ROB RIPPA

"Yeah I like animals better than people sometimes, especially dogs."
So goes the opening line to one of the most eagerly awaited albums of the year. All it is- is a quote; a simple quote and all together calm, confident and incredibly honest. It’s meaningful only to those who have lived a true experience in the street or in the ghetto and in the many worlds where survival demands struggle and that's all there is. It's a line that perfectly sets off the fifth UNDER GROUND ALBUM.

"ROB RIPPA a.k.a. "ROBERT HOLLIS":
One of the most lyrical MC's of this time. The only artist who has spent a career inspiring followers around the Texas regions and beyond the rhyme's in loud bursts of manic, ghetto energy, only then to get them to read and rap and think and cry in private moments of honest thought and introspection. No one in hip-hop has done it better in a long time. No one has meant more. Now, in 2006, a NEW book of verse:

RANSOM NOTE

Not only does the album mark a return to form, it is the perfect coda for a career that began in 1998 with a defunct group simply named C.O.C also represents a creative reunion with Executive Producer, Lonnie Starxx, who has now taken a chance with "ROB RIPPA" and signed him to "LYRICALLY INFECTED RECORDING GROUP" label, determined to be the biggest in the world. Are you ready to roll? We start with the title:

RANSOM NOTE

One name is what it says, but then it represents so much more. As well, his music was a haunting self-description, and represented a life-giving bond to the community from which he's holding artist’ careers hostage until they make some worth while music, after which he will let them have it back… (MAYBE).

Is the title bestowed upon the penultimate winner???

Now, what better way to jump off than with the most fundamental statement???

HERE'S THE "RANSOM NOTE"

The album's first single, is a ferocious street melody and the title track ransom note that has already become an instant ROB classic to be put in the history books next to in a phenomenal line of double-R producers, collects along his gulf coast travels. One listen to the joint's devastating base lines and you will hear the announcement: No apologies allowed, the ''RIPPA'' is here."

You can't be serious...

You'd be surprised how many MC's in the game don't wanna ask this question. Or at least they don't want to know the answer…WHO IS THE LYRICALLY INFECTED ROB RIPPA??? Ride to ROB'S energy and passion and you will see why Rob’s LYRICALLY INFECTED!!! It's a powerful thing when the “hood” and you are one in the same and when the “hood” provides the creative fuel for your life and art. So, be careful cause’ ROB doesn't just roll deep… This BOY rolls “hood” deep.

You better bust that if you gonna’ pull that cause words are spitfire in this Organization.
Is it possibly because he's spoiled us with FOUR unforgettable underground albums going as far back as 1998? Or is it maybe just that voice? Is it maybe because we wanted to hear more music from the KAT whose name personifies his character? Or the man who opened his soul to the pen creating "the best hip-hop biography ever written"? Perhaps we were just longing for that lyrical spitfire delivery that never ever wants to leave your head? The real imitators allowed. Either way, you have to feel good, 'cause he's back. The wait is over.

Next is YOU KNOW WHAT I'M BOUT’…one of the illest club tracks the young producer RASHEED, you know as UNKNOWN, has ever done. It demands its audience ride and bounce to this true hydraulic track and freak to this club banger. Now, can you relate to this?

All of Rob Rippa’s influences reside in New York with one exception (MR BRAD JORDAN a.k.a. (SCARFACE), who resides in Rippa’s City, Houston, Texas a.k.a “Hou-Tex”.

Produced by HITMAN, (Track Producer), GIVING YOU THE BEST GAME (featuring R&B Sensation BILLY COOK), is a dialogue between men, artists, generation to another:

Grand Champ, ROB RIPPA, has hits for days used by local producer Rory using perfect mid-tempo 808 melodies to establish all that's been troubling a master of his craft.

For an unprepared public, this game started in 1996 when a nasal-throated, jean-wearing kid started spittin' hot fire on corners and reckin’ Down South’s hardest working DJ “DJ CHILL on a number of his mix tapes”.

Then came one unforgettable hit, “STAINS OF THE WORLD”, a sixteen bar ball of fire that ROB then said he wrote "a couple of years ago." It was the perfect artistic set-up for a game that was coming out of virtual ruins into a harder, more broken-bottle, strife laden world where heart, credibility, strength, and attitude meant just as much as brightest suit or hottest girl. Heads were ready for tales of real life, stories of struggle and survival, pain and the ability to get by. The kind of urban tales ROB had always thrived at. "I think society is finally ready to deal with reality," ROB said a few days before his firs