The Midwest recently has emerged as a force in HHH with artists like K-Drama, Yaves, and D-Maub leading the charge. These artists set the bar high enough to make it difficult to leap over. Ohio- bred emcee Deacon D.A.S. (Demetrius Alexander Springer) is ready to add a notch to that bar with his second full length release entitled Triumphant.

Creatively, Triumphant is multi-layered in that it presents a couple of different sounds. One sound is bubbly synth laced dance style tracks like “Mind over matter” and “Jubilee” that showcase his dynamic flow over up-tempo tracks. Secondly Das seems to favor gritty East coast joints in which he shines as a wordsmith. As far as originality goes, I hear the direction that Das is going in but he seems to hit and miss with the way some song elements gel. Das gets credit for having a different sound but in most aspects it is still basic. It’s like déjà vu listening to this album because the same thing that plagued the last album hit this one. The style of vocalist, Where das put vocalist on a track, as well as the skill of some of the singers made me want to skip some songs or just hurt the replay value. Example, the song “Secret place” could have did without the vocals in the end as well as in the chorus background, this happens periodically on this record.

Lyrically Das is a master from the way he weaves words together as well as it all making sense. What Das is saying is actually pretty profound in some songs like “Tragedy to Triumph” which states “Every nation, every color and creed /to every brother in need I know the struggle is deep. Every mother and seed that grown accustom to nothing but wheat/ open the cupboard and have nothing to eat”. Lyrically Das goes in on a regular with lines like that full of substance and meat! Das also stays on point with his delivery which I think is phenomenal, his flow puts you in mind of rappers like Willie Will or Young Josh.

The beat selection is nice on this album which was mainly handled by legendary producer Tony Stone. You can’t go wrong with T- Stone on the beats. Rounding out the rest of the tracks are fellow Midwest lyricist and super producer K-drama as well as Joshua James and D-Flow. They gave Das an ample audio canvas. Now somewhere in this whole equation the sound quality got jacked up! I don’t know if all the tracks came from mp3s or if the bit rate was messed up when they sent the album but all the distortion from the compression made it hard to listen to the album. I think the recording quality was decent but somewhere something went wrong and they need to fix it.

When it boils down to the feel of this album, conceptually it flowed with an inspirational theme. Das records seemed to be aimed at encouraging the listener to keep the faith while definitely pointing to the majesty and redeeming power of God, this is highlighted on tracks like “Thy will be done” and “Long live the king” Featuring Matthew Bracey. The actual arrangement was decent in that by most of the songs being produced by one producer sort of gave it a flavor that meshed well.

Overall I would say that this album hits the target with its mission to encourage and glorify God. I think that the basis of the tracks and the lyrics really made the difference. As a person who listens for multiple things in music I could not ignore the technical deficiencies as well as the vocal styling on some songs that was like putting a old school singer on a new school track. For some I’m sure this album will be a great source of encouragement, and for others it will be a project that needs polishing. It’s totally up to you which of these categories you fall in.

Categorical Ratings Breakdown:

Originality/Creativity: 2/5
Lyrics: 4/5 
Delivery: 4/5
Beat Selection/Production: 3/5
Concept/Arrangement: 3/5

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