Tag: MadeinTYO

Jay Worthy & MadeinTYO – “Time After Time” review

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada born albeit Compton, California raised emcee Jay Worthy as well as Honolulu, Hawaii born/Tokyo, Japan raised rapper, singer & producer MadeinTYO joining forces for a new collaborative EP fully produced by the latter. One of whom has been grinding in the underground for the last 7 years & the other landing a spot in the 2017 XXL Freshman Class producing Ransom’s latest EP Smoke & Mirrors earlier this summer. However, Mr. Tokyo’s continuing to apply pressure by linking up with Jay for Time After Time.

After the intro, the first song “Master Delux” is a drumless opener to the EP with both of them provide the soundtrack to motherfuckers making bread whereas “Nino” jazzily keeps the drums out the picture boasting that the paper be doing double flips in their dreams. “School Daze” hops over yet another bare jazz loop refusing to lay up having work to do prior to “Chop” drumlessly talking about having the milk & not referring to dairy whatsoever.

“Fashion Week” maintains the jazz rap vibes working some drums in this time hoping that God forgives them for their fortunes & after the interlude, “London Carry-On” goes drumless again keeping extra sugar in their sweet tea. The final song “Antiqua Barrio” telling wack MCs to get off the mic being black as they are Off-White & the outro finishes the EP with a 3-minute instrumental piece.

Like I said a couple months ago during the Smoke & Mirrors review: I’ve never considered himself a MadeinTYO fan other than maybe “Uber Everywhere”, but he & Jay Worthy cooked up a collab EP that’s as enjoyable as THE AM3RICAN DREAM. His production’s more jazzier than it was on the Ransom EP keeping it prominently drumless in addition to that & lyrically, he & Jay Worthy ping off each other impressively during the course of the 24 minutes you get out of Time After Time.

Score: 4/5

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Ransom – “Smoke & Mirrors” review

Jersey City wordsmith Ransom is back for his 12th EP & the 2nd of 2024. Coming up as 1/2 of the short-lived duo A-Team alongside Hitchcock, he branched out on his own in 2008 following their disbandment beginning with the full-length debut Street Cinema & the Statik Selektah-produced sophomore effort The Proposal. But it’s been safe to say these last couple years have been his biggest so far whether it be the 5 EPs that he put out produced by Nicholas Craven, 7 based around the 7 deadly sins, Heavy’s the Head produced by Big Ghost Ltd., the Rome Streetz collab album Coup de Grâce, or even his last couple albums Chaos is My Ladder, Director’s Cut 4 & Deleted Scenes 2. Lavish Misery produced by Harry Fraud was a step above Spare the Rod, Spoil the Child & hearing that MadeinTYO was producing Smoke & Mirrors.

The title track starts off with a bare guitar loop talking about the time coming to fight the good fight & he was never suited for the bottom at any point his career whatsoever while “Antebellum” gives off a bit of a soulful vibe instrumentally delving further into drumless territory telling a woman not to put a bandage over her permanent flaws & Che Noircountering Ransom’s verse by lacing the best feature of the 2 on the EP. The closer “Human Nature” featuring J. Arrr subsequently wraps up the 3 track, 9 minute listening experience working in lavish piano chords to discuss history choosing a victor.

I wouldn’t say that Smoke & Mirrors is as near-flawless as Lavish Misery was 4 months back, but there’s no denying as someone who’s never considered himself a fan of MadeinTYO other than maybe “Uber Everywhere” that I genuinely didn’t know what to get out of this EP going in & am impressed with what he had to offer. His production is more drumless than Harry Fraud’s was on Ransom’s previous EP & the lyricism from the latter as well as both guests do it justice. I just wish they could’ve gotten a couple more tracks outta it.

Score: 3.5/5

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