On September 11, 2015, the brothers Westside "Hall" Gunn and Conway "Nash" the Machine release their second project under the name Hall & Nash, after the eponymous debut a few months earlier. The production is entrusted to Big Ghost Ltd., at the debut. The cover is perfect. Beautiful. Flawless. The image represents the first moments immediately after the attempted assassination of then-US President Reagan, on March 30, 1981, at the exit of the Washington Hilton hotel, in Washington, D.C. The photo shows Secret Service agents cover Press Secretary James Brady and police officer Thomas Delahanty. Secret Service Agent Robert Wanko can be seen holding a Uzi in case of further attack. This is the cover of the reissue, it has a wonderful filter and a different title font than the original. On the back cover, Reagan himself fumbles with a bolt-action rifle. On reddit, a genius has created an "alternative cover" which is a masterpiece.
The disc opens with a splendid sample from "Slow Reactor 1" by Sammy Burdson with a sublime midtempo drum, on which the former drug trafficker "Freeway" Rick Ross introduce the record, with a skit from an interview with the US version of Russia Today, where he explains the Iran-Contra affair, and how the government played a crucial role in importing the drug that destroyed the poorest side of the United States. A second flashback follows: 1980, 125.000 people leave the port of Mariel, Cuba, most of them are convicts and unwanted by the government, headed for Miami. Among these ones, there are also Antonio "Tony" Montana and his friend Manolo "Manny" Ribera, who somehow manage not to be put in prison by the US police and end up in Freedom Town, a ghetto-village for Cuban political refugees, under a highway. In the same place, also arrived Emilio Rebenga, a former politician who left Mariel with them as a refugee, who in the past killed the brother of a Miami boss, Frank Lopez, who's now demanding revenge: Tony and Manny have the opportunity to kill him during a riot in Freedom Town, in order to get the green card of residence and start living the American dream. Westside Gunn and Conway start the album from this moment: while all the refugees shout for freedom, Manny finds Rebenga and shouts his name — cleverly echoed in the intro by Big Ghost, who leaves nothing to chance — going against him, armed, while Rebenga is amazed that someone has recognized him, then he's killed a few seconds later by Tony. Practically, here begins Brian de Palma's masterpiece film, and here begins Hall & Nash's masterpiece album.
Rebenga is left to die, but instead of having the wonderful theme of Moroder in the background, there's Big Ghost and he doesn't regret the myth: jazzy boom bap, glossy and fantastic, perfect midtempo drum, ethereal samples, Westside Gunn opens with his signature adlib, his double "ayo" sounds better than ever, then he delivers with a slow, flowing, agile, clean, crisp style, worthy of the best AZ. Conway follows, mastermind braggadocious, slow, fluid, flawless style, Gunn closes with a short hook. "Brains on the Basquiat" is the first cut that comes close to the style made famous by Raekwon & Ghostface: on a sublime jazzy boom bap, with piano dope and a great drum, Hall & Nash delivers back and forth a few hard gangsta short verses for a couple of minutes. For "Fendi Seats", Big Ghost samples from the Maestro Ennio Morricone, choosing one of his many hidden pearls, "Doricamente", a wonderful cut from a bad movie, unfortunately, the Legend has made many brilliant soundtracks for bad movies. I don't know how Big Ghost found it, but it's a perfect musical carpet song for West & Con to weave: The Machine takes the stage with a long, velvet, slow, crisp flow, thug-braggadocio lyrics, the beat welcomes the original bridge of Morricone's song, always brilliant with an elegant piano scale, then Westside starts and goes, he has an edge over all the others, unstoppable flow, deeply smoothness, dope.
A highlight of the career of both Westside Gunn and Conway the Machine and Big Ghost Ltd comes from blue: "Dutch Masters", an interlude. It's not your normal interlude, of course. In one of the best mafia rap records ever, it can't miss Marlo Stanfield: incredible and fantastic sample from Lou Bond's "To the Establishment", this makes you understand that Big Ghost Ltd is one of the best producers in the game, this guy knows exactly what he's doing. Some young kids are relaxing in the middle of the street, Monk approaches them, who gives everyone some money for the first days of school, in exchange for loyalty to Marlo, the local gangster who follows the scene across the street. Michael, one of the kids, refuses the offer, realizing what lies behind, the boss crosses the street and confronts him: Big Ghost manages to convey the tension and magic that this scene has, the boy finds himself face to face with Marlo, with in a good day is capable of killing anyone, and realizes he has found a new lieutenant for his gang.
