The Scythe’s de facto leader & Floridian emcee Denzel Curry coming off the collective’s debut tape for his 4th solo extended play. Originally a member of the SpaceGhostPurrp-founded Raider Klan a little over a decade ago, he’s seen quite the success on his own since departing off projects like Nostalgia 64, 32 Zel (Planet Shrooms), imperial, TA13OO, Zuu & the Kenny Beats-produced UNLOCKED. Melt My Eyez, See Your Future went on to become his most mature & acclaimed body of work to date has ran it back with Kenny for Unlocked II coming off King of the Mischievous South 2: Ultraground nearly 2 years prior.
“Gone Fishing” opens up with a rap rock intro clapping back at people saying his music doesn’t hit the same when already has a history of hits prior to “Evil Grin” featuring JPEGMAFIA not only blending rap rock & boom bap, but the line in Peggy’s verse about him not having fans anymore made me laugh as a fan of his since Veteran knowing it’s because the main critiques people had with Experimental Rap was the flows used being repetitive & Ye formerly known as Kanye West rubbing off on him after producing for ¥$ a little over 2 & a half years ago.
Had to address the elephant in the room there. Anyway, the psychedelic “Candlelight” contains cool interpolation of “DIET_” off the original Unlocked & a hilarious outro calling back to “Bounce with Me” by Bow Wow just before “Product” talks about going from the hood to investing in shit he’s a part of. “Ups” turns up the funkiness delivering a present from the villain himself to ensure he’s remembered leading into “Benjamin” admitting he shouldn’t give a fuck about cheese unless $100s are involved since it ain’t about him at that point.
“Cold Night in Hell” winds down the last act of Unlocked II telling apologizing to his fans for getting used to the way he’s been living these days while “Crown” featuring Westside Gunn teams up declaring if anyone wants the throne, they better come take it from them & assurances of making it in due time that require patience. The closing track “Difference” featuring a brief Yebba verse sends off the EP basically talking about SpaceGhostPurrp going from being an influential figure to burning every bridge he had.
Continuing the prolific run Kenny Beats has been on all year from Weezer’s new full-length The Gold Album earlier today to FATHERS’ eponymous debut & Rico Nasty’s latest EP RX, he & Denzel Curry reunite for a 24 minutes EP containing less wonkier boom bap production compared to Unlocked II’s predecessor & there’s more of a conscious twist to Zel’s hardcore lyricism bringing a respectfully small handful of guests on board in comparison to holding it down by himself again.
Score: 4/5
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