After a 16 year hiatus, the legendary DJ Premier puts a full stop on Gang Starr's 30 year discography with One Of The Best Yet.
Their last release was in 2003. The reason for the 16 year gap is due to the pair falling out then splitting up in 2004. In 2010, the rapper Guru sadly suffered a heart attack and there was then a legal battle over who could use Guru's unreleased material that took several years to resolve. With that done with, we now have OOTB which is Guru's acapella verses over new Premo production.
The LP kicks off with a montage of past Gang Starr bangers which validates the album's title. As far as the 'new' stuff goes... Guru's unreleased stuff was still pretty dope. The technical ability was as on-point as anything he spat during the late 90's onwards and he had some good concepts locked away such as Hit Man... I noticed a good chunk of the content is Guru's unfavourable view of the rap game. Keep in mind these bars were pre-2010 so imagine how he would feel now with mumble rap and trap being so popular.
Ask the average hip-hop head who their fave producer of all time is and more time you're gonna get DJ Premier. I wouldn't say there's anything here that rivals Nas Is Like but the beats are still good for the most part. There's only maybe one beat I'd skip.
There were some real heavy hitters on the guestlist such as Royce, J Cole and Jeru Da Damaja to name a few. Everyone involved was clearly aware of this project's importance as they all dropped a nice verse.
To summarise, Gang Starr cemented the place as one of the best yet long ago and Premo did well to put together what he did with what he had. Not a bad sign-off at all. I'll give this a 7.5.
FAVES
Beat- Family And Loyalty
Verse- Hit Man
Feature- Jeru Da Damaja/J Cole
Track- Family And Loyalty
KREPT AND KONAN- REVENGE IS SWEET
South London duo Krept And Konan returned with their 2nd album Revenge Is Sweet on the 1st November. The pair have had some downs in recent times such as tragically losing Cadet (Krept's cousin) and Nash but also some ups such as the two opening their own restaurant Crepes And Cones and also this LP reaching No 5 in the national charts.
With them going through so much, this album (though only 11 tracks- excluding the skits) isn't short on content. What I like most about RIS is the balance. So while they do address serious issues such as their current career standing, the people they've lost, image gang... the duo both delivered their best verses on the standout title track where they addressed their critics and doubters. A couple bars below...
The same girl I had in the hotel is on the internet telling people we don't like black girls
Akh it's a mad world
When everyone was on SBTV, dropping Ask Rashid who got Behind Barz popping?
... They also made tracks for the streets in I Spy and for the sheets in First Time and everything in between. The same goes for the production as you get a mix of hip hop, UK drill, afroswing, dancehall as well as RnB.
I already mentioned the content but bar-wise, Krept and Konan have been known since they were on the come-up for their technical ability especially punchlines and RIS has this in abundance. Good feature-list which included verses from Cadet, Stormzy, Headie One, Spice and even Tory Lanez who sings the chorus for First Time in patois. Some may forget he's of Caribbean descent.
Revenge Is Sweet is a well-rounded album and one of the better releases from a UK act in 2019. I'll give this an 8.
FAVES
Beat- GOAT Level
Verse- Revenge Is Sweet
Feature- Cadet
Track- Revenge Is Sweet
DAVE EAST- SURVIVAL
After releasing several mixtapes, a 13-track 'EP' and a joint album with Styles P in 2018, Harlem rapper Dave East finally dropped his debut solo 'album' on November 7th last year.
Known for tracks such as Keisha, Survival was released via Nas's Mass Appeal records as well as Def Jam and reached No.11 in the Billboard charts.
The Harlem rapper has skills no doubt... I mean imagine a super-lyricist like Nas signing a mumble rapper. Survival was abundant in good wordplay and content. Lengthy at 18 tracks, the 6'4 East Coaster isn't short either in height or on topics to talk about. Given Dave East's criminal past, there was a fair amount of hood talk but there was also a high level of introspection. He wrote songs of appreciation to his mum and daughter, he has songs addressing haters and doubters, he talks about the past when he was struggling also On My Way 2 School and Me & Mine's were cool concepts.