I want to dwell on the producer's work again: here, he cleaned up the skit of the tv series in an excellent way, so well that, if you pay attention enough, you can hear the song coming from Stanfield's car, "Spread the Word" by Black Toast Music. You can also appreciate the next moment, Marlo smiles and turns to see if Chris understands the boy's potential, before letting him go his own way. At that point, the tension you still must have in your stomach should melt away: Big Ghost maintains an alarmist mood putting some police sirens in background, but he lets the beat explode, with splendid horns and that lively, happy, light-hearted and jovial drum machine, that he chooses to put at the end of that skit, which to me symbolizes the momentary freedom found by Michael, followed immediately after by a single line with vocal synthesizer. This comes from a guy who keeps the mood in the streets: «You all alone in these streets, cousin / Every man for they self in this land we be gunnin'» – Prodigy, "Shook Ones, Pt. II".
All this in less than a minute, it flows like oil and you may not even notice this interlude or make the terrible choice to skip it due to its skit nature. But it's crucial: after that scene with Marlo, the series changes, basically, and the kids lose what little innocence they had left, in particular, as Namond will say later, «Mike ain't Mike no more». The album also changes, slightly, and after going very strong on the first three tracks, it starts flying. Yet another gem from Big Ghost Ltd, he samples Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's "Please Be There", an authentic masterpiece with Leon Ware, from the soundtrack of "The Education of Sonny Carson": it would be redundant to say that it's one of the best rhythms on the tape, the man makes no mistake, these nine beats are among the best of the decade. I don't know if Conway and Gunn will get such great rhythms in their careers: La Máquina offers one of his best drug / coke / braggadocio stanzas, with a slow, smooth, entrancing, relaxed flow, unique verse, then one of the most successful hooks in Westside Gunn's career, a single line repeated several times; at this point, I think that whatever he said, he would still have given value to the cut, closed by a long solo of sax.
The production doesn't drop in quality, Andy Bey's "Rosemary Blue" is the soundscape for "Alligator Straps": Hall's first verse, Nash's second verse for this splendid materialistic, braggadocio-thug choice, ethereal relaxing vibes. I detailed all this album to make it clear how the same details are important: the beat is too light to get to the next cut, so, Big Ghost switches the rhythm and inserts a jazzy boom bap with an energetic and powerful drum machine that leads the way to the next track, "Empire". Powerful boom bap, electric guitar riff that bursts strongly and dominates the tune, energetic midtempo drum, Hall & Nash deliver with a hardcore style, smoothness, clear, bright and in shape for this drug braggadocio track, before the electric guitar solo, flawless song, the best of the tape. Last, but not least, is the ninth joint "If I Ruled the World '15", a reissue of the hit by Nas & Lauryn Hill almost twenty years earlier, from Escobar's classic mafioso record. Laura Lee's "Two Lovely Pillows" is the musical background of the piece, jazzy boom bap, energetic drum downtempo, Conway's hardcore velvet delivery, Westside Gunn's simple hook, Conway's second verse that closes the album with energy.
Hall & Nash's second album is a perfect EP from start to finish: with 21 minutes of listening, it boasts immense replay value. This is the best collaborative EP from Ghostface Killah & Raekwon that hasn't been made by Ghostface Killah & Raekwon. If AZ & Nas had had the right rhythms, the end result would probably have been something like this. Intro, interlude, seven cuts, flawless production by Big Ghost Ltd, tight and raw rapping by the two artists, the record is dirty, dusty and hardcore, it takes you back to mid-nineties New York with its glossy production and its gritty bars: is an essential jazz rap and mafia rap project, one of the best of the year and one of the best in hip-hop history.
Rating: 10/10.
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