RULE's Reviews: John Dos - First Prescription (Mixtape)

[Revan]

RULE's Reviews:

John Dos - First Prescription (Mixtape)



Overview

The debut mixtape from John Dos aka Dosage. This 10 track mixtape is styled in the vein of the general sound of Hip Hop at the time of recording.


Track By Track Review

1. About The Money (Ft Rich Stackz)

Beat suited a mixtape opener. Took a while to get going, decent hook but too long. Rich Stackz was very very basic lyrically and delivery-wise, not the best kind of opener you could have. Dos's verse just about saved the track (altho the content was fairly generic) but the damage was already done by then. 5/10


2. Attention (Ft Mani Mula)

Beat similar in style to the opener, Mani opened with a fire verse, a few quotables. Dos rode it well but the lack of quotables meant the track finished with Dos looking weaker than his guest. 6/10


3. Spaceship

Beat and Hook was pure crack. Much stronger showing from Dos here. Flow was illy! Yes much better showing here! 7/10


4. Wanna Go Back

A Dos-performed hook on this one, very decent too. Content was much more personal and direct which increases your potency tenfold. "Fresh Prince" line was a standout. REALLY wanted to give this an 8. And i think i will. 8/10


5. Broadwalk

Real mellow beat here, Another solid hook. Yet again when given a subject to rap about the content increases immensely. Another really strong track. 8/10


6. Get Paid

Another solid Dos-performed hook. The producers 'watermark' has been evident on all the tracks but really stood out on this one to hurt the quality. A decent track, nothing standout lyrically tho. 6/10


7. Fire It Up

Bridge & Hook were a bit repetitive here. 4th Dosage hook of the same kind in a row probably didnt help. The flow seemed a lil off in places, content again seemed to dip with the lack of a topic to sunk your teeth into. 6/10


8. Dream

Another track that seemed to suffer from lack of lyrical direction. Hook was fairly basic too. 6/10


9. The Freshest (Ft Mani Mula)

The Mani hook was refreshing. The break midway through was a lil over-abrupt, not sure it paid off the way you intended. again a decently delivered verse which suffered with lack of direction. 6/10


10. Mile Away (Ft DMullz)

Producer 'watermark' at the beginning was a terrible way to start. Hook was great. Yet again the content really lacked the personal content that made some of the other tracks shine. Too much drug-bravado. DMullz dropped a solid guest spot. Would of preferred the tape to close on a Dos verse but a solid track regardless. 6/10

Average Track Rating: 5.8/10


Track Of The Tape: Wanna Go Back


Verdict:

I'll start with the negatives: The production was all crackin but the producer 'watermarks' really started to effect the overall tapes replay value. Onto the hooks, they were fairly solid but you had a run of 4 or so tracks which all had a similar hook performed by the same person (You) in the same vocal tone and similar in scheme and structure. This strongly affected there strength. Little changes like vocal effects or tone during delivery would of made a big difference. The last negative is also a positive but i'll speak on the negative aspect of it first: the content. On many of the tracks your content seemed directionless, which led to you just spitting about the same generic themes that a thousand other rappers have done before you. Unless you drop more quotables and stand-out punchlines that style is always going to be fairly played and/or basic. NOW on the flip side when you had a strong topic or theme to spit about your content was 10x better. Tracks 3, 4 & 5 are a massive example of this. Give yourself more direction and your verses will maintain that high standard. The guest spots were few (which is great) as you werent afraid to dominate the majority of the tracks. You had 4 total, 3 were great, 1 was dissapointing. Your delivery is very strong and you have a very good sound on tracks, actually i'd say you sound great on wax, your very comfortable on the mic. Your ear for production is also clearly strong. Im actually very impressed that considering this is your first tape your potential for future projects is great! With work on the pitfalls that many people fall into you could really do damage.


Tape Rating: 6/10


Download Here: John Dos - First Prescription

[Revan]

RULE's Reviews:

John Dos - First Prescription (Mixtape)



Overview

The debut mixtape from John Dos aka Dosage. This 10 track mixtape is styled in the vein of the general sound of Hip Hop at the time of recording.


