I had a feeling this would happen. January and February were such dry months for music and when it got to March…. It increased!
By a lot!
So, not only was this month packed with music, it’s in the double digits. Granted, I covered months that had a bunch of albums (i.e. June 2018) larger than this but still, there were some records that I took time to listen to. Hell, most of them were EPs so it wasn’t a brutal listen.
Now I have 15 albums to talk about this month; however, thankfully, I have wrote a review for Schoolboy Q’s Blue Lips. Link is right here and now we get to the other 14.
Fuck, that’s a lot.
First off, here’s a couple of usual staples of my album listening – hip-hop collabs!
RANSOM & HARRY FRAUD // Lavish Misery
Quick intro to Ransom, Jersey rapper that’s been doing his thing in the underground for years and often associate with rappers like Conway The Machine, Benny The Butcher, Lloyd Banks, etc. and now he’s doing a project all produced by Harry Fraud, a producer whom I talked about prior to this with last year with projects like VICES with Curren$y and Virtuoso with Valee and I often talk positively about him and his production, another example being his production on Benny The Butcher’s The Plugs I Met 2.
So, what did I think about the album?
It was a decent listen; a short listen with it being 20 minutes and all and I get the gist with Ransom. He raps about his street shit and his sound is all grimy, hard and gutter – aka the shit I usually like in hip-hop and the production from Harry Fraud delivers that. Joints like “Chain of Command”, “Eye of the Storm”, “Wilson Fisk” with 38 Spesh and my top favorite being “Live from the Roxy” with Boldy James are some good highlights.
MIKE & TONY SELTZER // Pinball
Last year, there was an abundance of both dudes; you had MIKE, Wiki & The Alchemist doing a project, MIKE having a solo project and Tony Seltzer teaming up with Wiki on a project and now Mike and Tony are doing a project. Another relatively short project being 11 tracks clocking over 21 minutes, and yes, the tracks are short as hell.
It’s an interesting listen with the production varied from the abstract/bizarre sounds to the glistening R&B vibes. Then again, there was a track called “R&B” with that sound and the track names are something to think about like “100 Gecs” and no, you don’t get the actual 100 gecs on here but thinking how MIKE would sound like their production would be appealing. Tracks like “2k24 Tour”, “Underground Kingz” & “Yin-Yang” does sound dope and overall, it’s a good listen if you’re in need of a MIKE fix from that last album he did, but smaller.
ELCAMINO, REAL BAD MAN & BSF // The Game is The Game
ElCamino has been a rapper mostly associated with the Griselda gang, mainly Benny the Butcher and his own imprint Black Soprano Family. There’s also Real Bad Man, whom I’m familiar with because of his production work on a few Boldy James projects I talked about in passing.
While ElCamino hasn’t been talked about coming from me, his rapping and story-telling is on par with most of the Griselda/BSF/Drumwork people that shows up on albums and I’ve been noticing El Camino the longest and he’s a dope rapper. Production from Real Bad Man was excellent and mesmerizing, the beat from “Fashion Week” was enthralling with that piano riff loop; “C’mon Nephew” got that soulful vibe going on and since I mentioned Boldy James, he reunites with Real Bad Man here on “No Fighting.” Yeah, this one is also a decent record. Good, short and no filler.
FUTURE & METRO BOOMIN // We Don’t Trust You
Well, this is the first time in a while that I checked out a project from Future and look, I’m not exactly the biggest fan of his. Yeah, I like maybe a couple of tracks of his and maybe sure where he’s the feature but other than that, never been that into him. Then there’s Metro Boomin’ and I enjoy most of his work, especially his production work. Now apparently both of these dudes are beefin’ with Drake and some songs on this album got some shots thrown at him and you know what? I may not be much of a fan of Future but I’m definitely not a fan of Drake and he deserved those diss.
Look, you know I’m just going straight to the one song being “Like That” and of course, that Kendrick Lamar verse where he throws a lot of shots at Drake and maybe a slight at J. Cole. Oh and at the time of this writing, J. Cole did a response to Kendrick…. I’ll talk about that next month. But, yes, we got some beef in his bitch and that verse was golden.
