Souls of Mischief, the subset of Hieroglyphics consisting of Opio, Tajai, A Plus, and Phesto, haven’t released an album since 2000.

For this one, they enlisted the help of Prince Paul on production duties. His work on this album is great; the beats sound great coming through my speakers. However, just three songs into the album, I can’t believe how bad the lyrics are. “Won!” features sexist and homophobic lyrics, talking about “pantyhose critics,” and other lines I’m not comfortable repeating. “Postal,” doesn’t fare much better, as it features the deep emotional understanding of a relationship with a woman that a fourteen-year-old might have. I wish I could say it gets better, but it doesn’t.

If this was a group of teenagers, I might try to see if there is room for improvement, but a group that has been rhyming for twenty years should not be resorting to such terrible clichés and bad lyrics. The worst part is that it feels like all of Prince Paul’s work is wasted.

The good news is that they included an instrumental disc with the album, so I am able to appreciate the music without the bad lyrics ruining it for me. I feel bad saying it, but there it is. Come on guys, you can do better.