Detroit, Michigan rapper & singer/songwriter Tee Grizzley ending the month with his 7th studio LP. Originally a member of the quartet ASBH, it wouldn’t be until 2016 where he would blow up off his first solo single “First Day Out” & earned a contract with 300 Entertainment. His profile would continue to grow by dropping projects like his debut mixtape My Moment, the debut album Activated, his 2nd tape Still My Moment, the Timbaland exec-produced sophomore effort Scriptures or my personal favorite: his 3rd mixtape The Smartest. Built for Whatever, Chapters of the Trenches, Half Tee, Half Beast & Tee’s Coney Island were generally mixed, coming off the sonically diverse Post Traumatic as well as Forever My Moment & the divisively received Street Psalms to admit he feels like They Forgot.
“99 Ovrall” sets the tone of what’s to come with this underwhelming intro getting on his gangsta shit whereas “Back ina Yams” made for a more uninteresting single confessing he doesn’t like being around these dudes who force his hand. “How” doesn’t make things any better trying to figure out the reason people don’t have any sort of appreciation towards him leading into “Locked Up in Mexico” talking about those he showed the road to paying no homage to him.
Meanwhile on “Orphan”, we have Grizzley comparing all these new Detroit rappers to his children even if I feel like it’s still lacking instrumentally just before “Snow Grass Leaves” talking about coming from a place where it he your own loved ones hurting you. “Detroit Public Schools” describes being overseas for an entire month & still turning out fine in the end until “Hard Times” featuring Hurricane Wisdom ends the 1st half talking about the struggles of poverty.
“Survival Skills” commences the 2nd leg of They Forgot speaking of having the expertise of surviving out in these Motor City streets while “Grizz They Need You” responds to those saying that the city needs him to talk to them regardless of the beat not being all that exciting. “No Effort 2” for a sequel to the My Moment track of the same name feels more half-assed than it’s predecessor while “Holding On” talks about problems only getting worse whenever money’s involved.
Winding down the last few moments of They Forgot, the song “It’s a Privilege” while “Robbery 10” contains one of the weaker entries in the titular series of tracks he’s been making since the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic when he should most likely hang it up here. “Rain” featuring Skilla Baby produced by Coupe & Hitmaka was easily the most gratifying instrumental here sampling “Rain on Me”by Ashanti for a pop rap single while “Finally Made It” ends the full-length talking about feeling like he’s become successful.
Street Psalms felt like a significant letdown compared to a great bulk of Tee Grizzley’s output throughout the course of the decade & I wouldn’t say They Forgot about him because he still has an impressive following, but rather than the quality of his music has been beginning to decline for the past year & this newest album makes another example of that containing the most uninteresting batch of production he’s ever rapped over.
Score: 2/5
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