Now, noticed I didn’t say anything about Future’s verse and look, his verse is standard him but again, Future does take some shots at Drake. Hell, he got people like The Weeknd, Travis Scott, Rick Ross to contribute and they have some contempt for Drake as well. I don’t have much to say about the album overall except that it’s not the worst thing I heard from him. I like tracks like “Young Metro” and the title track and the first half is stronger than the 2nd half of it. I’ll just leave it at that.
SHABAZZ PALACES // Exotic Birds of Prey
Look, in the past, I have favorable things about Shabazz Palaces; I like their style, their sound and some of the music is weird as fuck but I dug the hell out of it. However, I have never written a review about their work and probably struggled to write about them. Like this EP, this is your standard Shabazz Palaces project – atmospheric and spacious vibes, cryptic and eerie lyrics, features of artists I don’t know and yeah, there’s your review right there.
The EP is solid, the songs are good, but if you’re not a fan of these guys or you just stop checking their music, you’re better off.
ROC MARCIANO // Marciology
Roc returns in album mode (well, his solo album mode) and it’s safe to say that the album is solid. Look, Roc Marciano has already made some gems and this one is no different. His pen is still mighty on songs like “Gold Crossbow”, “Bad JuJu” & “Went Diamond”; the production still has that psychedelic, off-kilter, old school funk vibe with him still handling all the production with some assists with The Alchemist (“Bad JuJu” and “Higher Self”) and Animoss (“Goyard God” and “Tapeworm“) and you can hear him going in some new directions and he’s nailing it.
CRIMEAPPLE // LETHIMCOOK
Rapper Crimeapple has made some appearance on rapper’s albums I like from Westside Gunn, Roc Marciano, etc and I decided to check out one of his recent albums, since he had one with producer Preservation, which I might check out later and yeah, don’t got much to say. It’s a decent listen, 10 tracks with that and a short runtime of 26 minutes and the rhymes and beats go get gritty and grimy.
NOURISHED BY TIME // Catching Chickens EP
After catching some buzz as his debut album Erotic Probiotic 2 was on plenty of best-of lists, he got signed to XL Recordings and I heard that album and it was a nice listen, loved songs like “Quantum Suicide” & “Shed That Fear” and now we got an EP, following that and from the sounds of it, he still carries that mix of R&B, bedroom pop and alternative/electronic indie pop and Marcus Brown has an captivating voice on him. Yeah, it’s a good listen and go listen to Erotic Probiotic 2 at that. Probably something that would’ve ended up on my list.
Now for a quick round….. electronic edition!!!
GESAFFELSTEIN // GAMMA
Behold, the producer whose stage mane confused me many times pronouncing it (you try saying his damn name!!) and this is more instrumental electronic music that sounds something I haven’t heard from him before. It’s a bit daring and out there than what I have heard from him. Decent stuff.
FOUR TET // THREE
Four Tet has been on my radar for some time with his collabs with Madlib, Skrillex, Fred Again and this time, he leans more into that electronic front and the sounds are quite lovely into it.
DABRYE // Super-Cassette
Dabrye…. Haven’t heard from him in a while since Three/Three and his other ego X-Altera and now he has a beat tape out now. Got some spacey, jazzy vibes to it; it feels like he hasn’t lost a step since we last heard from him. It’s a substantial tape, it’s worth a listen if you haven’t heard from him in a while.
JLIN // Akoma
Good to see Jlin with a new album and she has some special guest features with Philip Glass & Bjork and all I can say about this is that this is a ambitious project with the mix of electronic, experimental post-footwork and some orchestral tones from string quartet, chamber pieces and all that shit thrown in there for good measure. There’s plenty of beat-switches that catches the ear. Tracks like “Open Canvas”, “Borealis (fr. Bjork)” & “Auset” are examples of that. The detail on how this is crafted is immaculate and to be awed and in amazement and worth the listen.
