After releasing several mixtapes and EPs, in spring 2017, