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There's a little sound effect that opens up "Black Market", a little echoed rustling, a crank, a sonar pinpoint light, that is then abandoned to make way for a guitar refunctioned into a bass. This beat is hooked up by Freddy Bruno and Playdough, who also drops by to put some rhymes down, that talk about the "thousands emcees with one simile". A straight up bass then opens the track "Love's Not", to be followed by a flute, and a rolling drum, to give us a complete offering, produced by Scott Matelic and featuring Rahlo. The chorus sums up exactly what this is about: 'I know what love is, but I can explain it better, when I say, what love's not', to paraphrase it slightly. The guest drops several nice lines, like "real love is like a ghost: talked about but rarely seen", but he's straying away from Soulheir's focusedness, and is lacking cadence. Dust returns to the production board with a nice piano and slicing cuts on "Monotone". The emcee tones down his voice too, to fit the sad vibe of this track, that is like a resigned shaking one's head, being faced with all the crookedness out there.

But a ILL does not go out without a fight, and rather than grabbing the bayonet, wasting heads by chopping them off, he uses "Unsound", to put alternatives into brains, that will kill the thoughtcrime banner, that prevents the synapses to take in anything but propaganda. Both sides then clash during "Send A Man", a dope interlude and break to things, as this is based around a voice sample, a hilariously dope organ, and constant shifts, that showcases Dust's ability to tell a musical story, with a journey of sounds in slightly less than two minutes. This well appreciated detour then gets us to "Compound Fractures", a return to the good tradition of talking ish, that manCHILD hones alongside of Sintax. Basing the next cut "Rap Fans"around a shuffling, shuffling like in the tap dance move, drum, manCHILD plans to "tattoo my name on your eardrum", teaming up with Sharlock Poems over this Scot Matelic beat, and the opposers are to be turned into people that will duck the objects that are being thrown at them, may they be lyrical or solid.

Now, there's something about the long unfolding of "Under The Sun" feat. Listener, that's unpleasing. It's hard to pinpoint it out, but it probably is the synthetic sounding horn, flute (panpipe's or not), that gives this an unwanted sound. Thoughtful rhymes are combined with a singalong chorus, that makes sense, and even though not demanded, is still nicer than the beat. That luckily though switches towards the end of the second 3rd for a little while, only to then be abandoned too quickly, to return to it's original state. So when Dust was slacking on his contribution the track before, he's making up again with "Sounds Of Music". Mostly the running piano, but also the hidden added enhancements are making this a joy to listen to. In the meantime, Soulheir, Rahlo and Sintax go through thesis and theories, before with "Who Will Answer", Dust takes out an Asian sounding collage, that has a lot going on in the back, like a scenery in "Street Fighter". Of course he's running the risk of being annoying with repeating this sound continuously, but as you should be paying attention to what the in house emcee and Remnant Militia rhyme about, as this is rather emotional, you shouldn't remain around the annoyance. However, the risk is prevented anyways, with Dust switching the beat again for a while, before returning to the beginning being, after we got the first sound out of our ear, and can welcome it again.

The producing half of the ILL then gives us the "Indulgent Instrumental #1", an insane collage of schizophrenic sounds and confused effects, that actually sound really dope. Why not do something party possible next? "Try Again" (feat. Flyn Adams Atkins), containing the third Scott Matelic beat, opts for being bouncy, and manCHILD adapts to such carelessness. But this couldn't go on for long, and "Touch And Go" returns to battle ship type tracks, with a menacing Dust beat, and setting things straight rhymes. Sev Statik also drops by to put his venom in our ear, while we shouldn't forget the complimentary scratching, Dust always adds to tracks. Dope cut. And what starts out being somewhat mockingly restrained, allows cuts to take the center stage on "Indulgent Instrumental #2". What leaves us with one remaining track, that is "The END", and that is finishing this album with a blast. Not only because of the battle ship sample, the new details that forever appear, but also because of manCHILD's unbreathing throughout spitting. Read More Here

Moving on to the lyrical side of things -- as ridiculous as his name is, Soul Heir the Manchild is an intelligent, interesting MC to listen to. You can't hope to catch all of what he and his guests have to say, but that just makes for more enjoyable repeated listenings since you'll find something new each time. And trust me, you will listen to "Raw Material" repeatedly if you like being challenged by lyrical content. It is absolutely overflowing with wit, carefully-crafted rhymes, and meticulous song structuring. For something called "Raw Material", the whole thing sure sounds polished to me. Now, I'm not even going to attempt to pick just one of the Manchild's paragraphs as his best effort – that would be too difficult. But I kinda like this excerpt from "Unsound":

"Known from here to Italy
Such a deep impact on hip hop you'd think maybe a comet was hittin me
Spitting ill soliloquies in a symphony of similes
Connected with this sphere 'cause I can't stand this industry.. 
I'm tired of floods of words without a single drop of reason
Tired of cats who change styles like the seasons
They still rhyme in monotone directly on the metronome
Now - if I battle you in the forest and you fall is there a sound?"

So good. So very good. But my favorite line on the album isn't even spit by the Manchild. One of his guests, specifically the cat featured on the beautiful track, "Love's Not" (can't identify who this guest is, since he's not credited on my copy of the album) when he says that "True love is like a ghost – talked about, but rarely seen." Nice.

To sum things up, "Raw Material" by Mars Ill is an album that absolutely every fan of the underground scene owes it to themselves to listen to. I'm going to give the album a final score of 7.5 out of 10, but only because I truly feel that with just a little more polishing, Mars Ill could have made this great album a phenomenal one. They have clearly put in tons of effort, and they have PLENTY of skill to go around, but it almost sounds like they're holding themselves back some of the time. They need to let it all out for a full album like they do on the album's closing track, "The Abolition of Manchild." This track is INCREDIBLE, and I think that if the whole album was on this same level, we'd have an instant classic on our hands with "Raw Material". One other thing to note is the fact that the album runs for an insanely long 72 minutes. That is excessive. 20 minutes could have been trimmed off easily, and had it been, the whole product would have been stronger.

Bottom line, Mars Ill is a fantastic, but seemingly underachieving, crew. With a little more work on their raw material, I wouldn't be surprised to see them eventually blow up the way Dilated did. Judging by their talents and abilities, they more than deserve to. But whatever happens, I hope to hear more from them very soon. Read More Here