The QB legend returned with his second instalment of The Lost Tapes in mid-July. The Lost Tapes series, for those that don't know, is a compilation album consisting of songs that never made the final cut for his previous albums for whatever reason. On this release, there's recordings from Hip Hop Is Dead that was released in 2006, Untitled in 2008 and the critically-acclaimed Life Is Good in 2012. There's also speculation that there's songs from the album after which some claim was scrapped. The album was released to mixed reviews and I'm playing catch-up so it's only now I've managed to check it out...
Nas can rap with the best of them. Many declare he IS the best of them. His technical ability hasn't regressed and he's never been short on content. He has plenty even on this project... On LT2, he seemingly addresses Jesse Jackson on Who Are You which is about black people who could be deemed as out-of-touch with black society.
And you talking some gibberish, anti-nigga shit
'Cause you marched back with Rosa Parks
...
While our enemies plot, you ain't out of the shot
Matter of fact, you're an easier target
And I respect everything you accomplished
But I hope I never get old and talk that nonsense
Touches on divide-and-conquer as well as his personal evolution on War Against Love.
I went from, semi bummy nigga to money nigga (ha)
Bike nigga to car nigga
Christ nigga to Allah nigga (Alḥamdulillāh)
Then I evolved, nigga (yes)
No religions, my commandments are my standards
His longevity in the rap game on It Never Ends
Did songs with Chubb Rock to Chris Brown, switch styles
Yet to see any heavyweight make it to this round
This that pure champion sound, I wear the crizzown
This is very impressive taking into account that the tunes he did with Chubb Rock and Chris Brown are 20 years apart. In addition to speaking about the legendary Prodigy on Queensbridge Politics, Nas' addresses several topics from Baby Momma drama to artist exploitation on the standout closer Beautiful Life.
How many been married, divorced, their ex lady wildin'
Hires a lawyer, judge awards 'em monthly eighty thousand
Stevie Wonder sent me word that he was in my corner
Blind but still sees the pain of a young performer
...
Her bad, she wanna keep the kids away from their dad
Queens Wolf was a pretty cool concept too. A tribute to Teen Wolf, the track goes from Nas seemingly speaking about his teenage days to actually becoming a wolf known as the Queens Wolf... I f with his creativity...There's no denying Nas' lyrical prowess or his storytelling ability (he has a few 'love' stories on this). This is his main selling point that has led to many, including myself, labelling him as the G.O.A.T.
There's more to rap than lyrics though. Butter needs bread and rhymes need beats. This is where it gets a bit sticky. The NY spitter has been criticised by many for his beat selection. Most notably DJ Vlad who labelled Nas as the 'worst beat picker'. In addition he, being the stirrer that he is, makes a point to ask what seems like damn near everyone he interviews for their opinion on Nas' beat picking. DJ Vlad himself claims that The Simple Life where Nas declares 'Never sold a record for the beat, it's my verses they purchase' was a response to him.
How do I feel myself? TBH Nas is one of the few rappers that I can listen to regardless of the beat because he's that dope of a spitter. The fact he's my favourite rapper may also contribute to why I might be more lenient towards him in comparison to other rappers.
The production line-up was extremely impressive and star-studded. It made me excited for what was in store. Unfortunately I was disappointed with a lot of what I heard sonically speaking. From a 16-track project, I would say No Bad Energy; Lost Freestyle; Tanasia and the last 3 tracks were beats that I would rate between good and dope. The others were more or less meh or worse. You might find it hard to believe that Highly Favoured was produced by the same guy that did C.R.E.A.M. ... that Royalty was also done by the guy that did Niggas In Paris ... or that War Against Love was co-produced by the man that made Money Trees. Their beats on LT2 weren't awful per se but the hip-hop nerd in you might have been hoping for something on the same level of dopeness as the other beats I mentioned.
Credit should be given to Nas on his ability to make classic material out of... unspectacular beats but yo the fans still wanna hear dope instrumentation regardless. Personally, I would love to see someone like Rick Ross or Pusha T assist Nas with picking out beats.
The main factor for me with this offering is replay value. There's definitely some tunes I will revisit but there's also some that I know I won't once I'm done reviewing LT2. Personally I would have cut this album down to like 10-11 tracks max. On a whole though, I give this album a 6.5.
FAVES
Beat- Beautiful Life
Verse- Queeensbridge Politics
Track- Lost Freestyle
Growing up in the same place as Michael Jackson could be a massive inspiration to it's residents. It could show them that they could become one of the most famous people to ever walk the Earth. However Gary, Indiana which is notorious for it's high levels of poverty has seen it become somewhat of a ghost town over the decades. What does that mean for those left that don't possess the ability akin to one of the greatest entertainers ever? Well where there's poverty, there's bound to be crime especially drug-dealing. Step forward Freddie Gibbs, Gary's very own coke-rap connoisseur, who returns with the much-celebrated beatmaker Madlib to drop Bandana. Released to critical acclaim in late June.
Throughout the album, you will hear Freddie say 'CAINE or CAINE SEASON' and that's the central theme of Bandana. So yeah if you're into coke-rap then this is for you. Aside from the trapper talk, Gibbs does touch on relationship regrets on Practice as well as the stresses of life on Gat Damn. He also share his views on political and social issues throughout. A couple examples below
Maxine Waters, fuck your poison, keep your vaccines off us
Crackers came to Africa, ravaged, raffled, and rummaged me
America was the name of they fuckin' company
Obama got elected today, and I got arrested
LA County literally strippin' a nigga naked
And I never tell on none of my enemies or connection
Motherfuck Jeff Sessions, I'm sellin' dope with a weapon
I highly recommend checking out Genius where he personally annotates his bars and delivers some interesting insights. As far as technical skills go, he definitely has that... Madlib's not known for working with wack rappers at all let alone twice. Nice displays of internal and multi-syllabic rhyming throughout. My one gripe however is his fast flow makes him incoherent at times. All of my favourite verses on this project was when Freddie was spitting at a slower pace.
14 tracks plus a skit long and entirely produced by Madlib, the main selling point of this album in my view is without doubt the production. Having previously worked with J Dilla on Champion Sound ; Talib Kweli on Liberation and most notably MF Doom on Madvillainy, the producer sustains his reputation of putting out dope collab albums on Bandana. The core sound of the production is soulful although Madlib does dabble in trap on Half Manne, Half Cocaine as well as dancehall on the Jamaican-influenced Massage Seats. In between that there's of course that traditional raw hip-hop that hip-hop heads can enjoy. Most of the plaudits I saw when this was released was from the aforementioned. As far as beats go, this is probably the best-produced album I've heard this year. I've always had a preference for hip-hop with a soul/jazz sample so this was right up my street. For me, the standouts were Crime Pays, Fake Names and Cataracts.
Only 3 tracks include features and Bandana is an undeniable example of quality over quantity. Gibbs brought out the A-list of lyricists on Bandana with Pusha T, Black Thought and Yasiin Bey FKA Mos Def all stopping by dropping dope verses. Anderson.Paak who is amongst RnB's finest also delivers a nice hook and verse.
Overall with dope beats and literally dope rhymes, this is a definite shout for album of the year. I'll give this an 8.5.
FAVES
Beat- Crime Pays
Feature- Pusha T
Verse- Flat Tummy Tea verse 2
Track- Cataracts
The hardest group in the game right now is Griselda. Consisting of Westside Gunn; Conway The Machine and Benny The Butcher, I've said before that Benny is currently the best rapper coming out of NY. The Griselda camp's productivity is unquestionable and not many can match them in this day and age. Having dropped the dope Tana Talk 3 last winter, Benny returns with a 7-track EP titled The Plugs I Met.
Beginning with the 'wolf and the blade' story (which was also used as the intro for Dead Prez's debut Let's Get Free), the EP kicks off with a soulful sample loop (Al Green- Look What You Done For Me to be exact) followed by Benny and Philly super-lyricist Black Thought taking turns doing what they do best. No hook, just straight spittin'.
My bitch keep sayin' I'm famous, but it ain't hit me
I'm too ghetto, mellowed out, this Hollywood shit tricky
See, before I knew an A&R, I was weighin' hard
Back when Nicki Minaj was in a trainin' bra
You play this game, you better play hard
The judge'll give you life and later that day, he gon' be playin' golf
The content is mostly drug talk and hood talk. They go hand in hand. That's evident from the project title, the cover (Scarface) and just from previous knowledge of what the Buffalo butcher is about. That's what he's known for and he excels in this field. While some rappers only appear to highlight the 'glamorous' aspect of this activity, the highs and lows of this topic can always lead to covering other topics. Benny shows glimpses of this on TPIM as seen from the lines below.
More bars then them niggas who got hit with the Reagan laws
Spent my daughter first birthday locked in a hole
Rappers y'all compare me too, niggas scared of me too
It make they heart beat faster just hearin the truth
But like I said that's just glimpses and the album as expected is mostly drug talk. The streets will love it.
