The Bronx, New York emcee/producer Diamond D preparing the final installment of The Diam Piece trilogy by splitting it into 3 EPs & giving us the first Initium ahead of Duo in November as well as Tria in February 2025. A mentor of Jazzy Jay, he would then form the D.I.T.C. collective alongside Lord Finesse & Showbiz in ‘92 only to put out his classic full-length debut Stunts, Blunts & Hip Hop shortly after. D went on to drop 6 more albums & a couple mixtapes of his own, the latest being Gotham’s acclaimed self-titled effort & The Rear View. The Diam Piece & its sequel left most of the rhyming to the guests, so I get why he’d return to that formula coming off The Rear View.

“Fire & Water” by RJ Payne & Skyzoo starts off ruggedly bringing hardcore lyricism over boom bap production whereas “The King” by KRS-One was a great lead single & another one of the best Blastmaster songs I’ve heard in recent memory taking the crown as rightfully his. “Merk” by Bishop Lamont & Torae keeps it in the basement instrumentally getting bloodthirsty, but then “Bosses” by Lord Tariq & Sauce Money finds the 2 getting on the mafioso tip for 4 minutes.

Fatman Scoop & Static the Prodigy hop on the playful sounding “Death B4 Dishonor” promising that you don’t wanna test either one of them leading into “Codes” by Agallah, David Bars & Royal Flush rawly reminding not to trust anyone in the streets. “Lay Me Down” by Inspectah Deck & Shyheim aggressively details the life of crime while “Blue Sunshine” by E-A-Ski & 38 Spesh brings the respective west coast & east coast producer/MCs dustily getting on the battle rap tip. “My People” by Bonecrusher ends with a jazzy tribute to his kinfolk.

In the digital era where a lot of people’s attention spans are incredibly short, it’s more than understandable that the D.I.T.C. co-founder didn’t want to release a 29-song album & decided to split The Diam Piece 3 into a trilogy of EPs. Initium itself with its versatile list of performers over Diamond D’s signature sound is more than enough to hold everyone over until Duo at the end of 2024 & finally Tria early next year.

Score: 8/10