Seven seasons after the first disk, AG returns with a studio album. DJ Design is the main producers, flanked behind the keys by Madlib, Jake One, Tommy Tee, Cochise, Oh No, Lord Finesse, J Dilla and Show. The guests are Party Arty, Aloe Blacc and Lil' Roze. After the lukewarm response to his debut album nearly a decade earlier, AG chose to completely change his production style, leaving DITC and relying on beats from some of the scene's most reliable producers, also deciding to forgo contributions from outside rappers, signing with San Francisco, California hip-hop label Look Records.
Andre The Giant gets a West Coast production here, but he doesn't fit perfectly with these beats, especially those provided by Oh No ("Love", "Gigantic"; in the latter A.G. tries but doesn't completely fit the beat) and Tommy Tee ("Yeah Nigga", "Pray"), also struggling to find the musical understanding in Madlib's intro, "Frozen". Leaving out the poorly crafted hooks and the endless tributes to Big L's "Put It On" / "Danger Zone" (at least five here. No kidding: "If I Wanna", "Take a Ride", "Triumph", "Outro" and "Who Dat?"), A.G. shows some steps backwards compared to the times in terms of rapping.
The album loses in solidity alternating even between disastrous tracks and pretty good cuts — Jake One provided a West Coast, sunny beat for "If I Wanna", the chorus comes from the soul loop, good one. "Say Yeah" is club material, boom bap that recalls DJ Khaled, not really well done, unsuitable production. "Pray" is poorly made, simplistic and sounds bad. Party Arty & Aloe Blacc created a good contrast on the g-funk of "Take a Ride" — experimenting with various types of production, mainly West Coast but also funky ("Frozen"), soulful ("Real Right Now"), somber jazzy ("A Giant by Design"), dark ("Yeah Nigga", "Gigantic", "Hip Hop Quotable"), rough ("The Struggle"), hardcore ("Outro") or club / dance ("Say Yeah").
"Hip Hop Quotable" shines with its own light in the darkness of this sophomore of AG: excellent dystopian boom bap made by J Dilla, AG delivers quoting several hip hop classics, Aloe Blacc pretty good on the hook. Show's back in "The Struggle", wonderful New York beat, underground, rough, here AG seems simply perfect between delivery and light hook, because the music really helps him.
For a rapper that returns in the game after a seven-year break, overall is a quite decent effort. 6/10.
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