Lee Carver – “A Night 2 Dismember” review

This is a brand new extended play from Dayton, Ohio emcee Lee Carver. Following his 2015 solo debut Massacre Mask, he later became the 3rd & final member to join the almighty Alla Xul Elu & the Long Live Evil founders have been sending shockwaves across the underground wicked shit scene since 2018 known for combining sharp horrorcore lyrics with boom bap & industrial hip hop instrumentation. His sophomore effort Meathead: Satanic Steakhouse came out this past winter & he’s back once more for A Night 2 Dismember.

After the “New Release” intro, “The House Demands a Host” opens up welcoming everyone back to the hellhole over a boom bap instrumental whereas “Serrated” expresses the hatred he has for humanity. “Mr. Meathook” has a quirkier vibe to the beat describing an individual who takes your wishes as his command while “Bump in the Night” featuring Mutanoid Underground Dwellers dedicate itself to the sickos who don’t give a fuck.

“Rotting Flesh Rewind” begins the 2nd half of the EP spitting some bloodcurdling wicked shit filled with gruesome imagery & after “Blood Shed” takes a slower yet morbid approach instrumentally so Carver can continue talking about murder, the final song Corpse Funnel” preceding the “Satanic Steakhouse Theme” outro takes it back to the traditional boom bap sound combining that with more horrorcore lyricism for 4 & a half minutes.

In preparation LLE’s medley set at the 26th annual Gathering of the Juggalos later this summer & the Skinner Family’s next member being introduced, my personal favorite Alla Xul Elu member Lee Carver continues the story of Meathead: Satanic Steakhouse titular character whom we were intended to 6 months earlier through A Night 2 Dismember as well as using it as an opportunity to flesh out his story & give it more context over dark production with a decent guest appearance.

Score: 4/5

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Mr. Green – “F.U. S.M.D. (For U, Some Musical Distraction)” review

Highland Park, New Jersey born producer Mr. Green now based out of New York City surprisingly taking the microphone for a new extended play of solo material. For nearly 2 decades already, this guy has produced for some of the most prolific artists across the entire underground hip hop spectrum from the Army of the Pharaohs to R.A. the Rugged Man & Westside Gunn. He also has multiple beat tapes under his belt & was interested in hearing what sort of directions he’d try taking for F.U. S.M.D. (For U, Some Musical Distraction).

After the soulful “ooo ooo ooo” intro, the first song “think about u” works in some pianos to sing about him not being able to get enough of a woman he’s fallen in love with whereas “make money” takes a mainly repetitive approach to his songwriting wanting to increase his revenue over more keys. “g thang” eventually reaches the halfway point soulfully covering WWE Hall of Famer Snoop Dogg’s opening verse of “Nuthin’ But a G Thang”.

“u known me for years” kicks off the 2nd leg of F.U. S.M.D. (For U, Some Musical Distraction) hooking up a boom bap instrumental to spit an off-the-cuff freestyle talking about some wanting him to stay & others hoping he calls it quits but after a 21 second skit, the closing track beautiful life” preceding a Bandcamp exclusive outro spanning almost a minute spends the last 76 seconds of the EP repetitively singing about the beauty of existing.

Wouldn’t have ever imagined Mr. Green taking the risk of vocally performing over his own production for the duration of an entire project & although I appreciate gin doing so, I found a great deal of F.U. S.M.D. (For U, Some Musical Distraction) to be pretty average. There is some artistic range pulling inspiration from singer/songwriter as well as R&B & of course hip hop, but I was expecting more out of the songwriting considering the repetitiveness of multiple tracks & firmly believe he can make a few improvements.

Score: 2.5/5

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ZelooperZ – “Pin Breakers” review

This is the 2nd extended play from Detroit, Michigan emcee ZelooperZ. A member of the Bruiser Brigade collective & 1/2 of ZGTO, he has spent the last 15 years building up a solo catalog comprised of a dozen LPs along with another EP & a couple mixtapes. My personal favorites of which being the Black Noi$e-produced Dyn-o-mite & more recently, ZelooperZ’ most recent full-length Dalí Ain’t Dead, digging up all 11 of Pin Breakers’ tracks 9 months later & putting it up exclusively on his Bandcamp.

“Listen” starts us off with a 90 second intro talking about never dropping the ball similarly to Blake Griffin over some sampling in the background whereas “Pain T Wayne” hops over a psychedelic trap beat saying that he reminds himself of T-Pain & shit not changing. “Beautician” goes for a jazzier boom bap vibe instrumentally talking about working in any weather while “Mason’s Dispatch” feels like a minute & a half freestyle.

My least favorite track here might be “The Music” mostly because it sounds underdeveloped & so short where having it on here seems rather pointless while “Nostradamus” featuring Danny Brown makes up for it by giving us a boom bap banger that would’ve fit perfectly on Dyn-o-mite. “My Momma” continues the 2nd half of the EP showing gratitude towards his mother while “River Rogue” continues to chop up more samples talking about having this shit laced.

“Baby Bruisin’” nears closer towards the conclusion of Pin Breakers blending some strings & hi-hats discussing him spending a long time not having shit while “Sailing Seas” further elaborates on that recalling the days where he used to eat a bunch of Spam & sleep in the studio over a piano instrumental. The outro “Aha Aha” soulfully concludes the EP looking back at when he couldn’t walk around the hood because of a bounty placed on his stepfather’s head.

Considering that Pin Breakers was recorded in 2019 around the same time as Dyn-o-mite, it wouldn’t surprise me of these collection of previously unreleased tracks were meant to be on that album since ZelooperZ’ primarily abstract lyrics combined with Black Noi$e’s experimentally jazzy production were all key factors in making Dyn-o-mite so special to me even if there are some occasionally incomplete ideas floating around here & there.

Score: 4/5

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R8 – “Dawn Chorus” review

United Kingdom trap producer R8 curating his 3rd solo EP of rappers performing over his beats. For a few years already, he’s gotten a chance to work with some of the increasingly popular trap artists in recent memory from 9 Vicious to untiljapan & tana in addition to becoming a member of the Vanguard Music Group production team. However, seeing that he’s continuing to drop stuff under his own name with Dawn Chorus peaked my interest even if he was only able to get 4 guests on it & has been getting quite the attention.

“Grand Risings” by Nosaint begins with a trap intro where the latter’s rapping about some of these dudes out here being full-blown hoes whereas “Need Don’t Want” by Santova gives off a cloudier vibe instrumentally even if the repetitive songwriting does nothing for me. “Sak Pasé” by Nosaint co-produced by Patrick Garza boasts that his racks will do the speaking for him & after the compositional title track Tom Levesque co-produced, “Treat You Right” by Nosaint talks about treating his girl properly.

Deathtoricky gets his own moment to shine in the spotlight with “Holiday” even if it another cut I’m not head over heels for, but then “Unfortunate” by 9 Vicious samples the Tems song of the same name airing out someone who did them dirty. “Margiela Coat” by Nosaint talks about finding a woman who’s different from these other hoes until Dawn Chorus finishes up with 2 more 9 Vicious songs: “Free Mind” sampling another Tems joint & “Patience”.

“Exhausted” by Nosaint starts the deluxe run flipping “Mighty Exhaust” by Earl Sweatshirt only to throw some 808s on top of it talking about getting it all by himself while “Never Jumping Ship” by Nosaint brings some flutes into the picture discussing his squad changing the entire game & running it in the faces of his detractors. The final bonus track “Real Life” by Nosaint spends the last couple minutes explaining that he’s talking about his own personal experiences whenever he’s rapping.

Both of R8’s previous extended plays 8 & 8² have their individual selection of highlights such as “Farewell” or “Whole Story”, but Dawn Chorus brings more consistency to the table than it’s predecessors & think this is his finest solo offering yet. His cloudy trap production remains opulent start to finish & out of the small handful of guests, Nosaint taking up almost half of it was fun since he’s been getting a lot of recognition for his rapping abilities recently & the 9 Vicious fans will eat his contributions up.