Track By Track Review

1. About The Money (Ft Rich Stackz)

Beat suited a mixtape opener. Took a while to get going, decent hook but too long. Rich Stackz was very very basic lyrically and delivery-wise, not the best kind of opener you could have. Dos's verse just about saved the track (altho the content was fairly generic) but the damage was already done by then. 5/10


2. Attention (Ft Mani Mula)

Beat similar in style to the opener, Mani opened with a fire verse, a few quotables. Dos rode it well but the lack of quotables meant the track finished with Dos looking weaker than his guest. 6/10


3. Spaceship

Beat and Hook was pure crack. Much stronger showing from Dos here. Flow was illy! Yes much better showing here! 7/10


4. Wanna Go Back

A Dos-performed hook on this one, very decent too. Content was much more personal and direct which increases your potency tenfold. "Fresh Prince" line was a standout. REALLY wanted to give this an 8. And i think i will. 8/10


5. Broadwalk

Real mellow beat here, Another solid hook. Yet again when given a subject to rap about the content increases immensely. Another really strong track. 8/10


6. Get Paid

Another solid Dos-performed hook. The producers 'watermark' has been evident on all the tracks but really stood out on this one to hurt the quality. A decent track, nothing standout lyrically tho. 6/10


7. Fire It Up

Bridge & Hook were a bit repetitive here. 4th Dosage hook of the same kind in a row probably didnt help. The flow seemed a lil off in places, content again seemed to dip with the lack of a topic to sunk your teeth into. 6/10


8. Dream

Another track that seemed to suffer from lack of lyrical direction. Hook was fairly basic too. 6/10


9. The Freshest (Ft Mani Mula)

The Mani hook was refreshing. The break midway through was a lil over-abrupt, not sure it paid off the way you intended. again a decently delivered verse which suffered with lack of direction. 6/10


10. Mile Away (Ft DMullz)

Producer 'watermark' at the beginning was a terrible way to start. Hook was great. Yet again the content really lacked the personal content that made some of the other tracks shine. Too much drug-bravado. DMullz dropped a solid guest spot. Would of preferred the tape to close on a Dos verse but a solid track regardless. 6/10

Average Track Rating: 5.8/10


Track Of The Tape: Wanna Go Back


Verdict:

I'll start with the negatives: The production was all crackin but the producer 'watermarks' really started to effect the overall tapes replay value. Onto the hooks, they were fairly solid but you had a run of 4 or so tracks which all had a similar hook performed by the same person (You) in the same vocal tone and similar in scheme and structure. This strongly affected there strength. Little changes like vocal effects or tone during delivery would of made a big difference. The last negative is also a positive but i'll speak on the negative aspect of it first: the content. On many of the tracks your content seemed directionless, which led to you just spitting about the same generic themes that a thousand other rappers have done before you. Unless you drop more quotables and stand-out punchlines that style is always going to be fairly played and/or basic. NOW on the flip side when you had a strong topic or theme to spit about your content was 10x better. Tracks 3, 4 & 5 are a massive example of this. Give yourself more direction and your verses will maintain that high standard. The guest spots were few (which is great) as you werent afraid to dominate the majority of the tracks. You had 4 total, 3 were great, 1 was dissapointing. Your delivery is very strong and you have a very good sound on tracks, actually i'd say you sound great on wax, your very comfortable on the mic. Your ear for production is also clearly strong. Im actually very impressed that considering this is your first tape your potential for future projects is great! With work on the pitfalls that many people fall into you could really do damage.


Tape Rating: 6/10


Download Here: John Dos - First Prescription

[John Dos]

not a bad rating...gotta say i'm a bit dissapointed with a few of the tracks myself tbh. looking back i think i could have done alot more damage and i could have been a lot better content wise. i could have touched on more subjects and gone a bit more in depth with the story telling, cuz that is a strong factor i only showed on "Fire it Up"...i think a 7 would have been more fitting for my overall rating but it's whatever. thanks for the review homie.

[John Dos]

not a bad rating...gotta say i'm a bit dissapointed with a few of the tracks myself tbh. looking back i think i could have done alot more damage and i could have been a lot better content wise. i could have touched on more subjects and gone a bit more in depth with the story telling, cuz that is a strong factor i only showed on "Fire it Up"...i think a 7 would have been more fitting for my overall rating but it's whatever. thanks for the review homie.