Happy 10th Anniversary to CZARFACE’s second studio album Every Hero Needs A Villain, originally released June 16, 2015.
I’m pretty much a tailor-made fan of the group CZARFACE. I’m a consummate Wu-Tang Clan head, and have long believed that Jason “Inspektah Deck” Hunter is one of the most talented emcees breathing. I’ve also long believed that George “7L” Andrinopoulos & Seamus “Esoteric” Ryan are largely unheralded geniuses, and that the Boston-based duo, both together and separate, have been consistently dope. So when Deck, Esoteric and 7L announced that they were forming CZARFACE, I was excited about their potential, which they subsequently achieved and exceeded.
CZARFACE’s 2013 self-titled debut was a masterful mission statement, and they’ve spent the last decade-plus putting together one of the most consistently dope catalogues of the 2010s and the first half of the 2020s. The crew has forged an undeniable alchemy that has resulted in a lot of amazing music and reached heights they hadn’t climbed on their own.
I’m of the belief that CZARFACE’s second album Every Hero Needs a Villain, released 10 years ago, is their best. I’m also of the opinion that it’s one of the best projects of the 2010s. Deck, Esoteric, and the Czar-Keys production team (which includes 7L) don’t reinvent the wheel with their approach to the long-player, they just improve in all respective areas.
Which is to say that the group delivers hard-hitting hardcore hip-hop. There are still frequent references to comic books, MCU films, and pro-wrestling. There are hard-hitting, boom-bap tracks. There’s nothing genre-redefining, but it’s a top-tier exercise in Esoteric and Inspektah Deck kicking battle-oriented rhymes over rugged beats. Throughout the project, they supply skill-oriented lyricism and still manage to have fun.
The group continued to refine and embrace the comic book-styled origins of “CZARFACE” throughout Every Hero Needs A Villain. On their debut, CZARFACE was just a cool looking, Jack Kirby-styled character that graced the album’s cover. For the follow-up, the group gives CZARFACE a backstory and character attributes, envisioning him as a loner antihero in the mode of Wolverine and Punisher. The album features frequent interludes designed to sound like they’re lifted from a non-existent CZARFACE-based cartoon, possibly broadcast on weekdays after Transformers. The CD is packaged to include the first issue of the CZARFACE comic, written by Esoteric, and featuring art by Gilberto Aguirre Mata. It all lay the groundwork for the branding and merchandizing bonanza that exists around the character today.
Listen to the Album:
Of course, none of it would work without dope beats and lyrics, which everyone involved contributes. Throughout Every Hero, the pair often delivers their raps to electric guitar samples backed by hard-hitting drums. “Lumberjack Match” is a spirited Texas Tornado-styled melee, with Deck and Eso delivering haymakers as they pass the mic back and forth. “Sinister” lives up to its name: it’s the rawest track on the album, with the pair kicking short verses chock full of “rugged … awesome … rap,” the vocals laden with malicious intent. “I’m a blood red etching of a demon framed,” Esoteric boasts. “You a high-res photograph of beads of rain.”
This isn’t to say that the album’s production is one note. The Czar-Keys production team may keep the beats gritty, but they do so in a creative manner. “Sgt. Slaughter” features a staccato-like drum pattern, allowing both emcees kick complex rhymes patterns. “Call the coroner for this immortal orator,” Deck raps. “Drop game like Doc Strange: sort of a sorcerer.”
CZARFACE collaborates with some emcees best known for their production work to create a pair of the more entertaining songs on the album. The rumbling “World Premier” features a spirited verse from Large Professor, who delivers “Bruce Lee kicks to the page on loose leaf.” Esoteric gives a syllable-bending performance, rapping, “Shatter foes with my weapons / It’s medicine from the heaven / I’m menacing with my presence / The nerve of these fucking peasants.”
The group goes a bit against their musical M.O. a few times on Every Hero. “Junkyard Dogs,” featuring JuJu of the Beatnuts, is a much more oft-kilter endeavor. It’s built on a base of neck-snapping production, but features frequent musical dips, dives, and tempo changes, including breakdowns into reggae-themed material and abundant samples from pro-wrestling promos and obscure 1970s cartoons.
“Red Alert” plays like a parody of a 2010s era swag rap track. It’s punctuated by blips of synths and a just slightly off-beat drum track. Esoteric clearly doesn’t take things too seriously, boasting that he’s “hoppin’ out the whip the same color as gluten free bacon” and proclaiming, “I’m kinda sick so I took this verse off / But I’m kinda in charge of the fucking project so they can't take this verse off.”
The group’s collaborations with other members of the Wu-Tang Clan stand out. “Nightcrawler,” featuring Method Man, pays homage to the Clan’s early 1990s origins, with the three rapping over dusty, yet bouncy soul samples. “When Gods Go Mad,” featuring GZA, is a much grimmer endeavor. The Czar-Keys again utilize frequent beat and tempo changes, going from growling keys to triumphant horns to a rolling bass sample. As always, GZA is in top form, using vivid and abstract imagery. He describes a primordial planet occupying the furthest reaches of the mind, rapping, “In this world, loose tongues are cut with razors / Something major, inside the darkest corners of twisted behavior.”
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CZARFACE also get assistance from numerous underground legends. “Deadly Class,” featuring Meyhem Lauren, finds them delivering venomous verses to an infectious string sample and blasts of horns. The haunting “Ka-Bang!” is CZARFACE’s first team-up with MF DOOM. The group would go on to release two collaborative albums with DOOM, including CZARFACE Meets Metal Face (2018) and DOOM’s posthumous Super What? (2021).
“Escape From Czarkham Asylum” is Every Hero’s most ambitious endeavor: an eight-plus-minute medley, split into roughly four sections. Eso and Deck keep things battle-rhyme focused, beginning the epic with an homage to late 1980s hip-hop. In another particularly effective section, the pair imagines themselves as King Kong and Godzilla styled Kaiju, rampaging through the streets of their home cities, crushing efforts to stop them, predating the film Godzilla Vs. Kong (2021) by more than half a decade.
Every Hero ends strong with “Good Villains Go Last,” which utilizes the talents of RA the Rugged Man. It sounds like something that could been found on a super-indie mid-1990s 12”, as the Czar-Keys chop an organ-heavy New Orleans funk song. Deck crowns himself “Czar Fonzerelli,” touting his ability to deliver “the boom bap ritual / Not the typical, bullshit that you listen to.” R.A. closes things with his complex, mind-bending flow, effortlessly winding his way through golden hip-hop imagery and 1990s genre movie references. “Moe Dee black frames, 80s era crack pains / I smack veins, I snatch chains, I lack brains / Hijack planes, under siege like you riding Casey Ryback trains / My rap reigns like G Rap, Kane’s.”
Every Hero Needs A Villain represents the point where CZARFACE launched themselves into overdrive, becoming one of the most prolific and creative groups of the last decade. What followed were collaborative albums, comic books, action figures, and even film tie-ins. But the quality of the music always stayed at the forefront. They earned their following by committing to their passions, while having the skills to back it up.
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