Moka Only - Airport 5

Throw on my canvas backpack at around 9:30pm for a walk across town the other day. Trekkin' from South D to West to meet my girlfriend at work. I've got one CD in my walkman and it's going to have to do me well for quite some time, this is a good hour or so of a walk.

Moka Only's Airport 5, the fifth installment of the series, was the perfect jam for this session. I'm walking down the street past sorority girls in their short skirts laughing alongside frat boys trying to act tough, people driving too fast and everybody a little bit drunk. It's Thursday night but it's the first day of the semester at the local college. Around me for much of my trek is a whirlwhind of people, on the sidewalk going from one party to another or on porches and lawns of frat houses playing beerpong or giving bro hugs.

None of it registers quite right.

The smooth flows of Moka O's rapping fill my ears, the CD player volume up high with the bass boost on blast. I can't hear the outside world, I'm too entangled in the incredibly relaxing and poetic world that is Airport 5. Listening to this album, everything outside was bathed in water. I've got a swagger in my step to the beat, the production kickin' back, making worldly problems feel so damn trivial. The trees seem to sway with me and everybody moves out of my way, though I'm not an intimidating guy. I appreciate the world around me, feeling like I'm viewing it through a secret lens and nobody can really see me.

HipHopDX.com called this album "high-flying doze-off rap," as an insult (they gave it 3.2 stars), but I think that describes it in a positively perfect way. It is doze-off rap, in a sense; the flow is so smooth is makes you wonder if Moka's mouth moves at all or if he just stands in front of a mic and they all just spill out into the pop filter, and the beats transition from one to the next with such excellent precision you don't even know it. I definitely didn't doze off, but I did listen to the album through twice before I finished my trek.

Incredibly smooth jams, I'd recommend this album for anybody who likes hip hop that's not slammin' in your face. Just chill out and enjoy it, it's damn good.