TIERRA WHACK // World Wide Whack
Ever since 2019 appearing on the XXL Freshman List, Tierra Whack has been a fascinating rapper to study, from her debut mixtape Whack World, where each song is a minute clocking in 15 minutes total and now after a few EPs (POP/RAP/R&B – Yeah, those are the titles of the EPs), we finally got that debut album and we got some choice singles that has some cheery, bright and bombastic sounds like “Mood Swing”, “Imaginary Friends”, “Shower Song” and songs like “Two Night” and “27 Club” aka the mood change of the album where this gets depressing and oh boy, the latter one is the finishing track of the album.
Yeah, we get that signature wackiness and playful vibe we got from her and we also got the shit that makes us contemplate life and all that. Decent record, I might like it more with a few more listens in the future.
And last and definitely not least…. The biggest album to come out this month…..
BEYONCE // Act II: Cowboy Carter
Oh wow, me talking about a Beyonce album.
Except I did talk about Renaissance when that came out that summer in 2022 but folks, realize that when it comes to Beyonce, I’m not exactly all that fluent in speaking about her music. Yeah, I think some of the albums she made are iconic (Of course, Lemonade is the #1 example) but you know the deal. Most people are going to make thinkpieces about this album on whether it’s good or not or some shit.
Now, since the whole theme of this album is that she gets in her country roots and yeah, some people are saying that “Oh, Beyonce isn’t real country! How dare she appropriate our genre?” You mean the genre of music that had shit like bro-country be a thing? The genre of music that treats the women in there like shit? The genre that most women who came from that went full-on pop? The genre that came from black people first? The genre where y’all bitch about Beyonce doing this despite her being born and raised in Texas while y’all accept the guy from Staind (whose from Massachusetts) in your field? The genre where y’all keep buying Morgan Wallen records for some reason despite this motherfucker making dull music and saying and doing stupid shit!?
I may not be much into country growing up, despite being raised in Alabama and hearing that shit a lot, but I get it. I know there’s artists like Jason Isbell, Chris Stapleton, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Sturgill Simpson and Zach Bryan out there and I think they make good music. Hell, I reviewed a Sturgill Simpson project before (although that’s more southern rock) and there’s some black country artists that I was unaware for a while like Mickey Guyton, Yola, The War & Treaty (Yes, I’m aware of Darius Rucker aka that one guy from Hootie & The Blowfish is a country singer.) and maybe I can try to explore their catalog.
Anyway…. The album, Cowboy Carter… well, she said it herself, It’s not a country album, it’s a “Beyonce” album and it’s an interesting record, too. Maybe not as much as Lemonade was but I see it.
While it’s labeled as a country album, it does blends multiple genres and is presented as a fake station called KNTRY Radio Texas and there’s well-known country singers like Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson & Linda Martell and you know you’ve done good if you have good ‘ol Dolly Parton on your side. Yes, Beyonce covers her song “Jolene” and if you know that song, it’s all about Dolly begging to Jolene to not take her man. It’s a classic song and this cover changes a few things like instead of begging not to take her man, it’s more like stay the fuck away from my man. Also, yes, Dolly co-signs that shit.
This also showcases black women in country music as well with the song “Blackbiird”, originally from the Beatles as that song does center around them and features Brittney Spencer, Reyna Roberts, Tander Adell & Tiera Kennedy; “Texas Hold ‘Em” is still a bop and a good one at that, “Spaghettii” with Linda Martell and Shaboozey is solid, “II Most Wanted” is a decent track and wow, I didn’t dislike Miley Cyrus on this. I guess she learned from her daddy on how to not suck as a musical ally and there’s Post Malone on “Levii’s Jeans” and well, he’s been trying to get into rock/country as of recent and well, he’s there.
Yes, there’s a lot of names on here that are songwriters in here; please shut up about there being a lot of names on here – you got to give credit to people who contributed to this album and yeah, it isn’t exactly pure country but I said that before and if this album does bring more awareness centering black folk in country music, then that’s all good.
Oh and yeah, I liked it.
Yeah, there you go.
Oh, boy, that was a long one. Hopefully next month won’t be that much of a hassle and I know I’m going to get ready for one release before they might delete it later, if you get what I’m sayin’.
I’m MAK2.0 aka The Blue Hybrid and don’t put out shit and then take it back when you know you’re gonna get your ass kicked by that same dude.
The Mind of the Hybrid One 