Bronx, New York based emcee and producer Diamond D is preparing the final installment of The Diam Piece trilogy, splitting it into 3 EPs and bringing us ahead of a Duo in November and a Tria in February 2025 Come to the first song Initium. D has since released six more albums and several mixtapes of his own, the latest being Gotham’s critically acclaimed self-titled effort and The Rear View. “Diamond Piece” and its sequel left most of the rhyming to the guest, so I can see why he returned to the formula in “Rearview Mirror.”
RJ Payne and Skyzoo’s “Fire & Water” brings brutal hardcore lyricism to boom bap production right from the start, while KRS-One’s “The King” is a great lead single and one of the most recent I’ve listened to One of the best Blastmaster songs ever made and the crown deserves to be his. Bishop Lamont and Torae’s “Merk” sets it in the basement and gets bloodthirsty, but then Lord Tariq and Sauce Money’s “Bosses” finds 2 people in a mafia mess within 4 minutes.
Fatman Scoop and Static the Prodigy jump on the playful-sounding “Death B4 Dishonor,” promising you won’t want to test any of it, before moving into Agallah, David Bars, and Royal Flush’s “Codes,” a crude reminder not to trust anyone on the street . Inspectah Deck and Shyheim’s “Lay Me Down” aggressively details a life of crime, while EA-Ski and 38 Spesh’s “Blue Sunshine” dusts off West and East Coast producer/MCs onto the battle rap cutting edge . Bonecrusher’s “My People” ends with a jazzy tribute to his countrymen.
In the digital age, where many people have very short attention spans, it’s completely understandable that the DITC co-founders didn’t want to release a 29-song album and decided to split The Diam Piece 3 into a trilogy of EPs. Initium itself has a versatile roster of performers, coupled with Diamond D’s signature sound, which is enough to keep everyone hanging on until the Duo in late 2024 and the Tria early next year.
Score: 8/10
