This came out in 2001 – or at least that’s when I got it. Here’s what I wrote back then (with some minor editing):
For a lot of fans, freestyle rapping is the ultimate test of skill. For spoken-wordsmith Corey Cokes, it’s just the beginning.
Once he’s done rhyming on the opening cut of his scintillating debut disc Coreyography, he’ll deliver a brain-prodding monologue on race relations, a jazzy poem on pimping in the ’hood, a standup-style spoof of TV news, a Richard Pryorish narrative on bigotry and even a deep-throated gospel rendition of the spiritual Go Down Moses. And then he’ll close the show with a hilarious sendup of African-American materialism, titled Hilfigga N—. If that isn’t the true definition of freestyle, I don’t know what is — and frankly, neither do rap fans.
