Rick Hyde — Plates II

Direct sequel to "Plates", which arrived two years later. The production is made by SLNC, Daringer, DJ L, The Soul Monsters, Tre Eiht, DJ Chopz, Skrilla, Sha Money XL, Stan da Man, Bohemia Lynch, Buda, Grandz, Harry Frayd, DJ M80, DJ Shay. Guests are Keisha Plum, Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, Heem, Elcamino, Chase Fetti, Jay Worthy, Skyzoo, Grafh, Meyhem Lauren, Killa Kyleon, G Herbo and TF.

The BSF rapper still juggles in the midst of mafia and criminal bars, unable to handle a project of this weight and duration — 47 minutes and 16 cuts, 3 skits — with a quality that falls towards the end, not aided adequately by a fairly dull and erratic production: sometimes the guy in charge of the rhythm guesses the right elements, sometimes not, and most of the set is similar, with minimal melodic boom bap rhythms composed of a bare drum and soul or jazz samples. Rick Hyde cuts out a single solo song dedicated to his mother on one of the best productions of the edition: slow dusty downtempo drum and melodic soul sample provided by SLNC.

For the rest of the tape it's supported entirely by the guests, the Griselda artists don't disappoint on always melodic and good rhythms ("Nova", "Hustler's Prayer", splendid boom bap, excellent samples; "Glorious Mourning", where Keisha Plum signs one of the best moments; excellent production of Tre Eiht, boom bap with female soul samples, elegant piano and dusty dirty drum machine; "Black Sinatra", final joint with a good performance by the BSF group on a melodic soulful rhythm by DJ Shay), the others don't particularly impress.

Killa Kyleon doing quite well and Meyhem Lauren trying to light up a dark Harry Fraud rhythm, while G Herbo doesn't seem to have anything to do with the others and is featured in one of the weakest tracks on the LP, in which the producer decides that it's a good idea to put together boom bap, a poor chipmunk soul sample and random vibes trap, whatever, The Butcher fixes everything... well, that's not the case. Curious is the choice to place what is by far the best rhythm of the edition in the freestyle of "The Come Up Interlude", where Stan da Man finds a fantastic melodic female soul sample and supports it with beautiful strings, teased by numerous Griselda adlibs.

This is a "B record"-Griselda, only die-hard fans might find it interesting, 6.3/10.