Recognize Ali & Tragedy Khadafi – “The Past, The Present & The Future” review

New collaborative between Recognize Ali & Tragedy Khadafi. One of whom hails from Ghana breaking emerging out the underground in the past decade or so into veteran status & the other comes straight outta Queensbridge, New York as part of the Juice Crew collective. They’ve crossed paths on several instances with tracks like “Black Cocaine” or “Intelligent Hoodlums” & to hear that The Past, The Present & The Future were all colliding on the 4th of July made for an interesting kick off to the 2nd half of 2025 already.

“Will Be Free” breaks the door down with a drumless chipmunk soul instrumentally calling for their apparatuses to be checked whereas “Select Few” airs out all the corny ass people flooding the airwaves these days. “The Most Real” featuring Vinnie Paz produced by Hobgoblin made for an exciting hardcore single back in the fall of 2022 holding up now, but then “Loot Thirsty” finds the duo fiending for some money.

Trife Diesel joins Ali & Tragedy on “Black Coke” warning of their shooters laying everyone down like it’s Syria out in the east coast just before “Everything” chops up a vocal sample matched with kicks & snares talking about no survivors being left alive around their parts, not even the babies. “Cold” craves the taste of blood advising to get ready for the drama while “Gone Tomorrow” featuring Ransom jazzily plays in the kitchen until the food bubbles.

“Diplomats” gets the final leg goin’ sending missiles through your roof like it’s 9/11 while “Elevation” weaves a symphonic flip talking about their artistic altitude. “King Kong” hooks up some piano chords to say that they’re both in the hood with it while “Kuwait Regulate” featuring Flash sees the trio boasting their aggressive flows. “Old & New Legends” closes the album with both parties complimenting each other’s respective generations.

Originally planned to come out in 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic occurring a year beforehand had obviously caused both parties to hold off on joining forces for a full body of work & long awaited project will satisfy people who’ve been following either side or both. Hobgoblin producing half of it made for some of the strongest batch of tracks & it feels like they’re trying to see who can out-rap who.

Score: 4/5

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Recognize Ali – “Guerilla Dynasty 2” review

This is the 14th full-length album from Ghanan emcee Recognize Ali. This guy has been a dominant force in the underground from his vast discography of LPs, mixtapes & EPs within the last decade or so to the stellar feature performances that he’s provided for numerous artists. Some standouts in his ever-growing catalog to me personally include the Giallo Point-produced Back 2 Mecca, the Stu Bangas-produced Guerilla Dynasty & the Bronze Nazareth-produced Season of the 7 to only name a few. He’s just coming off Back to Mecca II & is reuniting with Stu Bangas to drop Guerilla Dynasty 2.

After the intro, the first song “In a Rebel’s Mind” is an eerie boom bap opener talking about being on another level with the MCin’ whereas “Guerilla Warfare” works in some pianos, kicks & snares getting in his battle rap bag saying he slays rappers for the fun of it. “Put You to Sleep” jumps on top of a boom bap instrumental with a crooning sample claiming none of y’all are realer or iller than him leading into “Pulverized” featuring Lord Goat bringing you the hardcore over some string sections.

“Full Clip” has a futuristic boom bap quality to the beat letting it be known that your whole crew can catch a whole round just before “Get Folded” talks about hating actors that play as rappers with a dingy ass instrumental. “Real Housewives” by the Dueling Experts brings back the pianos aiming to leaving heads backwards whenever this comes on & after the “Che Guerilla” skit, “Sheep’s Clothing” featuring Eff Yoo &Spit Gemz sonically feels like something ripped out of a monster movie as they deliver a catastrophe in the making.

Ali begins the final leg of the album with the intergalactic-leaning boom bap joint “Eat What You Kill” tackling the titular metaphor while “0 Smoke” eerily makes it clear that he’ll start clapping motherfuckers. The track “Murder Was the Case” featuring Boob Bronx & Sage Infinite is a rock/boom bap crossover informing what the case they gave them was that is until the final song “Bearer of Bad News” prior to the outro giving off a scary atmosphere preparin’ y’all for an ass-kicking.

Back to Mecca II in my opinion was Jamal’s best album since Season of the 7 & my expectations were already high going into this but needless to say, Guerilla Dynasty 2 is his finest album of this year as of me writing this because I’m sure he could drop at least 1 or 2 within the next 6 months. The feature performances are mostly ok, but he & Stu Bangas really elevate their chemistry to the next level here building upon what made the previous Guerilla Dynasty as great as it was.

Score: 4/5

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Recognize Ali – “Season of the 7” review

Recognize Ali is a Ghanaian emcee who’s been shaking up the underground for the past several years now off projects like Back 2 Mecca, The Shining, I.S.L.A.M. (I Self Lord And Master) & Guerilla Dynasty. Dude’s previous effort Recognition just dropped back in August & for his 9th full-length outing, Ali has enlisted Bronze Nazareth of the Wu-Elements to produce the whole thing from front to back.

After the “Motown Connection” intro, the first actual song “God Aura” incorporates some horns as Ali spits about the champ being here whereas “Hand Count the Cake” is a dope money ode & the vocal loop was well-picked out. The orchestral-tinged “Tear Drops in the Sky” connects with his Dueling Experts cohort Verbal Kent alongside former Army of the Pharaohs member King Magnetic to rap about catching bodies while “Street Gospel” is a soulful tune about “bringing Terror to your Squad like Big Pun”.

After the “Knew Legends” skit, the song “Silver Spear Promise” seems like a homage to the iconic Jay Electronica joint “Exhibit C” from some of Ali’s rhyme schemes down to the sample of “Cross My Heart” by Billy Stewart while the gospel-tinged “Olympic Gold Medalists” taps in TriState & Willie the Kid to get on the spiritual side of things lyrically.

After the “Find It in Him” skit, the title track has a plinky piano loop throughout with lyrics about greatness whereas “How Many Times” finds Bronze hopping on the mic with Ali as the 2 pondering about a number of things on top of an elegant beat.

“Rivers in the Basement of Truth” taps in Napoleon da Legend & Lord Jessiah to spit the battle bars over a piano & some vocal harmonies while the track “How We Roll” brings in a boom bap beat with some harmonization in the background as Ali spits about being on the corner until the AM. I also like the Money Miz shoutout at the end of the first verse as well.

“Camouflage Dons” is a cool homage to the Wu-Tang Clan & the Killa Beez as Ali jumps on an instrumental that has the Wu sound alongside Dom Pachino & before the “Outro to Detroit” outro that finishes off the album, “The Grind” is a symphonic coda about his hustle.

In my opinion, this is one of the best albums that Recognize Ali has ever done. Dude continues to further demonstrate as to why he’s one of the most thought-provoking MCs to emerge from the underground in recent years & Bronze Nazareth comes correct on the production per usual.

Score: 4/5