Travis Scott – “Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight” review

Just literally 2 days before the 1 year anniversary of his surprisingly solid debut Rodeo, Travis Scott has finally dropped his highly anticipated sophomore album. The album’s opener “the ends” has a grimy beat & while I do enjoy Travi$’ verse at the beginning about how this sole verse might make his label Epic Records drop him, what really makes this track stick out is the vividly told albeit very surprising guest verse from OutKast member André 3000. On the next track “way back”, Travis is reflecting on his pre-fame days & not only do I really love how dreamy the production sounds on here, but I also love how catchy Travis’ vocals are too. On the track “through the late night”, Travi$ hooks up with his idol KiD CuDi to talk about partying & I personally find the chemistry between the 2 on here to be purely AMAZING! The track “outside” is an ode to all of Travis’ ride or die homies & while that’s definitely cool, the non-distinctive production throughout & the boring ass verse from 21 Savage near the end makes this possibly the worst track on the entire album. However, the next track “goosebumps” makes up for it. The song is basically Travis’ & Black Hippy member Kendrick Lamar expressing their love for this woman & while the production has a dark atmosphere to it, it’s without a bit of doubt my favorite track off the entire album. The track “pick up the phone” is about a woman who isn’t showing any loyalty to either Travis’ or Young Thug & Quavo of Migos. While I can totally appreciate the concept of this song & the hard trap beat on this thing, it just comes off really corny to me. The track “lose” is pretty relaxing from the production to even Travis’ singing. However, my only issue with this song is that I feel like he used WAY too much auto-tune on the hook. Personally, I don’t enjoy a whole lot of trap music but I’m not gonna sit here & deny that Travis Scott has been slowly but surely impressing me more & more within the past year or so. Honestly, I was a little worried about how this album would turn out but I was pleasantly surprised to hear that it could very well be better than Rodeo. I definitely can’t wait to hear what this cat has in store in the future

Score: 3.5/5

PRhyme – Self-titled review

PRhyme is a duo comprised of renown New York based producer DJ Premier & the criminally underrated Detroit MC Royce da 5’9″. They’ve collaborated countless times with each other in the past with songs like “Boom” & “Hip Hop”, but now they are officially forming together to drop their self-titled full-length debut.

The album starts off with the title track, where Royce basically tells the audience he’s never falling off over a somewhat mellow boom bap beat. The next song “Dat Sound Good” with Ab-Soul & Mac Miller is filled with charismatic braggadocious bars over a grimy beat with some keys & a guitar while the track “U Looz” is only a minute & a half long, it’s definitely in your face. Especially with the final line of Royce’s verse where he says “this is for the real hip-hop niggas who’ll never ever ask me am I here to replace Guru”. The song “U Should Know” sees Royce putting sense in all the wack rappers out & not only is the Dwele hook on point, but I also love how Preem chops up numerous parts of “True Love” by The Delfonics for the instrumental. Especially with the prominent horns throughout.

The track “Courtesy” compares Royce’s life to both Bumpy Johnson & Nucky Thompson over some explosive drums & a haunting organ while “Wishin'” with Common basically tells us that they wish someone would disrespect them over a killer boom bap/rap rock fused beat. The song “To Me, To You” with Jay Electronica is basically them speaking their minds over a sinister beat while the track “Underground Kings” with Killer Mike & ScHoolboy Q sees all of them talking about the beginnings of their careers to where they are now & the Run-D.M.C. samples throughout are absolutely flawless. The standard edition finishes off with “Microphone Preem” by Slaughterhouse, where the supergroup delivers a sequel to their classic 2009 song “Microphone” that’s just as raw & angry as the original. A year after the album’s original release, they re-released it with 4 new tracks & I’m gonna chop them up right now.

The first bonus track “Golden Era” with Joey Bada$$ gets reminiscent about the titular era of hip hop & the instrumental suits it perfectly. The next bonus track “Wishin’ II” is an equally gritty sequel to the first one except we get a killer verse from Black Thought, who was supposed to be on the original version of that song. The penultimate bonus track “Highs & Lows” with MF DOOM & Phonte vents about people sleeping on them over a guitar/keyboard boom bap beat & then the final bonus track “Mode II” with Logic is a sequel to their song that appeared on the Shady Records curated Southpaw soundtrack, but it didn’t need to be 7 minutes long.

