Jedi Mind Tricks – Violence Begets Violence (2011)

April 23, 2023

I got into JMT through Vinnie Paz guesting on some Immortal Technique stuff (I think, anyway), so I came in around this era and this was the first record I ever heard by them, so a lot of the chat about this not being as good as the old shit wasn’t applicable to me, as I hadn’t heard any of that stuff yet.

I’ve had this album “saved” on my to-do list since 2014, and I’m only writing about it now, which speaks volumes really as its the oldest thing on the list and I’ve constantly passed it up in favour of writing about something else. I don’t think that Jedi Mind Tricks are particularly awful on Violence Begets Violence, but I really struggled to think of anything to say. I only really, truly enjoy the Vinnie Paz verses across the whole thing, even though some of the others, particularily from guest appearances other than other members of JMT, do have some good lines now and then, None of the songs really descend into soppy, hip-hop record tedium (a song about weed, or a song about staying true or whatever), but nothing really inspires me here, despite most of the beats hitting quite hard.

My favourite song has to be “Design in Malice”.

That’ll do for now.