Rebirth Into Reality is a fourth and final studio album by the Malaysian hip-hop duo, Too Phat, released on 22 September 2005 by Kartel Records and EMI Music Malaysia. It is their first studio album with Kartel Records, a record label set up by the duo member Joe Flizzow, after having signed with Positive Tone and it is also their first album to use the new Too Phat logo. The album features a collaboration with numerous Asian artists including Siti Nurhaliza, Inul Daratista, Kyla, Joey Boy and Machi.[1] An international edition of the album was released in 2006, while its remastered version was released in 2020.
Rebirth Into Reality is heavily influenced by Too Phat.[2][3] They become the album's producer, replacing Ahmad Izham Omar and Greg Henderson, who co-produced their first three albums. The duo decided on a collaboration with numerous artists from six Asian countries, eventually working with Siti Nurhaliza (Malaysia), Alicia Pan and Junior Kim (Singapore), Inul Daratista (Indonesia), Kyla (Philippines) and Joey Boy (Thailand) as well as Machi (Taiwan).[4][5]
Upon Too Phat's request, EMI Music Malaysia contacted Siti Nurhaliza to be their duet partner for the song "Dua Dunia" and its English version, "Million Miles".[4][6] Although Siti was surprised to be asked and was under contract with Suria Records, she accepted the offer. "How Me Seksi" with Inul, one of the tracks in Rebirth Into Reality, combines both hip-hop and dangdut.[6] For the song, Malique and Joe Flizzow recorded in Kuala Lumpur while Inul recorded the track in Jakarta.[7][8] Originally titled "Goyang Rabak", it was later changed to "How Me Seksi" during the song's pre-recording.[9]
On the album, Malique contributed three solo tracks "My Size 9's", "Run" and "Que Chill" while Joe Flizzow recorded his two solo tracks "Mariposa" and "Average Joe".[8] They were also joined by musicians who involved in the album's production. D'Navigator, best known for his works with Too Phat, provided beatbox for "Most Beautiful Girl", while DJ T-Bone, who had previously provided DJ scratches for most of their songs, also provided scratches for five tracks.[8] For "Kartello Jam", Hamzah, gutarist of Malaysian rock band The Times played guitars while AJ and Rudy from Pop Shuvit plays bass and drums respectively and Izham plays the keyboards. Wei Li of Vespertine plays violin for "I Believe", while Munir Alsagoff plays guitar for "Island Girl".[8] "Jacuzzi Love" with Malaysian R&B group Sloppy Seconds is the only track in the album in which both Malique or Joe Flizzow did not contributed rap.[8]
Actress-singer, Hannah Tan provided backing vocals for "Phat Girls Groove".[8] The album also saws Too Phat performed songs in English while their guest artists sang in their respective native languages. For example, "Perhitung" with Akbar Azmi from Brothers, had him contributed rap in Malay while Malique and Joe contributed rap in English, while for "Rub Pa Gun Kwam Mun", the duo rapped in English while Joey Boy rapped in Thai.[8]Rebirth Into Reality was recorded in Platinum Studios and A System Studios and mastered by CL Toh at Mastering One.[8] For the album, the duo decided to envisioned Rebirth Into Reality as a double album, making Too Phat one of few hip-hop acts in the world to release a double album of original material.[10]
Artwork
The album's cover art was designed by Nini and Bert Ismeth Ulam Raja with photography was taken by Malaysian photographer, Bustamam Mokhtar, using black and white shades. The album cover depicts a Shure 55SH microphone, which also serves as the corporate logo of Kartel Records and the typeface used for the Too Phat's new logo on the album's front and back cover is the Corleone, the same typeface used for the logo of the 1972 American film, The Godfather.[8]
Release and reception
Rebirth Into Reality was released as a double album with 30 songs on 22 September 2005.[4][11] The album was issued with a long boxset consists of two digipacks, namely "Rebirth" which represents Malique and "Reality" representing Joe Flizzow. An international edition of the album was released in April 2006 with 18 songs.[12] A remastered version of Rebirth Into Reality was released in 2020 by Universal Music Malaysia and PMP Entertainment and reissued with a CD jewel case format.
As of 2007, Rebirth Into Reality was sold more than 25,000 copies, while "Dua Dunia" was downloaded more than 120,000 times.[10]
"Mariposa" contains a sample from "Love, Love, Love" performed by Donny Hathaway from his 1973 final studio album, Extension of a Man.
"Kartello Jam" contains a sample from "Dove" performed by Cymande from their 1972 debut studio album of the same name and also contains an excerpts from the 2003 movie, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, directed by Robert Rodriguez and starring Antonio Banderas and an interpolation of "A Blues for Nina" from the Love Jones movie soundtrack.
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