As a whole, this is a modern classic. The chemistry between Royce & Preemo is stronger than ever before, but the standard edition was too short. However, they made up for it by adding on 4 new tracks a year later. And while the features are mostly great, there didn’t need to be one on almost every track. Even on the deluxe version.Regardless, I hope we get another album from the duo in the future

Score: 4.5/5

MGK – “bloom” review

About a year & a half after the release of his mediocre sophomore album General Admission, Bad Boy Entertainment signee MGK is now putting out his 3rd full-length album. The opener “The Gunner” is decent with it’s piano/explosive drum instrumental & it’s ambitious lyrics, but the album takes a massive nosedive right after that. The next track “Wake + Bake” is a weed anthem with a cheesy psychedelic-esque instrumental & while his rags-to-riches story on “Go for Broke” isn’t too bad, but the instrumental & the James Arthur hook turn it into a generic radio-hit. I can also see where he’s getting at by talking about being imperfect & not giving up on “At My Best”, but the way he does it is so painfully corny. The gaudy beat & the Hailee Steinfeld hook exactly don’t help at all, either. The song “Kiss the Sky” has a bland instrumental, a tedious hook & sappy lyrics about not needing stars to grant wishes because he’s famous. The track “Golden God” talks about going from working at Chipotle to being a successful artist, but the beat is pretty boring. I can definitely see the song “Trap Paris” being a club banger, but the trap instrumental from Sonny Digital as well as the catchy Ty$ hook & the Quavo verse are really the only things about the track that make it worth vibing out to. The track “Moonwalkers” is another dumb weed anthem with a decent trap beat while the song “Can’t Walk” generically talks about being on pills over an plain electro instrumental. The lovey dovey “Bad Things” with Camila Cabello is probably the worst track on the entire album. Not that I have an issue with rappers making love songs but this one in particular is so sugary, that you might get diabetes after listening to it for the first time. The song “Rehab” cornily compares his love for this woman to drugs over an acoustic instrumental while the penultimate track “Let You Go” talks about an ex over an awkward rap rock instrumental. The torture finally ends with the decent “27”, where he talks about the 27 Club since he turned 27 a few weeks prior over a twangy guitar & some pianos. As a whole, this is definitely one of the worst things I’ve heard all year. There are very few tolerable moments on here but for the most part, it sounds way more commercial than ever & Machine Gun Kelly’s lyrics are at it’s corniest

Score: 0.5/5

CZARFACE – “A Fistful of Peril” review

After releasing 2 modern classic hip hop albums in 2013 & last year, Wu-Tang Clan member Inspectah Deck & Army of the Pharaohs/Demigodz members 7L & Esoteric are hitting us with another full-length album under the CZARFACE name. Just like last time, the album is entirely produced by the group’s producer 7L& his protégé Spada4 but they’re not blatantly copying what they did on the trio’s last 2 albums.

The album starts off with the track “Electric Level 1”, where we hear a tiny sliver of spoken dialogue & then it transitions to a 1-minute electronic beat that kinda reminds of 7L & Esoteric’s 4th album A New Dope just 10 years before. However, things don’t really kick off until the next track “2 in the Chest” which has a slowed down funky beat as well as killer rhymes & flows from the trio’s 2 MCs Inspectah Deck & Esoteric.

“Czar Wars” (awesome title) sees Eso & Deck trading lines back & forth with each other, only proving that their chemistry together is still fucking killer! The beat isn’t bad either, the guitar loop throughout is pretty nice & I love the reference to WWE Hall of Famers & former 3-time WWE Tag Team Champions The Road Warriors. The track “Machine, Man & Monster” starts off with a raw verse from Conway & with the bass playing throughout as well as the electric guitar I heard on this track at points, the beat reminds me of something I’d hear from CZARFACE’s previous album Every Hero Needs a Villain but not in a bad way at all.

