Tee Double

Vintage Visionz (Kinetic Global)

Terrany Johnson has been to school, paid the bills, etc. He’s a vet at this point, a distinguished local MC comfortable behind the mic, with a keen ear and effortless flow. As 2007’s The Return of the Artform attested, he and his alter ego, Tee Double, approach hip-hop optimistically and lyrically, in league with the early 1990s tribe that held knowledge over the material. Vintage Visionz, his 15th album, has one foot in the past and one in the future, “So Vintage” and “How Can It Be” flipping two sides of the jazz-hop coin. The soulful samples of “Aint It” drive the song, as Johnson takes us back in the day, but then a pattern starts emerging. Tee’s a solid rapper throughout, but on the last half, the beats get a bit stale, which leaves the vision of the title in question.

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This article appears in July 23 • 2010.

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