The rotten apple has been in the firm grip of a sizzling heat wave for the last two weeks  – and as any New Yorker will tell you, when it starts to really bake in Gotham, it’s something serious. It probably has something to do with all the skyscrapers holding in the heat and the concrete pavements emitting it so offensively to the city’s denizens. So anyways, it was a welcome pleasure to walk into DJ Premier’s “Headqcourterz” studios on the west of Manhattan for the Ill Bill/DJ Muggs listening session and see a nice spread of very-chilled Heinekens, Coronas and bottled waters set out for the invited guests. After cooling down with a few long sips of cold beer and ingesting a quick pizza slice, reality set in that I was actually lounging in the confines of hallowed rap history. “Headqcourterz” studios was formerly known as D&D, and this is the same location where rap gods like Jay-Z , Nas and Biggie recorded key cuts with DJ Premier for their classic debut albums: Reasonable Doubt, Illmatic and Ready to Die respectively. It’s also where Primo’s own group, Gangstarr (R.I.P. Guru) recorded classic albums in their extensive collection – epic albums like Hard to Earn, Moment of Truth and Daily Operation. No one has to tell you how special this place is – the gold and platinum plaques on the wall tell the story all too clearly.

Okay let’s get to the music. Around 10pm, all the heads assembled were ushered into the sound room, and the man of the hour,  Ill Bill was laid back in a sofa rocking baggy camouflage shorts, old-school Jordan kicks, black t-shirt and a baseball hat. You’re not going to catch an O.G. like Ill Bill wearing any hipster rap outfits – tight jeans and Bathing Ape sneakers or anything along that ilk. The sound engineer cues the music and what follows is a non-stop barrage of 16 head-bopping, riff-heavy, speaker-thumping subterranean beats by DJ Muggs, all accompanied by fierce vocal deliveries from MC Ill Bill and a select roster of guest emcees: Sean Price, B-Real, Everlast, O.C. and Q-Unique.  There are several stand-out cuts on the disc:  the opener “Cult Assassin” sets the hardcore tone perfectly, “Trouble Shooters” with Sean Price is an audio thriller that rips you right out of your seat and jerks you into an alternate, raw-rap dimension; “Amputated Saints” features Muggs’s Cypress Hill compadre B-Real rocking the mic like a hungry, rap-crazed wolf; and the title track “Kill Devil Hills” features Vinnie Paz from Jedi Mind Tricks spitting gutter lyricism over a choppy, syncopated boom-bap composition.

After the last song “Narco Corridos” fades out, all the bloggers and journalists clap for about 2 minutes straight. Yeah, the album is that good. Ill Bill fields a fair amount of questions from the listeners, and around 11:30pm, the evening’s events come to a close. Ultimately, you had to notch the night as a win for Hip-Hop. Hopefully when the LP drops on August 24th, people go out and support the soldiers out there still killing themselves to elevate the art form of true rap.

Words and photos by Geo Hagan

Audio link for “Narcos Corridos”: http://www.mediafire.com/?vwj4mmmmoy5