01. Intro Duction 02. Joe Carter 03. Theo's Gartrelle 04. Denham Brown 05. Desmond Ambrose 06. Enida Watts 07. Amel Larieux 08. Dwight Yorke (feat. Shazzam and Gruf the Druid) 09. Lincoln Alexander 10. Anne-Marie Green (Life Before) 11. Enida Watts rmx (Bonus) "Who that brother that think he fresh? ...that's Ness" Ness being Satchel Paige; no the legendary baseball player did not rise from the grave to release his debut rap album. Ironically, this Satchel Paige " hates baseball and hates Joe Carter. " Satchel Paige's debut, Guy, I'm from here! stands as a testament to his life and how it shaped him as a person and emcee. It is the album most emcees are afraid to make because it can be too personal for interpretation. Luckily, Paige pulls it off brilliantly. With the help of Gumshoe Strut handling all the production, minus 2 cuts, Paige pours his heart into each beat to define himself through the music. Paige proclaims in the liner notes "being young and feeling culturally isolated sucks. Here are some names that helped define a brother." He proceeds to explain the meaning behind the names in each of the song titles. Some of the names are easy to recognize, like the infamous homerun hitter from the Toronto Blue Jays, "Joe Carter," while others are only distinguishable to Canadians. An example of these hard to distinguish names is "Anne-Marie Green." For the curious, she is a news reporter for a local station in Toronto. It might seem odd Satchel would name a song after her, because what could a TV personality have to do with hip hop? But, Satchel bases her coming into his life around the time he moved from Mississauga to Toronto. Satchel asks on the track " Where ya home? Where ya at? Where ya yard? Where ya heart? " Satchel brings a nice balance of hard hitting tracks countered with the emotionally driven songs. On "Theo's Gartrelle" Paige pokes fun at himself and his arrogance from his youth. He boasts on the hook, " I'm the best I rapped for two years/I'm so far beyond my peers. " To counter the boom-bap oriented feel of "Theo's Gartrelle," Paige reminisces about summer crushes on "Enida Watts" over a cooled out pleasant-sounding beat laced by Kutdown. The album also features a remix to "Enida Watts" and is a coin toss to which captures the mood of Paige's lyrics best. Each brings a solemn summer day to life in their own unique way. The one questionable song on the album is "Dwight Yorke." The dissonance of Gumshoe Strut's beat feels out of place in the overall mood of the album. This does not mean it is a bad song. Satchel chants on the chorus, " the burn light " and brings a more energetic side to his flow on the song. Guest Gruf the Druid offers a verse filled with thought provoking lines like, " though the cold rain won't stain my pants/ I watch elephants drown in the tears of ants ," to hold down his spot on the album. But, the song strays from the overall message and feeling of the album. Satchel Paige the baseball player is a legend. Satchel Paige the emcee is not a legend. But, if he keeps putting out records with the stripped down raw emotion and honesty of Guy, I'm from here! he can leave his permanent mark in hip hop. If you have been alive and enjoying hip hop for the past 20 years, you are bound to find something in this album that touches you. A reference or lyric to speak what you felt at some point in your life. He puts that much diversity into his record. You get the feeling Satchel is living in his memories the whole album and places the right elements in key positions to bring you along into his past. - Blake Gillespie