Elephant Man

Toe 2 Toe, Vol. 6 brings together Elephant Man and Vybz Kartel to run through some familiar dancehall material. Elephant Man opens up the album with a warlord vex and they continue on to cover bad men, hot women, weed and gun talk. Dancehall fans will appreciate the consistency especially when Jamaica's top two MC's are given their take on the well-worn subjects. The riddims are strong but not outstanding. Both MC's run the riddims and use the minimal tracks to take them in any direction. Elephant Man remains straightforward on most of his tracks. Instead of copping weird melodies from the '80s, he just rhymes tough and lays down gritty vocals. His use of the theme from Sesame Street and a hit by Miami Sound Machine has been hard to figure out for fans outside of Jamaica. Vybz Kartel dilutes Elephant Man's touches of strange humor. Kartel changes up the tone and speed of his rhymes and gives a stronger performance than Elephant Man. The subjects remain essentially the same but he brings a bit more variety to his tracks. Elephant Man and Vybz Kartel on the same album puts the world's best dancehall MC's side by side . ~ Matt Whalley, All Music Guide