With all the buzz surrounding rap super group Slaughterhouse, another super-group has quietly stepped on to the scene. La Coka Nostra features Slaine from Special Teamz, Ill Bill from Non Phixion, and the original members of House of Pain; Everlast, Danny Boy, and DJ Lethal.For four years La Coka Nostra recorded songs with no intention of releasing an album–it was only for the love of the game. A Brand You Can Trust is the first full length release of La Coka Nostra on the Suburban Noize record label.
A Brand You Can Trust begins with Bloody Sunday; an energetic track with rock guitars and Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog providing assistance on the hook. On Bloody Sunday Ill Bill raps, “Welcome to the terror dome/I’m inappropriate like Kramer with a megaphone.”
Get You By is a somber but optimistic song with a catchy chorus; “Hate will fuel your rage/Drugs will get you high/Money buys respect/Love will get you by.” Slaine rhymes, “My wife is asking me is anything wrong/I tell her, Erica everything is, you better be strong.”
The MC’s in La Coka Nostra do a good job of balancing the yin and yang of life throughout the album. I recently spoke with the group on the Rock the Bells tour and asked them about the duality of their songs. Ill Bill simply stated, “It’s real life, our songs are real life.”
On the single I’m an American each MC gives their perspective on the good and bad of living in the land of liberty, while the chorus proudly proclaims, “I’m an American! I need [oral sex] and a pizza.”
It doesn’t get any more American than that!
The stand out track of this release is titled That’s Coke. That’s Coke is what Hip-Hop used to be–raw beats and rhymes. Everlast put Whitey Ford on the back burner to spit fire on this song, “The [expletive] Svengali/Mob boss, god body in the XL Denali/With the Mossberg shotty/Got a full box of shells and a ransom note/That ain’t gunpowder out on my dash, That’s Coke!”
A Brand You Can Trust is loaded with 5 star guest appearances. Snoop Dogg, Bun B, Immortal Technique, Sick Jacken of Psycho Realm, and Sen Dog and B-Real of Cypress Hill all appear on the album.
This album gives you everything;it’s gangsta and conscious, hardcore and heartwarming, sad and fun.
It’s real life.