pH-1 - Home Alone Lights Out(HALO) Album Thoughts(K-hiphop)

  pH-1 was introduced to many people on the fourth season of Show Me The Money. He didn't win but was signed with Singer/Rapper Jay Park's label H1ghr Music that he created with his producer friend Cha Cha Malone.  He has released a number of singles and collaborations with other Korean hip hop artists over the last few years so this album drop was long over due.

Track List:
01. Alright (Prod. Mokyo)
02. 너무싫어 (Prod. Mokyo)
03. Malibu (Feat. The Quiett, Mokyo) (Prod. Mokyo)
04. Lights Out (Feat. 장석훈) (Prod. Mokyo)
05. Push Me (Feat. Owen Ovadoz, Paloalto) (Prod. Mokyo)
06. Like Me (Prod. Mokyo)
07. 못봐 (Prod. Mokyo)
08. Rain Man (Feat. Ted Park) (Prod. Mokyo)
09. Olaf (Feat. Coogie) (Prod. Mokyo)
10. Dirty Nikes (Prod. Mokyo)
11. Til I Die (Feat. 박재범) (Prod. Mokyo)
12. 메이킹필름 (Feat. Mokyo) (Prod. Mokyo)

   pH-1 isn't the kind of rapper to flex about his iced up dime pieces or talk about how hood he is in his songs. That's just not who he is, but the guy manages to stand on his own just fine without pretending to be something he's not. I actually became a fan of him because of how he takes his flaws, turns them into catchy lines that everyone can follow along to then releasing it as a track. Halo is pretty much a whole compilation of tracks that tell a story of how pH-1 is a normal dude like everyone else. The singer turned rapper reassures himself in the opening number(Alright) that he's perfectly fine as a flawed human being. He also questions what a person see's in him in "Like Me" or shows the he can go from zero to a hundred when he's mad in tracks, "I Really Hate it" and "Push Me". Malibu was an upbeat Hip Hop track who uses a classic play on words about pH-1's awkwardness around girls. The track comes across as very confident when matched together with featured rapper, The Quiet. It's defiantly a track to head bang to. Halo's production lands more on the experimental since of Hip Hop. Each track doesn't rely too heavily on only having just a base beat. Instead pH-1 goes for a light and fun Hip hop sound created by horns, saxophones, and flutes. Once again we go back to the fact that this guy isn't a gangster rapper. He's just telling his story in his own way. Hip hop like this won't be accepted by everyone as I well know. My only problem with the album was the tracks that felt sort of lazy…. I mean that you can tell he was having fun but the result wasn't as good as the other tracks on the album. These tracks weren't as catchy as the tracks that you can tell he put his all into.. If that makes any sense. Halo shows what pH-1 excels at the most though.



   pH-1 used to be a singer before deciding that he wanted to rap full time. Not to say that he doesn't sing in his songs because he does all the time. He's one of the few rappers that can rap using melody in Korea. Many other rappers are jumping on sing song rap while bogging down this track with heavy autotune like hearing them sound like a word processor is the cool thing to do. pH-1 does use autotune sometimes which I don't always care for. Did I mention that this guy can actually rap like a beast? Halo showed me that he can hold his own in a hood cypher if he had to.

   I think there about six skippable tracks on Halo that weren't very interesting. This album made me more interested in pH-1 as an artist. I'm sure there's more great things to come in his career.