As far as the beats go, other than AJ Tracey, this project is probably the most diverse in comparison to the rest of 2019's releases. There's obviously the traditional hip hop sound but there's also trap, RnB, 80s Soul, 'luxury rap' and though Dave reps NY, he also has a ... I think it's hyphy... track with E-40 for the West Coasters. So plenty of quantity, the quality however doesn't quite measure up. My fave beat was the closer which I would describe as a Just Blaze-lite production. The beats overall weren't bad, a lot of them just lacked that 'replay just for the beat' factor.
To summarise, a decent 'debut' for Dave though I think for the next release he should keep it shorter but by no means sweeter. I'll give this a 7.
FAVES
Beat- What You Mad At
Verse- Need A Sign
Feature- Nas
Track- On My Way To School
*It's January 25th and this should've been finished last month so now I'm doing one-listen reviews*
GAME- BORN 2 RAP
'You 38 And You Still Rappin *puke sound*' The Game, One Blood
Game spat that bar when he was 26 years old. Fast forward to 2019 and he is now 40 years of age. Possibly conscious about this bar and not wanting to go back on it, the Compton spitter declared that his ninth album Born 2 Rap would be his last. B2R was released on his birthday and reached 19 on the Billboard charts.
At 25 tracks, I was lowkey expecting the worse as I always presume that hefty albums will be a case of quantity-over-quality. However this album is an exception to the rule and only validates the point that maybe Jayceon Taylor was indeed born to rap. He covers a wide range of topics other than the superficial stuff including his importance in the rap game, speaking on the people he's lost, his relationship with his estranged brother (a sequel to One Night somewhat), his career achievements and even his own version of Nas' classic story Rewind. Some things never change either as Game continues with the name-dropping. I've said in the past that Game is the Shang Tsung of rap as he's always adopting other rapper's styles. Not so much on this album though he does use Big Pun's style once (Stay Down) and even on a few tracks, I got a 2pac vibe from him. Mic skills are as sharp as ever and he raps with a level of raw emotion that had not been reached on other releases.
When it comes to the 'who's the best beat picker?' question, some will say Jay and some will say Rozay etc. Me? My pick is Game and he doesn't contradict my opinion with this release. From the epic-sounding No Smoke to the melancholy Roadside to the rough and rugged West Side to the 'pimpish' Gold Daytonas, there's definitely something that will make you nod your head.
I have this theory that musicians don't retire and Jay is proof of that. With a quality feature-list; dope beats; some memorable moments and vivid verses however, if this turns out to be Game's last album, he definitely proved that he was born to do this. I'll give this an 8.5
FAVES
Beat- No Smoke
Verse- No Smoke verse 1
Feature- Nipsey Hussle/D Smoke
Track- West Side
GRISELDA RECORDS- WHAT WOULD CHINEGUN DO?
Newly signed to Shady Records, the dopest group in the game right now both literally and figuratively dropped their mainstream debut in late November titled What Would Chinegun Do?
Conway The Machine says on DR BIRDS
'Hall N Nash and Benny like James Worthy, Kareem and Magic'
Funnily enough prior to hearing that bar I was comparing them to Barca's formidable MSN front three from a few years back. Whether you liken them to the legendary LA Laker's trio or Barcelona's, either way they're the magic three right now.
Produced entirely by in-house producers Daringer and Beat Butcha, the beats are straight gutta. Some might be more aggressive and menacing while some might have a more darker, colder feel... A beat switch added a soulful dimension to The Old Groove but the common denominator is that these are straight beats for the streets. Are there exceptions to the rule? I would agree with anyone that said the Kennedy beat was jazzy and classy. As you can hear from the lyrics though, Westside Gunn (with the lovely vocals of Tiona Deniece) clearly had other ideas.
The bars are strictly drug talk, hood talk and baller talk and the people that know Griselda would expect nothing less so that's a given. Skill-wise they can all spit. Who's the MVP? That's a definite toss-up between Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher. Compared to Westside Gunn, their technical ability and consistency is a little more noticeable. This isn't a shot to Westside however as the high-pitched spitter can definitely hold his own lyrically, he has the best ad-libs in the game and his enthusiastic delivery juxtaposed with Benny and Conway's 'no-nonsense' style is a big reason why I rate Griselda so highly.
I enjoyed all the features. From the aforementioned Tiona Deniece to Raekwon's words of wisdom to Keshia Plum's sadistic poem to Eminem... well being Eminem. Standout for me goes to Novel though. The raw emotion of his vocals and bars had me playing The Old Groove on repeat.
