Reppin' North London, Mostack dropped his highly-anticipated debut album Stacko on June 7th. Mostack's 'rnb flow' as I call it, his technical skills and tendency to spit over 'radio-friendly' beats has seen him build a sizeable fanbase. Evident in the fact that Stacko landed at number 3 on the UK national charts.
Mostack seems to have a knack for making tracks with the cruddiest content palatable to the mainstream. Block Popping which was released 3 years prior to Stacko is just one example. In regards to hood talk though, it feels like you only get glimpses of that on this album such as on the track Yes Yes. The standout opener addresses the incident where he was unfortunately attacked and robbed for his jewellery. Over a fire Steel Banglez/Zeph Ellis (FKA Dot Rotten) co-production, it sounds like a hit with extra grit. Aside from speaking on the aformentioned ordeal; he added a bit of balla talk, some playa talk and some hood talk with some memorable lines that give an insight into Mostack's personality (as shown below).
'They wanna come when I'm havin' a juice
But sorry bruddah, you ain't gang enough
And the price of this Canada Goose
Cost more than a flight out to Canada
...
Bun 'im then bun myself just to act like it weren't me
Ahh fuck, shouldn't have done that
...
Had mum vexed 'cause she couldn't find her kid at night
Had mum vexed 'cause she couldn't find her kitchen knife' Yes Yes
Aside from that and Take Em Down (A somewhat radio-friendly UK drill track), Mo keeps the crud talk to a minimum in favour of more commercial content.
The subject matter for the most part does focus on superficial topics such as drip. Also whether it's sweetboy bars (Shine Girl) or playa bars (Girl Diary), there's a good number of female-friendly tunes on Stacko... damn near half the album (he actually just dropped a video for Shannon).
We've established that the content is very much mainstream-oriented and the production is no exception. Ill Blu handles the majority of the beats and while my favourite beat on the album was the harder-sounding Yes Yes, for others (namely UK youngsters/the wireless crowd) this could be the soundtrack for the summertime season.
Mostack brought strictly the A-lister's of the UK rap game to feature. J Hus, Dave, Stormzy and Fredo all did their bit and I was also very impressed with the vocals of singer Dolapo on Make Me Fall In Love...
Fredo's verse was basically his infamous 'don't feed the badders pasta' IG live video in music form. Although both are rappers, Stormzy and Mostack were moving like K-ci and Jojo on Shine Girl with the singing. I was just waiting for one of them to go 'ooh yeah'.
There's no denying Mostack's technical ability. He can float on any track with his flows, he can display complex wordplay at times and his bars can be very catchy such as the 'arm and a leg' bar on Stinkin' Rich (see below)...
'And now there's blood pon my arm and a leg
Like I chopped up a arm and a leg
I would dash away these clothes, but these labels on my arm and a leg
Kinda cost me an arm and a leg'
... but it's clear he was going for the hits so any raw 'cypher-type' lyricism he might be capable of took a backseat for that 'rnb flow' which is ever-present throughout Stacko.
I feel this would be appreciated mostly by ladies, under 25's and casual rap fans. If you're the traditional hip-hop head/'trapped in the 90s' type, I doubt you'll enjoy it as much if at all. Me personally, I feel it's a cool album for the summer. Nice to play in the whip when you want something easy to listen to. I'll give this a 7.
FAVES
Beat- Yes Yes
Verse- Yes Yes verse 1
Feature- Dave/Fredo
Track- Yes Yes
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