Donnie Darko – “Life Lessons” review

Donnie Darko is an MC from New Jersey notable for extensively collaborating with New York producer, DJ & occasional Black Sunday partner-in-rhyme Sutter Kain since the beginning of his career. The ghetto metal pioneer himself has laced pretty much everything that Donnie has ever done from The Darko Effect to Another Day at the Office. But with the latter being released this past spring & fall kicking off last month, Donnie’s ringing in October by linking back up with DJ Bless for his 6th EP.

Things kick off with the 6th installment of the “Block Game” series hopping on top of a soulful instrumental to talk about coming from the project lights whereas “Charles S. Dutton” has a more crooning boom bap flare to it spitting that hardcore shit. “Dark Dayz Rainy Nights” takes a more funereal route detailing how clout’s a Hell of a drug prior to Naymez coming into the picture for “Late Night” which samples Sade if I’m not mistaken belittling motherfuckers. The song “Desperate Measures” diving into trap turf talking about being built to win & then the title track with King Brian ends the EP with a touching ballad about being determined to win.

Although I enjoyed Another Day in the Office when it came out earlier this year, Life Lessons has gotta be my personal favorite of the 2 EPs that Donnie gave us this year. The lyrics are some of the most introspective/personal stuff that he’s has laid onto wax yet as his longtime collaborator Sutter Kain sticks to his signature ghetto metal sound behind the boards.

Score: 3.5/5

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Donnie Darko – “After the World Got to Us” review

Donnie Darko is an emcee from New Jersey most known for his extensive collaborations with New York producer, DJ & occasional Black Sunday partner-in-rhyme Sutter Kain. They just dropped a fantastic EP back in April called Before the World Got to Us & here we are 4 months later with a sequel project.

The album kicks off with “Tesla”, where Donnie talks about being a veteran over a hard hitting beat taking it’s name after the multinational automotive & clean energy company. The next song “Dark Noise” talks about how dope he is over a dark boom bap beat while the track “Trigger Music, Pt. 2” of course talks about guns over a beat with an alluring vocal sample. The song “Dark Sounds” talks about his opponents not being built the same as him over an apocalyptic instrumental while the track “Winter Music, Pt. 5” gets violent over a suspenseful boom bap beat.

The song “Death Merchants, Pt. 2” is a bloodthirsty horrorcore posse cut while the track “Dark Moments” with Appollo Valdez sees the 2 coming with the battle bars over a boom bap beat with some choir vocals in the background. The song “Dark Voices” talks about how he’s just doing his thing over an instrumental with a chilling loop while the penultimate track “Death by High Noon” with Danny DieRich & Mike Sanders sees the 3 talking about murder over a boom bap beat with some synths. The closer “Going Through the Motions Pt. 3” with McNastee then finds the 2 talking about what’s on their minds over a bleak instrumental.

As much as I really enjoyed Before the World Got to Us, this new EP is a cut above it. Donnie Darko & Sutter Kain continue to display their ever-so-natural chemistry as their respective lyricism & production on here is a lot darker than it was on the EP we heard just 4 months ago.

Score: 4/5