Ghostface Killah - "The Lost Tapes" Ghostface Killah's contribution to the discography of classic albums is indisputable. Supreme Clientele is without question the first classic of the 2000's decade, and one of it's strongest as well. He's continued to release great music as the years go by, even releasing one of his best works in 2013 (20 years after his debut with the Wu-Tang Clan) in the form of 12 Reasons To Die with Adrian Younge. However, The Lost Tapes is so aggressively uninspired it's almost difficult to be sure that this is really Ghostface Killah. His voice has changed, too, sounding like he has stopped attempting to use a rap voice and is merely speaking dejectedly over instrumentals in his normal talking voice. This album was bland, dull - the only memorable moment for me was KXNG Crooked's lively verse on track 2, 'Buckingham Palace'. Even with the large list of guests, including Wu-Tang members, Big Daddy Kane, LA The Darkman, Snoop Dogg, E-40, Sheek Louch, Ras Kass & more - the album fails to maintain any kind of interest. It's all made worse by Michael Rappaport's annoying intro and outro, where all he does is blow GFK's balls for a minute or two. Skip this, and instead put on Supreme Clientele. 45/100 Open Mike Eagle - "What Happens When I Try To Relax" Whilst only being 6 tracks & 20 minutes in length, OME's new EP is one of the most consistent rap projects this year. I wasn't too hot on Brick Body Kids Still Daydream, his critically acclaimed concept album from 2017, but this EP stuck with me the way that album didn't. It's got spacy, dreamy beats - the instrumental on 'Every Single Thing' is to die for, as are most of the beats, actually - and Mike's charismatic rap style compliments the low-stakes that the EP aims for. 'Relatable' is exactly how it sounds - Mike is just a regular guy, even if he is a respected rapper, and he speaks lines like "Sometimes when I'm social I feel incompatible" and "My garbage disposal is stuck on a vegetable / I should call the professional". He turns a simple non-event into a relatable lyric that shows that even a small vegetable sticking up your garbage disposal leaves us to the mercy of a professional. All 6 are great tracks, and althought I'm a bit exhausted of tiny projects from 2018, this EP was certainly one worth listening to. 75/100 Joell Ortiz & Apollo Brown - "Mona Lisa"
Joell seems to do his best work when he pairs with a producer for an entire project. 2015's Human with !llmind was one of his best projects (and also the first album I ever wrote a review for, so if you want some fresh cringe, check out my writing from mid-2015) but his solo follow-up That's Hip-Hop was fresh out of ideas. Apollo Brown has brought that spark back with his consistent production, offering Joell a place to offer a second round of personal, inviting rap songs. The first true track 'Reflection' is made of soft keys and warm bass, not overexerting itself by any means, giving Joell center stage to do as the song says - "Took a sec for me to accept that next time I'm on the road / Won't be no Crook, won't be no Royce, won't be no Joe", sharing his feelings on the recent termination of the Slaughterhouse group. He tells stories across the majority of the album, such as 'That Place' - a song about hospitals, hating them because they're were all his friends who get shot go to die, but loving them because they're were his children were born. 'Come Back Home' is a sober look at how fame has affected Joell - "How did me and the younger me become so distant? Or are we not?" he asks as he talks about watching old friends he used to see, and how he's changed from moving out of the slums. "Did I invest, find some things to feed my bank account? / Or did I buy material shit that I coulda stayed without?" Where Human began slowly and became more gratifying around the half-way point of the album, Mona Lisa is far more consistent, even if it doesn't quite reach the heights that Human did with fantastic tracks such as 'Latino Pt.2' & 'Bad Santa'. It's not far behind, though, and because the album doesn't slog for the first 20 minutes, I'd say it's still an improvement on an already very solid project. He keeps the features brief, with only Royce Da 5'9" offering assistance on 'Timberlan'd Up', a boom-bap throwback with a hypnotic keyboard-drum loop combo. 'Cocaine Fingertips' has a menacing, dark bass line, with an ominous slowed vocal sample of a crowd cheering roaring in the background. The album's greatest quality is it's dead-on consistency, with the only track worth skipping being the remix of 'Timberlan'd Up' tacked onto the end of the project. It's the same song, but with a KXNG Crooked verse added to the end, so unless you're a really big Crook fan, there's not much point sitting through the song again just to hear his verse - especially seeing as the original only played two songs ago on the album. I hope Joell continues to team up with produces, because these albums are where he seems to focus the most and pen his best writing. 82/100
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Albums I missedReviewing even one album per week with a full-time job isn't easy, so once a month I briefly comment on albums I'd have liked to review, but didn't get the time to. |