Score: 3.5/5

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Tezzus – “The Resurrectiøn” review

This is the 9th extended play from Atlanta, Georgia rapper Tezzus. Introducing himself with his first few EPs Hard2Kill as well as Hellraiser & Everyday’s Halløween, his 2024 debut mixtape Tezzus Khrist would significantly elevate his profile locally as did the handful of appearances he made on The XA Tape. He later gave us the Søufside collaborative EP with Percaso, Backrooms, King Phønk, I Phønk, U Phønk and Tezzy Pendergrass until Young Thug signed him to YSL Records following 9 Vicious’ departure. ##FilthyLikeMax was a solid debut for the label & the eponymous Uy Scuti Bøyz tape left audiences including myself divided, making up for the latter with The Resurrectiøn.

We have PROJECT4PLAY sampling “Cranes in the Sky” by Solange on the intro “Solange” talking about being rich after not having shit whereas “Aubrey” flips “Trophies” by Drake discusses sitting in the back of a car with an extendo. “Tezzus Mane LaFlare” hops over a sample of “Lemonade” by Gucci Mane talking about living what he raps while “Jeffrey Williams” interpolates “Halftime” by Young Thug demanding $250K to sit with him.

“Katy Perry” samples “Dark Horse” by the latter featuring Juicy J to kick off the 2nd half of The Resurrectiøn thanks to Rafmade talking about fucking a hoe in New York until she’s sore leading into the rage-inducing “Ye” sampling “No Mistakes” by Kanye West detailing money coming after praying for the fame. The penultimate song “Lil Røkk” co-produced by ilykimchi of Working on Dying gives off a generally cloudier trap vibe talking about his phone being on do not disturb mode & the outro “ØWay” featuring Young Thug on the remix sends off the EP flexing they’ll have all their ice on them this summer.

Hopefully the reception of the Uy Scuti Bøyz tape a couple months ago was nothing more than a bump in the road because I truthfully got more enjoyment outta this than I did that or even FilthyLikeMax not too long after YSL signed Tezzus last fall, making The Resurrectiøn the best thing he’s done since joining the label. He’s basically catching up with us on how life’s been treating him & the sample-heavy production PROJECT4PLAY mostly handles results in some of the greatest beats he’s made.

Score: 4/5

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Protect – “slimedude2003” review

This is the debut extended play from Buffalo, New York rapper Protect. Introducing himself to the trap & plugg subgenres of hip hop by releasing his full-length debut All on Me followed by the sophomore effort albeit major label debut Ball Hog of Life under Atlantic Records a couple years earlier, his previous LP 500 Days of Summer last August was my introduction to him & remains his strongest collection of material today. 10 months later, he’s dropping off slimedude2003.

“RAF Trench” starts us off with a plugg instrumental talking about shooting as if he’s Cade Cunningham whereas “Firearm” cloudily admits to constantly pouring lean like he’s awaiting his own death. “0s” could be a weaker moment here since he’s pretty much sandwiching an unacceptably underwritten verse in the middle of a chorus, but then “Makatussin” continues to express the love he has for consuming cough syrup over a bubbly beat from R8 of Vanguard Music Group

As for “Whole Crowd”, we have Protect talking about getting concertgoers turnt soon as he he hits the stage prior to the plugg-influenced “RE4” referencing one of my all-time favorite video games Resident Evil 4 & dissing N3on for seeking attention online. “What Doesn’t Kill U” begins the 2nd half talking about sending out convoys over a synth-driven trap beat just before “Reset” confesses to feeling overwhelmed by a handful of things.

“AC130” gets slimedude2003’s last let going talking about making opps bleed soon as he catches them while “Sk8r” samples “believe me” alyorra discussing the importance of finding yourself & getting it together. The highlight “Last of Us” produced by Cade makes a nod to another all-time favorite video game of mine & the outro “U da 1” finishes the EP with 1 last motivational anthem about the audience making an impact too by doing it.