On the production side of things DJ Shay; Griselda's main producer Daringer and the legendary Alchemist produced 2 beats apiece. Beats were mostly heat for the streets. Other than the aforementioned soulful Crowns For Kings, I would describe everything else as being dark and/or gritty and/or gutter. I'm also curious to hear more from DJ Shay. Although the lesser known of the 3, DJ Shay produced 2 of my fave beats on the EP in Crowns For Kings and 18 Wheeler.
Lyrically, almost every verse I've heard Benny spit has been at least 8/10. His wordplay, delivery and use of multi-syllabic rhyming makes Benny, in my view, the hardest from the East Coast right now. He proved that on Tana Talk 3 and again on TPIM. You have to be of a certain level to go bar for bar with the likes of Black Thought and Pusha T.
This brings me on to guest verses, there's 6 features on this EP which is quite a lot considering this is only 6 tracks but it's an impressive guestlist with Pusha, Black Thought, Jadakiss and Griselda partner Conway dropping dope verses. The lesser known artists pulled their weight as well so this was a rare case of quality AND quantity.
To conclude, though Benny doesn't dig as deep as he did on TT3. He keeps the rap fiends satisfied with his raw uncut coke raps. I'll give this an 8.
FAVES
Beat- Crowns For Kings
Verse- 18 Wheeler
Feature- Pusha T/Conway
Track- Crowns For Kings
Diaspora (n):-
1. The dispersion or spread of any people from their original homeland.
2. The sophomore album of African-American rapper GoldLink released on June 12th 2019.
As hinted from the title, the DMV artist acknowledges there's a musical world outside of the United States and links up with his brothas and sistas from across the globe to explore what the black diaspora has to showcase.
Goldlink experiments with a wide-range of different genres from trap to afrobeats to bossa nova/jazz to reggae/dancehall to rnb and of course hip hop. The majority of the artists he works with are UK-based such as Lola Rae, Maleek Berry and WSTRN for example. Gold made sure to Link with his DMV peeps though, most notably Pusha T. Outside of that, he also works with one of Nigeria's favourite son's Wizkid and even Hong Kong artist Jackson Wang who is the only non-black artist to make an appearance.
Diaspora kicks off with Joke Ting where Goldlink flaunts over an upbeat instrumental about his success. In addition to the balla talk, he added a bit of hood talk and even some philantropy talk on the 24-bar track. The UK's Ari Pensmith provided a nice chorus.
While the first 3 tracks do sound like trap, each song has a different type of feel to it. Maniac had that traditional menacing, gassed vibe that I expect to hear from a trap tune while the Khalid-assisted Days Like This had a RnB feel to it. He doesn't nail down one particular topic at this point and seemingly just spits about whatever. Be it money, warning the opps or sex.
Afrobeats is the first genre outside of hip-hop that you hear Goldlink dabble with. Both Zulu Screams and More are mad catchy and you'd have to be a soulless statue to not at least nod your head to these tracks. The features come from two British artists of West African descent in Maleek Berry and Lola Rae. Neither disappoint with their complimentary contributions. Bibi Bourelly (a German-born DMV resident of Morrocan and Haitian descent *exhales*) provided the outro on the former track in Lingala which was cool.
In between the hip-hop and trap, Goldlink hooks up with West London's WSTRN for the dancehall-influenced Yard. Even though Wizkid is arguably the face of Afrobeats, his collab with Goldlink was oddly enough a trap tune. It was good nonetheless.
Not departing too far from his hip-hop roots, the prominent genre on this 14-track album is trap and hip hop with sprinklings of international flava. In reverse the collabs are predominantly with people from outside of the US, especially the UK.
The main selling points of Diaspora aside from the 'concept' is the production. The majority of the beats, regardless of the genre or the vibe, were dope.
Also no feature went to waste on Diaspora. Other than the aforementioned contributors, Pusha T has been in beast mode all year and he did what he does best on Cokewhite; Tyler, the Creator proved he can still bar on U Say... The lesser known acts also impressed. Everyone brought something from their world to make this listen an enjoyable journey.
As far as lyrics go, GoldLink shows glimpses of his mic-skills potential. Had some cool internal and multi-syllabic rhyming here and there but it was relatively rare. The content was mainly on superficial topics such as balla talk and hood talk etc. His fast-tempoed flow is fresh however and this album is mostly about vibes and versatility. GoldLink gets a gold star on that.
All in all, this is not quite a classic but this is an enjoyable album with no weak link. I also commend GoldLink for showing the world a taste of what the black population can create when unified. I'll give this an 8.
FAVES
Beat- Tiff Freestyle
Verse- Maniac Verse 1
Feature- Pusha T
Track- U Say
