”Fight the Power!” is Mike Shabb’s Most Militant Musical Statement (Album Review)

Montréal, Québec, Canada emcee, producer & engineer Mike Shabb returning with his 3rd studio LP. Coming up in the spring of 2018 off his full-length debut Northwave, he would continue to make his presence known by putting out 6 EPs & his last couple of mixtapes before gaining notoriety for engineering Boldy James’ 5th album Fair Exchange No Robbery along with producing “Switches on Everything” off Hitler Wears Hermes X & enlisting his mentor Nicholas Craven to fully produce his 5th EP Shadow Moses from top to bottom. Hood Olympics & Sewaside III were both solid in their own rights, following up this spring’s Shabb Van Gogh to Fight the Power! ahead of Hood Olympics 2.

“Neighborhood Sniper!” opens with a drumless soul sample talking about sniping white supremacists whereas “Supercat!” gives his flowers to the dancehall icon of the same name. “Ol’ Dirty!” chops up a psychedelic guitar passage talking about being a completely different breed while the drumless “Kool G!” villainously discusses catching toe tags with a firearm dropping bodies 1-by-1.

Meanwhile on “World’s Mine!”, we have Shabbo passionately flexing that he’s been rockin’ mics since he was back in high school leading into the 2-parter “Lord in the Sky! + Nightmares!” talking about staying the same even after the cash flow picked up. “Tank!” blends a vocal sample & hi-hats so he can get in dumpin’ mode beyond rap just before “Crickets!” talks about staying in the bushes.

“Gotti!” starts the final leg of Fight the Power! with heavier sampling boasting that he’s validated everywhere he goes & bagging himself a stallion while “Rock Steady!” featuring 12kgotti finds the pair joining forces for an ode to the Rock Steady Crew of b-boys. The title track talks about looking to make the most out the plans he sticks to & “Terminator X” sends off the album with an instrumental outro.

Needless to say that we’re most likely gonna have to wait until 2026 for Hood Olympics 2to come, Fight the Power! still presents itself as the most militant musical opus of Mike Shabb’s entire career. Cooking up some of his most creative batch of drumless beats yet, he takes up a good bulk of the half hour justifying that he’s the top underdog of this rap shit & he won’t ever kiss ass to be apart of “the industry” since he is his own industry.

Score: 9/10