp introspection, blazing-red agitprop, and panoramic street reportage, MC Zion wears his heart on his sleeve and his beliefs on his cuff. But he never sounds like he's pandering to emo sensibilities; his rhymes seem as effortlessly revealing and intricate as the early work of Nas. From the jazzy atmospherics of "One Chance" to the sullen swank of "Poems of Pomo Decay," Amp One's productions are no less evocative. Everyone from Talib Kweli to Gift of Gab, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, and Aesop Rock shows up to lend his support to what is clearly Zion I's coronation.