June 12th, 2009 
Brandon
Artist: Tony Moon
Album: Moonshine: You Know, For Kids!
Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap
Label: Unsigned
1. Greetings
2. Catch You
3. What Happened
4. These Days
5. Shipwreck (Interlude)
6. Evolutionary Music (Snippet)
7. Straight Poetry
8. 3rd Kind (Interlude)
9. Not Fertha Masses
10. Anthem Fethat
11. Faith
12. Creep Show
13. Struggle To Suffer
14. Twitchin’
15. Build Up Babylon
16. On Top
17. Drunken Brother/Mike C Message
18. The Day After Tomorrow
19. Déjà vu
20. Drunken Bonus Verse
Tony Moon, from Hampton, VA, is someone I’d like to classify as a rare breed of emcee that’ll take most listeners by surprise once they listen to him. His culture, soul, and devious style of rhyming is one that reaches beyond the ears of hip-hop fans and lands right into their minds where Moon stays implanted for countless future hours. I’ve heard the album three times and still have been thinking about the lyrics and truthfulness that he spits over his beats.
Moonshine is a mixtape made up of 20 fresh tracks filled with soulful beats and witty rhymes. Being the latest project from Tony Moon, it lacks very little and accomplishes so much—words wouldn’t be able to describe the life changing bars he recites on his record. In order to make a believer of all of you, I suggest you download the mixtape by clicking here and following along as I break down the mixtape.
Diving right into the mixtape, Moon introduces himself with the song, “Catch You,” where he blazes an amazing flow over a truly soulful beat that is filled with powerful horns and bouncy drums. “What Happened,” the track that follows, has a “spaceier” style of beat where Moon speaks on today’s culture versus the past. I loved this track, personally, because there was so much truth being spoken—you nearly have to listen to the track over and over again to grasp every detailed word that he spits. “These Days,” is another song with a soul influenced beat that also comes at us with an informing hook. The second verse of this song introduces us to the “Klansman hanging from trees” concept that we see on his album cover and Myspace picture. The beginning of the mixtape brought us a couple of promising tracks, which leads us to think the rest of the mixtape will be of the same quality.
The middle of the mixtape picks up with the song, “Straight Poetry,” which Moon spits about, “…getting back in the booth to get back to (his) roots.” Quickly transitioning to the next jam, Tony Moon gives us the song, “Not Fertha Masses.” The beat has a solid sample, which Moon easily rides as he speaks about how his music is not for the masses. Tony shows us, in this song, that in order to start a movement, you cannot sit on your butt and do nothing. If you want to motivate yourself, “Not Fertha Masses,” is a song you should throw on! The next song, “Anthem Ferthat,” is the perfect median for a mixtape. I loved this song because it was pretty much a diss to today’s rappers—I can definitely relate to this joint. “Faith,” the next song, has a very smooth beat and beautiful bass line that Tony gets to rhyme over. As the song name shows, obviously this is a track about religion as he states, “…this is what happens when passion meets a plan,” which sets the vibe for the whole track. Finishing up the middle of the mixtape is the track, “Creep Show.” A dark beat with a mischievous melody provides the parameter of another one of Moon’s ill tracks. I’m yet hear a track that let me down, lets see how Tony ends the mixtape.
Starting the end of the mixtape is the song, “Struggle To Suffer,” which is over one of my favorite recycled samples. On this track, Moon tells us how it is in his everyday life and what it is like to put up with family struggles on the block. “Twitchin’,” continues the vibe of the mixtape with a very mellow sample. Don’t get the beat confused with the content of the song…because if you listen close you can hear how excited Moon is about all of the veterans that are losing their skill, which opens a door for him to be a champ in the game. “Build Up Babylon,” another great track from Tony Moon, touches on some of the similar topics we already heard on the mixtape—the downfalls of music, culture, and religion and how trueness shall prevail. The next song, “On Top,” was my favorite beat that Tony Moon used. The drums were so fantastic…I loved it!
Finally, we see the grand finale of the mixtape with the track, “The Day After Tomorrow.” This song was my favorite song on the whole mixtape, however it uses another one of those recycled samples. Following that song, “Déjà vu,” kicks off with an ill beat and catchy hook that reminded me of an Orko Eloheem track I used to bump. At last we arrive to, “Drunken Bonus Verse,” which is an extra verse for the song, “What Happened.” In my opinion, I felt that the bonus verse should have been on the original track. Great ending, however.
Like I said in the beginning, Moonshine lacks very little, but I should digress on what the mixtape actually does miss. The biggest downfall of the entire tape is that a majority of the songs cut short too soon and lack in duration. Tony Moon is a man with a lot to say, so it is only fair that we demand full-length tracks from him. I find that this mixtape is based more on quantity of tracks, instead of quality of tracks. If Moon were to make a mixtape with twelve tracks instead of twenty, perhaps we’d have the quality that we are searching for. Finally, the last beef I have with this project is the production and beats used. I found a lot of the beats had recycled samples that we have all heard on different projects from other artists, but this is hardly something to knock an unsigned artist for.
To wrap things up, I would like to say kudos to Tony Moon for releasing a well rounded project and I would also like to thank him for sharing his stories and wisdom-filled lyrics with us all. I feel as if hip-hop is missing lyrically infested artists similar to Moon and if more rappers were to rise from the shadows like he did, the game could be appreciated more than the commercial style of rap we are used to hearing today.
Written By: Brandon “Venamis” Folsom – www.twitter.com/venamis (follow me)
Score: 8/10
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Tony is already a great artist that any label out there should look into and consider signing just by listening to this project! Any “beef” the reviewer had with the beats could easily be corrected by some dope beats by somebody like… Bad Abbot!? I recently met Tony and he’s a great dude, who if it was up to me (an avid hip-hop listener), should really blow up!
[…] on Tony Moon’s mixtape, “Moonshine: You Know, For Kids!,” which I reviewed earlier this year (click here to read). This was one of my favorite songs that Tony Moon blessed on his mixtape. The beat is very mellow […]
[…] still have been thinking about the lyrics and truthfulness that he spits over his beats.” – Under The Gun Review …and descriptions of his first ever song with Van Ark, “Deja Vu” as such: […]
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