Finally have the 4th studio LP from Montréal, Québec, Canada emcee, producer & engineer Mike Shabb in front of us. Emerging in the spring of 2018 off his full-length debut Northwave, he would continue to make his presence known by putting out a few extended plays & mixtapes before gaining notoriety for engineering Boldy James’ 5th album Fair Exchange No Robbery along with producing “Switches on Everything” off Hitler Wears Hermes X & enlisting his mentor Nicholas Craven to fully produce his 5th EP Shadow Moses. He would follow these up with Hood Olympics, Sewaside III, Shabb Van Gogh, Fight the Power!, Vrai Rap Keb!, the Drega33-produced Lost Tapes & Maple Flavored. The latter of which was ok compared to the others I named, coming off Hood Olympics 2 to drop Sewaside IV.
After the “Fiya Fi Dat!” intro, “Montreal!” begins with a soulfully jazzy ode to the city that made him preceding him going full “Jack Mode!” for the next track swapping out the jazzier elements in favor of a funkier vibe. “1,2,1,2” references the late WWE Hall of Famer Muhammad Ali’s motto for anyone looking to commit career suicide in a battle with him over an old school beat while “Tell ‘Em Again” dabbles with reggae sending love to all of his family out in New York.
We have Shabbo completely going hard with the sampling again on “Disco Duck III” continuing a trilogy in which Hood Olympics began & Shabb Van Gogh bridged while “Mr. Triggerman” gets on his gangsta rap shit over a crooning boom bap instrumental. “Conehead!” keeps it funky for more lyricism reminiscent of 90s hardcore east coast hip hop & so does “Tales from da Hood” except he’s recalling stories about his neck of the woods, assuming the saga will continue since it’s labeled “Part 1”.
“Boom It Up!” officially marks the halfway point of Sewaside IV speaking of getting rich like a muhfucka now as opposed to people doubting him & after the reggae-tinged “Mike Shabb Getting Married” interlude, “Leflaur Leflah!” homages one of the few tracks The Fab 5 have done with each other as a supergroup. “Ring-A-Round!” featuring Obijuan talks about keeping the guns & butter between them over some pianos while “85.5FM” featuring ANKHLEJOHN & Rvlr Magz gives us a hardcore intermission.
I felt like “Buckshot ‘26” was a dusty sequel to “Buckshot Flow ‘93” off Broken World while the jazzy “Bastard Child!” continues to give his flowers to the Boot Camp Clik. The other single “Dontsweatit!” featuring MIKE links up talking about walking through their own shadows & not letting detractors define who you are as a person until “Flowers!” takes a more smoother approach instrumentally yearning to show appreciation towards people while they’re still here.
“Reminisce!” returns to the boom bap looking back at him making it out of the jungles of Montréal & expressing his annoyance towards people hating for him being legitimate from the rip but after the celebratory “Party People!” outro, the bonus cut “Imnotakilla!” officially ends Sewaside IV with 1 last heater clocking at precisely 100 seconds basically getting in his shit-talking bag attacking those who ain’t getting bread or pussy daring them to pull up.
At the time, I really did believe Sewaside III was gonna conclude the saga & here we are 2 years later proving me wrong with what I’d consider the finest chapter of them all. Mike Shabb’s production takes heavy inspiration fromThe Bomb Squad similarly to what C-Doc did for Public Enemy last summer when Black Sky Over the Projects: Apartment 2025 dropped last summer & the lyricism calling back to Duck Down Music Inc.’s run 3 decades earlier.
Score: 4.5/5
Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!
Legends Will Never Die 