Hip-Hop Albums of the Year

15 March, 2020

Statik Selektah & Termanology — The Quarantine


Among the weakest efforts by 1982, the duo of Lawrence, Massachusetts, composed by the rapper Termanology and by the producer Statik Selektah, brings out one of the first (perhaps the first) hip hop album dedicated to the pandemic theme.

This is its only merit, because Termanology's rapping is pretty light-hearted and lukewarm here. The boy pulls out questionable and bored bars, starting from those controversial conspiracies at the beginning of the record, often overcome by the numerous underground guests called for the project (among others, Tek of Smif-n-Wessun & Lil' Fame of M.O.P.), while the musical choice of Statik falls on melodic and light jazzy boom bap, simple and minimal rhythms that are all a little the same, especially in the first part, when is "All Facts" that breaks this series with a real change of sound (boom bap jazzy light, deep, with female soul sample looped in the background). Allan Kingdom's reggae hook is another interesting variation in the course of listening, but it cannot give a concrete turn to an album nailed in mediocrity: generic beats, banal hooks (even pop) and guests who cannot offer a performance of substance – normally, Nems is on a higher level, while not even a verse is reserved for JFK, who in some Statik-related mixtape has shown to have flashes of talent in "All Green Everything" (2012) – not even Tek and Lil' Fame stand out excessively.

Taking a step back, it turns out to be a project that probably wants to be innovative, perhaps modern, but, in the end, it's only an effort dated even before the exit due to an idea not well thought out and poorly executed, and a sign of the [bad] times.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Benny the Butcher — Tana Talk 3

Debut studio album by Jeremie " Benny the Butcher " Pennick, rapper from Buffalo, New York. He's the second Griselda MC to mak...