There’s a loosely knit crew that revolves around illRoots’ Mike Waxx and his production and or mixing skills. Over the last few months, Waxx has somehow found time to work out production on a number of mix tapes. And oddly enough, each one has maintained a pretty high level of professionalism and consistency. Now at this point, he’s created an expectation for his soul doused products. But his work on these mix tapes is only part of the final outcome.

Looking back at the Nero and QuESt mix tapes, the overall work only portends future greatness. And regardless of how young these dudes are, these tapes – rap-wise at least – didn’t deliver a hundred percent. Again, there were certainly brief glimpses of dense ‘graphs of rhymes, but nothing that warrants another forty or so minutes of listening.

Added to the list of Nero and QuESt now is TreaZon. And as a disclaimer, I’m a transplanted Clevelander, so what follows might be a sprinkled with a bit of hometown pride. I mean, what else does Clevo have goin’ on? Bone and K-Fed? Please.

Much in the same way that these previous Mike Waxx projects worked, portions of the TreaZon tape 9 Steps has been splayed across the internets. But in this case, the production from 9^th Wonder has been a point of marketing and of course that’s warranted. While this has all been going on, TreZon’s already working on a proper full length. That’s still to come though.

Here, a few works stick out amongst some of the more meagerly decorated rap tracks. Getting past the track that features Nero, “Shine” shows up with a drum heavy, sparse beat. Lyrically, it finds TreaZon in boastful form, as to be expected. There is a telling Chris Brown reference that in the future will mark this as a 2009 release. But even as the raps come in deep breathes, it quickly devolves into a comedy of name checks. Of course, the hallmark of a proper rhymer is to be able to incorporate anything around him. So with these jocular name checks, at least listeners can hear TreaZon being a real human being as opposed to constructing some nonsensical persona.

The following track, while not necessarily a stand out, does mention blogging and Wordpress. And in this particular reference, the point that this came about due to the internets is blatantly displayed. With TreaZon in the Midwest and all other contributors on the proper east coast, it would seem that some could hypothesize that these folks may have infrequently been in the same room – if ever.

Towards the end of the disc, QuESt and Nero show up on the same track as “Speed” seems to represent some sort of crew contribution. As the track begins, each emcee speaks on how to create a work and what nonsense they’ve each dealt with. More importantly, everyone makes the point that none of these rappers are planning to disappear any time too soon. And as the track dissolves in a vocal sample touting the JB’s, it’s pretty easy to believe them.