Kenny Mason - Angelic Hoodrat: Supercut
Kenny dropped my favorite debut project of 2020, and one of my favorites overall. His brand of gloomy hip hop mixed with some rock really struck a chord with me. A year after Angelic Hoodrat was released, he dropped a sort of deluxe project. The sound and ideas feel along the lines of the original, just slightly different. The personal subject matter of the original isn’t as prevalent on this project, but the sonic experimentation is a lot higher. “Play Ball” is a straight up alt-rock track with a thrown in rap verse. “Titan” with Angel White is a five-and-a-half minute long grungy rock track that’s followed up with another acoustic guitar ballad called “Breathe Again”. I also have to mention “Pup”, which goes through multiple transitions into a sound I’ve never heard done quite like it. Of course, all these experiments are preceded by some traditional hip hop tracks. Denzel Curry and Freddie Gibbs show up on some great tracks on here. “Fasho” sandwiches these features with a fantastic, hard-hitting beat and Kenny dropping some great lines, a personal favorite being, “I get light from the spark, I get life from a thought.” Maybe it’s just where my head is at personally, but I’m not sure this project fully lives up to the original, but that’s ok. It’s still an exceptional collection of tracks from a unique artist in hip hop. There’s no telling what Kenny Mason will do next.
Conway the Machine - La Maquina
Conway already released one of my favorite projects this year with his Big Ghost collaboration project, If It Bleeds It Can Be Killed, and he’s already back two months later with another full length. La Maquina was released with only a week’s notice, but the features and production are a lot more impressive than his previous 2021 output. He had features from JID, 2 Chainz, Ludacris, Benny, Westside Gunn, and more on here. Even with the big features and producers, I think this project falls a bit behind his previous one though. A big part of that is due to the feel of the project. If It Bleeds felt like each song was meticulously put in a specific order to make everything flow nicely. La Maquina feels almost like a lightly edited collection of really good to great songs. There’s nothing wrong with that in the abstract, but when you put out as much work as Conway, each project should be able to stand out. There are some heavy hitters on here though. “6:30 Tip Off”, “Sister Abigail”, and “Scatter Brain” with JID and Ludacris are all some of the best rap songs this year. Even something like “KD”, which has a trap beat and a melodic chorus, fits Conway nicely. Just as an overall project, I think this one lacks behind the other one. Of course, similar to Kenny, this could just be due to where my mind has been recently, but we likely won’t have to wait that long for a new Conway project anyway. His Shady Records debut project God Don’t Make Mistakes is currently lined up for June or July, so hopefully that’s the one that blows everything else away.
Alfa Mist - Bring Backs
The UK jazz scene is strong, and Alfa Mist is one of the biggest names currently. He’s not quite as heavy in the traditional jazz sound as people like Nubya Garcia and Ezra Collective. Instead, he combines a lot of hip hop and subtle electronic elements into his compositions. The single “Run Outs” is a great example of this. The drums are airtight and there’s some jittery percussion throughout the runtime while there are the normal solos of keys and saxophone. “Coasting” is a personal favorite instrumental from the project. Alfa Mist’s keys work perfectly with the subtle strings and horns that provide a lot of the solos on this track. The strings come back once again for the beautiful interlude “Once a Year”. There are also some vocal features on the first half of the project. I think they could’ve been spaced out to break up the instrumental cuts, but both of them fit their respective instrumentals nicely. Bring Backs didn’t quite hit me over the head like Nubya Garcia’s project from last year did, but Alfa Mist clearly shows why he’s one of the biggest names in this scene.
The Alchemist - This Thing of Ours
The Alchemist has been producing for more than two decades, but these past 15 months have shown him at his absolute best. Aside from his solo material, he’s fully produced great projects by Boldy James, Freddie Gibbs, and Conway the Machine. This project is only four tracks, but it shows him continuing his hot streak once again. The intro track and single “Nobles” with Earl Sweatshirt and Navy Blue is an incredible track with loads of chemistry between the two childhood friends. They play off each other effortlessly while keeping the theme of overcoming trauma. Earl shows up again on the last track, this time by himself over this horn sample. The middle two tracks are both sample heavy tracks as well, one with Boldy James and Sideshow, and the other with Maxo and Pink Siifu. It’s only 11 minutes, but the project is extremely cohesive and clearly had a lot of effort put into making it feel like an actual project and not just a collection of songs. The Alchemist’s hot streak continues and hopefully will for a long time.
Midwxst - Summer03
As with other projects I’ve talked about in this vein, Midwxst is another hyperpop artist that’s taking the sounds in a different direction. What differentiates him from the other artists in the sound is his subject matter. A lot of hyperpop’s subject matter tends to be some sort of escapism, mainly because a lot of the artists are a part of the LGBTQ+ community and hyperpop is the community where they can be fully themselves without any judgement. Midwxst’s subject matter is all about depression and borderline suicidal lines. The lines are delivered and written in a similar way to the emo bands of the late 90s and early 2000s. It makes it to where you have to be in a certain mood to truly listen to this project. The mood I’ve been in has me wanting to distance from music talking about depression without lots of depth, so this project really hasn’t connected with me that much, but I wanted to put it out there to keep expanding what people call hyperpop.