The next track “Dare Iz a Darkseid” (which is cleverly named after Redman’s classic sophomore album Dare Iz a Darkside) starts off with a hilarious verse from Esoteric followed by a roughly delivered verse from Deck over a hard boom beat beat & I just REALLY love how you can hear how much fun Eso is having while he’s delivering his verse. The track “All in Together Now” (named after the Wu-Tang Clan’s original name for those who don’t know) has THUNDEROUS drums, a nice electro loop & I love the ambition in the 2 MC’s voices as they deliver these braggadocious yet accomplished sounding lines. Following that track, we have the closer “Level Electric 1” which is just a beautiful 1 minute dark ambient sounding piece.

Now I remember Eso making a poston his Instagram back in January of this year hinting that this is the last CZARFACE album & if that really is the case with this album, they went out with a bang! The production 7 & Spada bright to the table is tight while Eso & Deck’s flows are on point as is their lyrics & the chemistry is still near perfect. Despite my only issue with the album being that it’s too short (it only runs at 35 & a half minutes), the 3 were able to come through with an album as equally great as their last 2 albums

Score: 3.5/5

Westside Gunn – “FLYGOD” review

Westside Gunn is a 34 year emcee, songwriter, entrepreneur, curator from Buffalo, New York known for his controversial Hitler Wears Hermes mixtape series followed by a couple EPs & founding one of the quickest rising labels I’ve seen in recent memory Griselda Records. Some of the singles building towards his official full-length debut studio album have been universally lauded by the hip hop community in the last several months, making the sky the only limit imaginable.

“Dunks” by Hall ‘N Nash samples “Omen” by Keith Mansfield thanks to Daringer so they can discuss being about that action whereas “Gustavo” references former 2-time CWA Heavyweight Champion, 2-time CWA World Tag Team Champion, 2-time SMW Heavyweight Champion & WWE Hall of Famer Jerry Lawler. “Shower Shoe Lords” featuring Benny the Butcher flips “Baddy” by John Fiddy refusing to give a fuck like they always haven’t while “Vivian at the Art Basel” featuring Your Old Droog finds Camoflauge Monk sampling “Roberta” by Les McCann to assure the hardships of life.

Former アイアンマンヘビーメタル級チャンピオン, TNA World Tag Team Champion, WWE Hall of Famer, WCW World Television Champion, WWE United States Champion, 7-time WCW World Tag Team Champions & 4-time WWE Intercontinental Champion Scott Hall gets his flowers on the Roc Marciano-laced “Hall” prior to “Free Chapo” by Hall ‘N Nash displaying the back-&-forth chemistry between the duo while “Over Gold” featuring Meyhem Lauren throws in a bar referring to WWE Hall of Famer, 6-time WWE tag team champion, WWE Intercontinental Champion, WWE United States Champion & 4-time WCW World Television Champion Greg Valentine.

“Bodies on Fairfax” featuring Danny Brown samples “Rainbow Music” by SoLaRiS so they can address everyone who’s been asking for that fly shit from them while “Chine Gun” gives flowers to West’s late cousin who was tragically almost a decade. “King City” featuring Mach-Hommy finds the 2 talking about nobody fucking with them over a boom bap instrumental from Tha God Fahim leading into “Omar’s Coming” by Hall ‘N Nash featuring Roc Marciano uniting the trio to homage the protagonist of The Wire.

The soulful “Mr. T” produced by Apollo Brown changed my life since it was what sparked my loyalty for Griselda only needing 1 brick while “50 In. Zenith” featuring Skyzoo maintains a chipmunk soul vibe courtesy of Statik Selektah talking about a war going on outside. “Albright Knox” featuring Billie Essco returns to the boom bap & the final song excluding the outro “Dudley Boyz” featuring Action Bronson likening themselves to the former 2-time IWGPタッグチャンピオン, NWA World Tag Team Champions, the inaugural 2-time TNA World Tag Team Champions & 18-time WWE tag team champions over an Alchemist beat.

FLYGOD marks Griselda’s official takeover & has quickly become a modern day underground hip hop landmark setting a balance between the vanity, the grimy & occasionally thoughtful. The production primarily handled by GxFR’s in-house producer Daringer except for 7 cuts tends to be either jazzy or lo-fi & themes of griminess, self reflection, wealth, flossing, who West is as a person, his own experiences, what he lives through currently, what he’s had to live through in the past & how he can floss really well.

Score: 4.5/5