First collaborative album between Manhattan rapper Dave East and Brooklyn producer Harry Fraud, on his fourth release in 2021. The guests are Benny the Butcher, Jim Jones, Currensy, French Montana, G Herbo, Steven Young, Cruch Calhoun and Kiing Shooter.
The album opens with a skit about Jimmy Hoffa, a labor union leader with ties to the mob, who mysteriously disappeared in the mid-seventies, then Dave East delivers inspired, confident and regular on a splendid sax loop seasoned with a good drum and a honest hi-hat. The second cut boasts a boom bap with dry midtempo drum and melodic samples, including a distant, splendid female one in loop, on which the rapper delivers worthily. With "Diamonds" you understand that it could really be the best project Dave East has ever come up with so far: his rap sounds solid on another nice female soul sample, the MC continues to surprise positively on a fantastic and luxurious production by Harry Fraud. Track number four features a lively delivery of Dave East on decent production, then comes "Go Off", easily the weakest cut of the first section: the sound carpet chosen by the producer is still acceptable, Dave East delivers worthily, but the album's first guest, G Herbo, is practically useless if not harmful here and ruins the vibe of the beat.
Benny the Butcher gets the performance of the record in "Uncle Ric": relaxed rhythm, midtempo drum, good flute loop, melodic soul sample, Dave East brings out a regular flow, nevertheless, the rapper from Buffalo is at another level and closes the cut with a sharp style. In "The Product", Harry Fraud ventures into an almost anti-melodic trap rhythm that works and on which Dave East feels most inspired. The Manhattan rapper delivers smooth and flowing in "Money or Power", on a lively and triumphant boom bap that breathes deeply into the air of 80s disco dance, with cheerful and positive samples; skit, then Jim Jones lights up the cut with an inspired, quick, dope rap. The following track is one of the last good ones in the second part of the record, boasting a boom bap with a vibrating midtempo drum and good samples still linked to the disco, on which Dave East spits fluid and smooth.
From track 10 to track 13 I didn't understand what's happening, but everything is very bad, both from the musical point of view and from the rapping point of view. The trap rhythm of "Dolla and a Dream" is good, but Dave East is just decent and Steven Young doesn't perform well. French Montana's pop hook on melodic trap production feels out of place with everything that has come this far and Dave East seems unable to keep track of this train anymore. Two of the worst productions made by Harry Fraud in the last years follow: the beats are still acceptable and the boy does his best to make them melodic, but the mediocre-decent delivery of the lead rapper, and the bland one of the guests (Kiing Shooter better than Cruch Calhoun), make the pieces quite lukewarm. Fortunately, the album closes on a very high note: beautiful elegant piano loop, relaxed and perfect attack by Currensy who's right at home on these Harry Fraud rhythms. Spectacular flow, effortless, smoothness, dope, it closes Dave East with another style, raw and slow, he clearly marks the difference between himself and the guest, but the beat has already chosen which way to go and closes with a beautiful Olu Dara-style cornet solo.
Consisting of 14 joints and 40 minutes of listening, the album boasts great production and solid rapping most of the time: if it were reduced to 10 tracks and 28 minutes, excluding section 10-13, it would be one of the best hip-hop records of the season and on a similar level to "The Fraud Department". Harry Fraud's crisp trap rhythms, here at times brilliant but never really at his best, elevate Dave East's dynamic and rough flow, which maintains a lyricism tied to street and crime: the first half of the album doesn't show excessive smudges and is almost unassailable, while the second part swerves and is quite irregular, with several bland choices that lower the overall quality. The best moments of the edition come with the appearance of artists who already have a consolidated alchemy with Harry Fraud. Recommended to East Coast fans, the tape gets some Griselda vibes: Benny is featured, Westside Gunn is the executive producer, while Conway doesn't appear, yeah, but the character of Jimmy Conway in "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984) is inspired to Jimmy Hoffa.
Highlights: "Uncle Ric", "Money or Power", "Red Fox Restaurant".
Rating: 7.4/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment