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Low Budget Affiliates – The Damage Is Done (Busshaak)
By: Thomas Quinlan : HipHopCanada.com

What is really awesome about a good crew album – like Wu-Tang Clan's Enter the 36 Chambers, for example – is the diversity of flows, styles and subject matter. In that aspect, Edmonton-based crew Low Budget Affiliates is no different. Members Add-Vice, Balzac, Chazmo, Chris Plus, Max Prime and Nato, along with guests like Touch and ex-LBA-er Conspiracy, have collaborated to create a dark, slamming album that slides between grimey, New York underground rap and funky space jams. The Damage Is Done starts strong when intro “The Beginning of the End” switches over to massive posse cut “214 Years Later.” It may be the highlight of the album, but the rest is by no means filler. There's the piano-heavy drama of “Ill Skill Teknishunz,” the dark conspiracy theories of “Blind Faith,” the minimal club track “Lost in Space,” the old school-influenced “The Descent,” the future funky “WMD,” and the dark story song “End of Days,” a close contender for the spotlight already taken by “214 Years Later.” While the destructive partying of LBA means it will probably be a long time before they release another crew album, they have revealed themselves to be a talented group of individuals with The Damage Is Done, and with each member hard at work on their own solo projects or other collaborations there should be no shortage of product coming from the LBA camp.

For more on Low Budget Affiliates check out http://www.busshaak.com

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