To summarise, this is strictly for Griselda fans and people into that rough, rugged, gutter, gritty hip hop. Violent verses and powder poems galore. I'll give this an 8.
FAVES
Beat- Freddie HotSpot
Verse- Benny The Butcher- Cruiser Weight Coke
Feature- Novel
Track- The Old Groove
RODDY RICCH- PLEASE EXCUSE ME FOR BEING ANTISOCIAL
The 21 year old Compton native has been enjoying a successful career thus far. His debut album PEMFBA dropped in early December 2019 and made it all the way to the top of the Billboard charts. Despite hailing from the same city that gifted us the likes of NWA; DJ Quik; Game and Kendrick Lamar, Roddy's sound isn't that vintage G-Funk or the traditional hip hop sound you may have been expecting. Roddy Ricch from what I know is the West Coast's premier trap artist.
The content is pretty typical for the most part. You have the trapper talk, the playa talk, the hood talk and of course the drip talk. Thankfully for myself, it's not limited to those topics as he rap-sings about the need to protect himself from his haters, Intro contained a nice hook-less introspective verse, one of the standouts was Prayer To The Trap God where he raps about the time police raided his crib.
The beats are all trap though some contain influences from other genres (such as RnB) for a more sonically diverse body of work. The Box for me was the hardest beat on the album.
Roddy has a rap-sing style similar to the likes of MoStack, DBE, J Hus and probably many others (I mentioned UK artists as I don't follow US trap like that). Roddy's main artistic attribute is the aforementioned, his flow and his ability to spit lines that his fans will no doubt recite at raves/concerts in unison. Roddy does display some good wordplay such as multi-syllabic rhyming and he can compose a good verse though there were a few times where his words weren't rhyming and I also feel he went into auto-pilot a few times... With this being said, this maybe what his fans want hence his album went number 1.
I'm no trap enthusiast but I don't wanna be insular and part of the 'trapped in the 90s' crowd per se plus it's only fair I give artists from different sub-genres a chance. Solid release in my view and I'm sure his fans will feel it. I'll give it a 7.
FAVES
Beat- The Box
Verse- Intro
Feature- Meek Mill
Track- Intro
STORMZY- HEAVY IS THE HEAD
Arguably the biggest name in the UK rap scene at present, South London's Stormzy probably has every right to feel like a king. Hence the title of his sophomore LP Heavy Is The Head. The final major release of 2019 dropped in mid-December and was both a critical and commercial success landing at number 1 on the UK charts and has since been certified gold.
Given that Stormzy feels like a king, it's pretty much expected that there was going to be boasting and bragging galore and HITH had plenty of that.
'If you can't do 10K first week then I don't wanna hear no chat about numbers
You man are my youngers' Wiley Flow
The above quote is but a brief glimpse of what Stormzy spits about in abundance but don't get it twisted there's way more to this project than that.
'When I take a stand, they say I'm ruining my brand
But I could never give a fuck, that's just my duty as a man' One Second
Stormzy with the above quote shows a level of integrity and courage that many artists are criticised for lacking so much kudos is deserved. One must imagine how Stormzy must feel with all eyes on him everytime he does take a stand.
The phrase Heavy Is The Head would suggest that one has a lot on their mind and Stormzy leaves plenty of room to vent about his present life. He leaves a message to his haters/doubters. He speaks on his dependence on weed, industry gripes, the importance of standing up for what's right as well as dropping an ode to his black brothas and sistas. He also talks about his regrets regarding his broken relationship with Maya Jama.
Stormzy's always been a dope spitter and has always been able to jump on different types of beats. Though mostly a grime/hip hop artist, the first tune that I heard him on was his remix of the RnB track All That Matters. His versatility continues on HITH and his technical ability hasn't dropped at all... He hasn't stopped dabbling in singing either. The production was calm. I liked the grime stuff best. I wouldn't say the beats were amazing but they were good.
Overall a very solid release from Stormzy to round off 2019. I'll give this an 8.
FAVES
Beat- Audacity
Verse- Crown verse 2
Feature- Headie One
Track- Superheroes
It's the 3rd February 2020 and I'm saying from now that I will never fall this far behind again LOL. Let me know what you think.
Peace Out!