500 Days of Summer stands tall as the most refined musical statement of Protect’s career & although I do acknowledge that slimedude2003 was meant to be a collection of “grails”, I felt that the final production turned out to be pretty average compared to his previous LP. You can definitely tell these were recorded sometime before or after All on Me & Ball Hog for Life when he was getting his footing in even if I wouldn’t call it some of my favorite material he’s done outside a couple joints.

Score: 3/5

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SK da King – “Due Diligence” review

Here is the 4th extended play from Baltimore, Maryland emcee SK da King. Emerging as a member of the Checkered Flag Boyz under the original moniker Paul Skola, it wasn’t until a few years ago where he signed to Conway the Machine’s very own Drumwork Music Group as a solo act as announced by his debut single “Actions” & would go on to introduce himself to the Drumwork fanbase that fall in the form of the debut EP Horus. His full-length debut studio album Made 4 Thiscame after Before the Album & has enlisted Haas Almahdi to produce Due Diligence following No More Mr. Guy.

The title track begins with a powerful boom bap intro talking about him trying to build his catalog strongly whereas “Animal” featuring ItzGitty makes for the only song I didn’t care for dustily responding to people calling them beasts. “Top Spot” ends the 1st half talking about his name ringing bells & coming back hot just before “East Side” mixes a piano with some kicks & snares to explain that this is a lose-lose game along with having shit locked from side to side.

“Cruise Control” winds down the last few moments of Due Diligence talking about him riding for this shit & how heavy Drumwork moves over another boom bap instrumental while “Early Bird” gives off a more nocturnally rawer vibe talking about bringing the money home regardless of not knowing when he’ll return home. The closer “John Gotti” spends the last few minutes of the EP comparing himself to the iconic Mafia boss of the same name.

Familiarizing myself with Haas Almahdi after producing for the likes of Lloyd Banks or 7xvethegenius & more recently Courtney Bell, hearing that he was linking up with SK da King gave me the feeling that SK was gonna outdo every single EP he’s done up until this point & that’s exactly what he does. Outside of a guest appearance, Haas’ boom bap production & SK’s lyricism make for a great pairing even if it’s only for 23 minutes.

Score: 4/5

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730atMorning – “1 Man Band” review

Minneapolis, Minnesota rapper 730atMorning preluding Context with his 2nd mixtape. Someone who would drop 3 extended plays in 2022 including Pots*, untitled & Hi, I’m Alive. He would later follow it up with the Creeper EP, the 7:30* EP, the full-length debut Asphalt, the Guarded EP, the sophomore effort albeit Virgin Music debut Under the Bridge, the Rotten Fruit EP, his previous full-length Save Your Grievance, the almost inside EP & the Insiders tape. Last we heard from him was the I Can’t STFU EP last Halloween & 1 Man Band’s offering a preview of the new era over a month after Tiffany Stratton ended ジュリア’s record-tying 2nd reign as WWE Women’s United States Champion.

After the compositional “Withered” intro, the opener “Graye” featuring Lerado Khalil begins with them talking about the fuck shaping them to the people they are presently whereas “Clouds n Rain” channels a pluggier vibe instrumentally pleading not to tempt him. “40MGs” produced by LulRose might be my favorite track here talks about trying to get back with a woman who kept putting up a fight while “My Favorite Part” splits itself into halves detailing a woman who doesn’t miss him back.

“Sequence of Events” embraces a cloudier sound altogether talking about being in charge & making the rules since he doesn’t have any corny bullshit in his life but after “God Still Take Me” talks about paying for all his sins as well as him praying for the Higher Power to take him to the afterlife, “Lost the Plot” incorporates some icy synths to talk about finding love in Los Angeles with his homies & being here today because of his hard headedness.