G Perico - No Love in LA
This is the third EP I’ve reviewed this year from G Perico. Apparently I missed one last month called Lover Boy Slim, but everything G Perico puts out is so consistent that I’m sure everything is of a similar quality. The same goes for this project too, No Love in LA. The west coast influence still contains a lot of the throwback sounds that most people associate with that label. “Doin Floccs” kicks off the project with a great, introspective west coast banger. G Perico has clearly lived the drug dealing, street lifestyle he talks about. “Attempt” shows him telling more stories from the area, this time about his friends instead of himself. After an interlude, the second half of the project does become a bit hit or miss, but the highlights are still pretty high. He still remains as one of the only west coast gangsta rappers out making really solid music consistently.
YSL Records - Slime Language 2 (Deluxe)
Hip hop has been missing the superstar releases this year. Ever since COVID happened, the game has been pretty quiet when it came to the people at the top. So when Young Thug announced a label album, fans immediately clamoured for it. After a lot of teasing, it was packed with 23 feature heavy tracks, and then a deluxe version with 8 new tracks came out a week later. So now, it’s a 31 song trap project that clocks in at just under 100 minutes. I’m not going to lie, I tried multiple times to get through the entire thing, but there’s just too much here that sounds the exact same for me to enjoy it that much. There are some highlights though. Drake shows up nicely on “Solid” to deliver a quality verse. “Came and Saw” with Rowdy Rebel has these victorious horns and shows Rowdy continuing his hot streak of features. “Proud of You” with Lil Uzi Vert was a sought after snippet for years, and the final version doesn’t disappoint. Don Toliver’s liquid voice immediately makes anything he touches a highlight. So even though I didn’t actually get through the entire thing, I think it’s totally fine to just take what you like and walk away from the full project.
Nick Hakim & Roy Nathanson - Small Things
Nick Hakim creates music that is unlike anyone else. His vocals are always extremely understated, but haunting at the same time. Nick’s 2020 project was a bit too weird for me, and he’s followed it up quickly with a collaboration with Roy Nathanson. Roy is a saxophonist who’s been making music for more than half a century. It seems like a weird combination on paper, but they come together for another poetic, haunting project. The lyrics are even Roy’s poetry, but Nick is the one actually singing them. The lead single “Moonman” is a fantastic look into this project. Roy’s saxophone, the keys, drums, and Nick’s deep voice puts the listener in a beautiful trance. “Cry and Party” easily stands out in the tracklist, but it’s impact will depend on the listener. It’s way more upbeat and funky than the rest of the project, but it’s a nice change of pace. The lyrics on this project tend to be pretty on the nose. For example, the song “Things To Like and Not Like in America” is about exactly what the title seems like, with one verse about good parts of America and the next about the bad. This is definitely a project I need to sit a bit longer with to see how I fully feel about it, but it continues Nick’s streak of unique R&B and soul.
Cordae - Just Until….
Cordae hasn’t dropped a project for a couple years, but a lot has happened since then. He dropped the YBN from his name after the group disbanded, gained popularity and relevance, and is now one half of a young power couple with tennis icon Naomi Osaka. Just Until… showed that Cordae has respect from everyone in the game. The two features on here are Q-Tip, from A Tribe Called Quest, and Young Thug. These four tracks are here to give people something to listen to hold them over until the album, and they do kind of sound like throwaways. That’s not saying anything on here is bad, it’s not, but it all just feels a bit blander than it should. The Q-Tip feature is underwhelming, even with him just being on the chorus. The subject matter on these songs are very emotional and relatable, but they still don’t seem to be anything special. His singing on “Dream in Color” has actually improved quite a bit from his previous project, but it doesn’t make for a better project than his debut. I’m still not holding these against him at all though. In fact, it shows us that Cordae is self-aware enough to know that these aren’t good enough for his official album, and I will be excited whenever that arrives.
Kiefer - Between Days
Kiefer is a producer and pianist who is on Stones Throw Records, one of the highest regarded independent labels in music. After studying jazz in college, he decided that those skills could be put to use better than just recreating old jazz songs. Instead, he started producing these laid back, instrumental hip hop tracks with his jazz flair. The beats sound like something that would play on the lofi beats to study to videos, but he’s able to put some fascinating piano and synth melodies that show his prowess. Don’t get me wrong, these songs still work the best as background music, but he’s doing something slightly different with it than what you would normally find. He also brings on some other talented producers to help with these tracks, like The Kount and trumpeter Theo Croker on the last song. Overall, this is some entertaining background music if you need something instrumental behind you while you work.
DJ Khaled - Khaled Khaled
Normally I wouldn’t review a project this quick, but this one doesn’t need more than one listen to fully comprehend. As with every Khaled release, the feature list seems extremely stacked. The most popular new artists are all throughout this project, but it somehow is one of the worst things so far this year. If anything, it makes me appreciate soundtracks and artists that use tons of features more because clearly just getting the talent together isn’t enough for it to be good. “I Did It” has Post Malone, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, and Dababy all on one song, and it’s just as messy as it sounds. The Justin Bieber and 21 Savage track obviously doesn’t work, both Bryson Tiller posse cuts leave zero impact, and Justin Timberlake misses again. Even the best songs on here don’t have that high replay value. The Drake singles from last year ended up being two of the best tracks on here. “Every Chance I Get” with Lil Baby and Lil Durk is the best banger on here, but nowhere near the best for either of them. Jay-Z, Nas, James Fauntleroy, and harmonies from Beyonce combine into one of the most interesting tracks on here, but with that lineup, this song should’ve been amazing instead of just ok. Not sure why I let DJ Khaled fool me once again, but it’s another album full of failed collaboration attempts.
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