Vancouver’s Moka Only is one of the most prolific emcees working today. It comes as no surprise that he would follow up a busy fall and winter that saw a couple of full length albums drop with yet another album this spring. This time he enlisted the help of Queens producer Ayatollah, best known for his work with Mos Def, amongst others. On paper, it’s a great fit, and I was very interested to hear what they’d come up with. Unfortunately, Bridges doesn’t quite live up to expectations.

The weirdest part of Bridges is how quickly Moka Only, who had made his reputation as a smart and clever emcee, abandons all of this to drop a lot of dumb and unfunny lines that push the album into offensive territory. On the opening track, a fun beat set down by Ayatollah is quickly ruined by such lines as “I remember one girl who called me ‘The Shaver’/ I went with the razor and shaved the shit out of her/Then I did business, plugged her like a juke box.” Needless to say, this line not only disturbed me, but it put me on alert for the rest of the album. Unfortunately, these lines don’t stop on the first track. What makes it especially weird, is that on the third song on the album, Moka Only declares “I never call them bitches, because I’m classy.” This of course is a lie, as he refers to bitches several times in “Anything You Know,” amongst other songs. In general, the whole album is really uninspired, full of all sorts of offensive sexual lines that confirms stereotypes of hip hop detractors. It’s the kind of work that’s so bad and offensive, that it makes me feel like I was duped by other albums, and I feel guilty for giving good reviews to other records.

On top of that, it just seems like such a waste to work with someone as talented as Ayatollah, who is bringing some great NYC boom bap to the album, which should have been the perfect pairing for Moka Only. I don’t know what made Moka Only go in this direction. I don’t need this album among my library.