Before he managed to get himself locked up for a brief bit later in the decade on an assault charge,
Keith Murray was assaulting microphones and thesauruses alike with his ill "Sychosymatic" lyrical skills. Introduced to the rap world at the end of 1993 via a guest spot on the song "Hostile" off
Erick Sermon's first solo album,
Double or Nothing,
Murray stepped out on his own at the beginning of the next year with the mellow
Sermon-produced hit single "The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World," then backed it up with a full-length debut by the same title. There is nothing new in
Sermon's loping music that you couldn't get on
EPMD albums or from other recordings by members of
the Def Squad, although he did continue to bring the funk hot and viscous as always. The main attraction on
The Most Beautifullest Thing in This World, then, is
Murray's raw, emotionally charged flow and droll (though not as funny as
Redman), articulate rhymes, straight out of the battle-rap school of hip-hop. His lyrics, in other words, are often tasty going down (particularly on "How's That" with
Sermon and
Redman and "Bom Bom Zee" with Paul Hightower and
Hurricane G), but won't necessarily stick around to quell any sort of hunger. Still, the album went gold, and is easily recommended for fans of
Double or Nothing or
Whut? Thee Album. ~ Stanton Swihart