The track “Interesting Character” nears further towards the conclusion of 1 Man Band explaining that he doesn’t need shit from this individual since they told him to die & him reasonably taking that to heart while the final song “Body” preceding the “Repulsive” outro expresses the desire he has of giving this individual what they need even if they gotta go how he wants them to & not keeping up with his own flexes.

1 Man Band warms us up for Context with the most densest entry in 730atMorning’s entire discography & gives me confidence of this next project coming down the pipe maintaining this momentous run he’s been on since last fall. The tape’s trap production takes its secondary influences more from cloud rap, plugg, witch house & wave rather than capitalizing on I Can’t STFU’s rage, free car music, jerk & new jazz undertones & I found the inclusion of guests to be a refreshing move compared to the predecessor’s lack of features.

Score: 3.5/5

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Jon Connor – “The Artist Yahn Freeman V” review

Flint, Michigan emcee/producer Jon Connor switching things up for this month’s entry in The Artist Yahn Freeman series. Someone who’s steadily been holding it down for the last 2 decades including The Calling, Vinnie Chase & S.O.S. trilogies along with the Best in the World series paying homage to some of Jon’s influences, Salvation, While You Were Sleeping & Unconscious State. He was even signed to Aftermath Entertainment for 6 years before departing after Vehicle City wound up being shelved, coming off Food for the Soul & 24 produced by KLC of the No Limit Records in-house production team Beats by the Pound to have iRockSays produce this guest-heavy installment.

“High Key” begins with a trap intro talking about hoes needing a streamer to tell them exactly what their mother & grandfather have been saying since their youth whereas “I Get’s Down” discusses being born in a system where they’re trying to fuck everyone over. Courtney Bell appears so he & Jon can take things back to “The Essence” over a soulful beat leading into Freeway joining to talk about both of them only having their balls & “My Word”.

Kicking off the 2nd half, “Stay Up” has a more motivational tone to the lyrics explaining that you’re always gonna lose pretending to be someone you’re not while “Glory” talks about everything being ok as long as he never quits. “Held High” featuring X-Raided unites both artist over another boom bap instrumental refusing to lose focus & fearing nobody while “At the Top” ends V encouraging everyone listening to enjoy the journey.

This whole saga has been divisively received by fans in general although I personally would tell you that last month’s chapter still has the strongest engineering compared to the rest, but I didn’t get the same enjoyment out of The Artist Yahn Freeman V compared to it’s predecessors produced by Smitti Boi. I commend him for bringing a new producer & more features on board, even if the amount of features are too many.

Score: 3/5

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Seth Narley – “Prada Cups in the South of France” review

Here is the brand new extended play & the 10th in his discography overall from South Bronx, New York emcee Seth Narley. Dropping his debut EP 5am on Crosby in 2019, he would later follow it up by putting out the Trissland trilogy & drop 3 more EPs in 2024: Night at the Roxy, A Millbrook Story & S.A.L.Y. (Still Ain’t Lie Yet). Coming off both The American Dream: Son of a Dealer & Oceans: Mondrian however, he’s copping Prada Cups in the South of France.

“Jordan on the Baseline” begins with a soulfully jazzy opener clocking at 109 seconds likening himself to my favorite basketball player of all-time whereas “$2K on the Knicks” chops up a gospel sample to talk about betting for his home team in the NBA Playoffs & not trippin’ live it because of his bias instinct. “Unplugged from Marsielle” kicks off the 2nd half of the EP admitting his brother took his own life over a drumless loop while “Celia Cruz & Gloria Estefan” ends on a jazzier note talking about being worth $1M.

Only a few days after getting to see Adam Copeland & Christian Cage end FTR’s record-tying 3rd reign as AEW World Tag Team Champions in person at Double or Nothing VIII this past weekend surpassing All Out III as the best PPV the company has ever put on, Seth Narley begins summer a few weeks early by coasting over a bunch of drumless sampling techniques Creestal has to offer ranging from jazz to soul music reminding us of the symbolism Luna Rossa’s commissioned sneakers have over in Marseille.

Score: 3.5/5

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