by Chanté LaGon

Hundreds of heads are trying to make music. The key is who has the best package and connections rather than the best beats and lyrics. Count Chase ahead of the game. He's got a little of both.

Regime Entertainment artists are from the South, but their music is not the Southern fried OutKast and Goodie MOB flavor that most heads crave. While I make time to appreciate dem local bwa's on a regular basis, the styling of Chase's lyrics leave little room for comparison to those homegrown groups.

The standout tracks on Dead Poets combine Chase's wordplay with beats that have depth. Unfortunately, there's less than half of an album's worth of those. "Scorned" is an exception, as are "72 Inches" and "Tenacious." The Regime crew collaborates on "Kaotic Cipha" with success, and "Visitor" and "Regret" don't leave any when it comes to storytelling with vision.

The rest of the album sounds like a solid demo, a bit corny here (chimes in "The Force"), a bit predictable there (intro and samples in "Dead Poets"). I thought "If You Knew" sounded familiar, and I guess it should as it was released to college radio in May 2002. The melody is reminiscent of Esthero's "Heaven Sent" and Tyfu's "Terrorize," but the lyrics leave me unsure of what I was supposed to know.

Will I rock it on the regular? Probably not. But that's not because of a lack of potential. I look forward to a second release, which I fully expect Chase and the Regime crew to make good on, complete with more advanced production and even tighter rhymes.

Dead Poets
by Chase
Track Listing:

1. Intro
2. Visitor - Tenacious featuring Redd Menace
3. Bladerunner
4. Dead Poets
5. Skit
6. Regrets
7. Kaotic Cipha featuring Sarkazm, TRC and Redd Menace
8. If You Knew
9. 72 Inches featuring Sarkazm
10. The Force
11. Open Invitation featuring Redd Menace, TRC and Sarkazm
12. Scorned
13. Rotate