Red Café – “Once in a Red Moon” review

Red Café is a 49 year old MC from Brooklyn, New York who broke out 2 decades ago off his debut mixtape The Supplier. He has since dropped 10 more tapes & a full-length debut, signing to multiple labels from Desert Storm Records to Konvict Muzik as well as Hoo-Bangin’ Records/Capitol Records & Bad Boy Entertainment/Interscope Records without releasing an LP during any of his tenures there. However, learning that his 12th mixtape was gonna be fully produced by Cartune Beatz made me more optimistic than I usually get for his recent output days after Wendy Choo became the new WWE EVOLVE Women’s Champion.

The title track works in a cloudy boom bap instrumental talking about having expensive taste & the beans keeping him safe whereas “TSA Pre-Check” featuring Benny the Butcher finds the 2 proclaiming themselves to be the realest ones in the room. “Wish Me Well” featuring Max B has a cloudier trap vibe to the beat advising to not hate against the bigger man leading into “Water & Flour” featuring So Rich, which is my least favorite track outside of the soul sample.

“Red Rum” featuring Elcamino hops over some pianos so they can talk about their experiences growing up in Buffalo & what Gang Starr referred to as “The Planet” respectively just before “Private Room @ 2AM” admits to being fed up with all the Ls, snitching & going to funerals in addition to his twin admiring the beauty of his scars. “You Lucky” featuring Boldy James on the contrary leans towards a soulfully drumless direction talking about bitches who’re fortunate.

The song “Pray for Me” hooks up a soul sample & some hi-hats hoping for God to protect him from catching another case & making it home safely while “Payne Café” strips the drums again so both him & RJ Payne can talk about having more cocaine on their tables than the late Rick James ever did when he was still alive. “A.C.G. (Anybody Can Getit)” sends off Once in a Red Moon with a soulful outro motivationally encouraging people to achieve their goals.

A great deal of this guy’s output has been average at best, but I have enjoyed some of his features in the past & all the singles building up towards Once in a Red Moon lives up to the expectations I had set for it. Maybe even the best thing Red Café’s done in his entire career if I’m being frank. Cartune Beatz’ production is a huge upgrade from some of the Shakedown Entertainment founder’s latest material & he gives these instrumentals his all alongside the guests.

Score: 4/5

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RJ Payne – “Sinnerz” review

New York emcee & revered battle rapper RJ Payne formerly known as Reign Man dropping his 16th EP. Building up an extensive solo catalogue for himself with 24 mixtapes as well as well as his last dozen EPs & 4 full-length albums, Benny the Butcher even signed RJ to Black Soprano Family Records for a brief period of time & putting out some of best material like Leatherface & Square Root of a Kilo under Benny’s ever-growing indie label of his own. My Life’z a Movie produced by Stu Bangas quickly became my favorite LP in RJ’s discography & Enemy Soil Entertainment in-house producer C-Lance went on a trip with him to The Barbershop, coming off Erick Sermon producing a 3-Piece & Drega33 fully producing Triangle D’or to team up with Cartune Beatz on Sinners.

After the “Let Me In” intro, the first song “Stacks” hooks up a bare slowed down sample to refer himself as royalty in the flesh whereas “Sammy’s Guitar” takes the chipmunk soul route instrumentally hoping that everyone has accepted their fate. “Ryan Coogler” warns not to make him come to your house for cleaning only leaving nothing behind but the bill & “Land of the Sinner” soulfully talks about his heart being bigger than his patience, but then “Smoke” wraps up Sinnerz with 1 last drumless observing a glitch in the game.

Furthering the acclaim of 3-Piece & Triangle D’or, the Reign Man’s consistent 2025 run carries on with another EP that will likely go down as amongst the best RJ has ever done similarly to both predecessors I mentioned earlier. Cartune Beatz’ production here goes for a primarily drumless sound further pulling from chipmunk soul & RJ refrains from having guests once again to spit the Payne fans have come to love him for.

Score: 4/5

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Tha God Fahim – “Machine Gun Vocabulary” review

I’m pretty sure this is the 23rd full-length studio LP from Tha God Fahim. Starting as an affiliate of Griselda Records as well as being 1/3 of the Dump Gawds alongside Mach-Hommy & Your Old Droog, we also can’t ignore the massive discography that he’s managed to build for himself, some of the standouts include Breaking Through tha Van Allen Belts & Dump Assassins. But dude has been on a CRAZY ass EP run in 2023 with the standouts being the Camoflauge Monk-produced Dark Shogunn Assassin, the Nature Sounds-backed Iron Bull & the Nicholas Craven-produced Dump Gawd: Shot Clock King 4, the Oh No-produced Berserko, Fahim’s last EP Dump Gawd: Rhyme Pays produced by Mike Shabb, Tha Supreme Hoarder of All Pristine Wealth & more recently Supreme Dump Legend: Soul Cook Saga produced by Cookin’ Soul from a few weeks ago. Dump Goat II mixed 9 new songs with 10 previously released joints & some of the guests on Machine Gun Vocabulary produced by Cartune Beatz caught my attention.

The title track starts with a reversed sample mixed with kicks & snares so he can gut & filet all these MCs who wanna battle him whereas “Volatile Vernacular” featuring RJ Payne works in another boom bap instrumental talking about haters meeting all types of death. “Detonate” hooks up some ghostly sampling flexing that his name rings bells like Biggie kickin’ in the door until the piano-driven “Prolific Pen” featuring Cormega finds the 2 talking about their superiority in the long-awaited collab.

“Brilliance” grittily promises this as the start of something big & major leading into the hardcore “Audible Ammunition” featuring Skyzoo talking about nothing controlling them. “What You Wanna Say” featuring Lørd Skø jazzily finds the new poor Lørd Jeff Hardy & the Dump Gawd giving Stone Cold Stunners, but then ”Prove & Show” returns to the boom bap talking not slowing down because he has a family to feed. “Cleanse” nears the end of the album comparing himself to Errol Spence Jr. & “Damages” finishes up with 1 last dusty track maintaining a winning streak.

For this being the 3rd LP of Fahim’s to come out this year, I’d put Machine Gun Vocabulary above Dump Goat II & behind Supreme Dump Legend: Soul Cook Saga. Cartune Beatz’ boom bap production is incredibly consistent over the course of the 27 minute listening experience & even if it’s not a surprise that all the guests killed it with their contributions, the Dump God makes it all live up to the name comparing his lexicon to that of an SMG.

Score: 4.5/5

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