I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind II

Razor tongued rap veteran Killer Mike is one of the most talented and prolific artists on Atlanta’s burgeoning rap scene. In 2000 his chart scraping collaboration with Outkast, “The Whole World,” brought him to national attention, but rather than parlaying this success into stardom, Killer Mike concentrated on developing his local following, releasing a series of earnest fire breathing albums and mixtapes that are as incendiary as anything released by Ice Cube in his heyday. Killer Mike’s belligerent stance and willingness to confront hot button issues like the government’s tardy response to Hurricane Katrina distinguish him from the general run of Atlanta rappers, whose lyrics are generally restricted to purely local concerns. Killer Mike’s *Pledge Allegiance to The Grind II* is a follow up to Mike’s groundbreaking 2006 mixtape. Like that tape *Pledge Allegiance II* finds Mike dabbling in a bewildering array of styles, from the club oriented sounds of snap rap on “2 Sides” to classic Southern sounds on the outstanding “Super Clean/Super Hard” which sees Mike prodding 8Ball & MJG into delivering one of their very strongest performances of recent years.

The first installment of Killer Mike’s I Pledge Allegiance to the Grind series, released in 2006, felt like a classic album scattered among a bunch of...