Album Review: Violence Begets Violence by Jedi Mind Tricks

This is new territory for the Jedi Mind Tricks. With Violence Begets Violence, the veteran collective is releasing its first album without production from Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind, a move that has left some supporters understandably skeptical. Longtime collaborator Jus Allah has also rejoined the group after years of being absent. Amid all of these changes, the group has promised that fans need not worry, noting that this effort will keep the essence of JMT alive.

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“Serial killers do on a small scale what governments do on a large one. They are products of their times and these are bloodthirsty times.” That Jedi Mind Tricks choose to open their seventh studio album by quoting serial killer Richard Ramirez where they might previously have alluded to Gandhi or Malcolm X should tell rap fans nearly all they need to know about the 2011 incarnation of Philadelphia’s longest-running underground rap group. Jedi Mind Tricks have always taken an aggressive tact toward socio-political hip-hop, though it’s difficult to call their recent offerings “conscious” since they’re more concerned with grotesque expressions of anger.

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For more than a decade, rap collective Jedi Mind Tricks have been underground mainstays thanks to venomous wordplay and a niche all their own. On Violence Begets Violence, the group return with the hardened approach that’s become their trademark on their first album in three years. “I am the reverse of Christ,” frontman Vinnie Paz rasps at one points, and his yen for minor-key hellfire remains robust throughout the album.

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