Posted on 08/11/2009
Battery Effect was D/Will’s heat check, but instead of a tongue-wagging slam dunk, the Kansas City producer settled for a lay-up – albeit a finger roll. (In sport parlance, when a basketball player is on a roll, sinks four 3’s back-to-back, it’s time for a heat check – an outrageous display of showmanship that could either wow the crowd and elevate his statue, or brick wildly but still win respect for taking the risk.) Coming off the hype of his acclaimed mixtape Just Add Water, Dilla-like production for Outasight, and stepping from behind the boards to the mic, D/Will was primed for a full-length solo album to showcase his rhymes and expand his sound outside of Kansas City.

But, Battery Effect isn’t an album. It is – as he admits – a short, very short EP of promising production and a string of teasers that mostly clock in less than three minutes. “Fresh Off the Charger” opens the 10-track project with crisp horns that ring in the beatmaker’s arrival. The production alludes to great things to come but with D/Will only laying down one verse (a pattern throughout the project) his lyrical ability is overshadowed; like a one-man Gang Starr, the suburban offspring rhymes with a mix of streetwise bravado and social consciousness. His “music over money” mantra is repeated over a sinister sample loop in “MOM.” “House Party,” an infectious made-for-summer cut has D/Will playfully spittin’ game to a curvaceous southern belle (and her friend). The rest of the project trails off with D/Will taking shots at emo rappers, bling-centric hip-hop, and fighting for supremacy in his city. Since he lets listeners know that a follow-up to Battery Effect is in the works, let’s hope he doesn’t play it safe the next time the ball is in his court.

- Heather Faison