2007’s Diary of an American Witchdoctor marks the first proper full-length release from this Atlanta hip-hop stalwart in almost a decade. In the late ‘90s Witchdoctor made his name as a member of the prodigiously talented yet far-flung Dungeon Family crew, which included members of Outkast, Goodie Mob, and the inimitable production team Organized Noize. His debut release A.S.W.A.T. A Healin’ Ritual was an unjustly overlooked classic, featuring slow rolling Southern production and dizzying displays of wordplay that were as viscerally compelling as they were socially aware. Diary of an American Witchdoctor is much in the same vein as Witchdoctor’s seminal debut. Witchdoctor’s rhythm based rapid-fire flow and rough-shod, soul-inflected crooning on standouts like “God Iz Good” which features some surprisingly fearsome gospel harmonizing, and the eerily melancholic “Cream of The Crop” prove that Witchdoctor has lost none of his focus or technical skill over the years. Though the album suffers somewhat from the absence of Organized Noize’s genre-hopping beats, a number of up-and-coming Atlanta talents keep the atmosphere spooky and subdued throughout. This is an album for muggy Georgia nights, and the slow motion weariness induced by summer heatwaves, and it stands as a compelling follow-up to Witchdoctor’s long-forgotten masterpiece.