Thick As Thieves marks the second full length collaboration between emcee 2 Dash Tone and producer Audio Games in as many years. Both artists are still striving to make a name for themselves, and they had somewhat grand ambitions going into the album, describing the effort as “designed to play like an audio-movie, and it takes you on a journey from our debut album, The Anomaly, through our artistic growth, all the way to our plans for the future.“” It doesn’t always come together in quite this fashion, but it is an album and pairing that displays plenty of potential.

The best part of Thick As Thieves is the way that Audio Games gets to shine as producer. Most emcee/producer albums push the producer into the background, simply providing the beats for the emcee to rap over. Here, however, Audio Games gets a few instrumental tracks and interludes all to himself, and he makes them count. He’s certainly capable of leading an instrumental album, as he proved on his solo release, The Heart Beats, which came out in April. He’s coming out of a school of classic NYC hip hop, leaning on soul and jazz samples and the classic boom bap sound, then expanding upon it. He’s definitely got a good ear for developing tracks, knowing when to add to the mix and when to sit back and let the track breath. My only complaint is that there are times on the albums when the movie quotes play out too long and become more distracting than interesting.

As an emcee, 2 Dash Tone is a bit frustrating. It seems like Tone is always walking the line between young emcee with potential to be a really interesting performer and story teller and boring rapper cliché. Sometimes it can just be his delivery, which can fall into ruts with rhythmic patterns. He also doubles his vocals way too often for someone with as clear and strong delivery as he has. Over the course of the album, it actually wears on my ears. Lyrically, though, is where 2 Dash Tone is the most frustrating. He has an interesting story and perspective as an American ex-pat living in Paris, but he never spends any time discussing this or any other personal matter, most often opting instead for boring clichés. It’s an album that seems like for every step forward, you take at least one step back. I kept searching through the record to pull out one song or verse that I could point to as the shining moment where he breaks through, but it’s just not quite there, and it’s way too easy to single out and frame the negative aspects of his lyricism, such as the groan-inducing chorus to “Mo’ Better Blues” (I’ll spoil the surprise - he rhymes ‘better’ with ‘wetter’).

I really wanted to like this album more than I did. Audio Games clearly has talent as a producer, and I think his best work is still ahead of him. I can tell there’s something behind all of the tired rhymes and clichés that 2 Dash Tone is putting down on this album, and I hope he pushes himself to break through soon. In the mean time, Thick As Thieves just leaves me wanting as a listener.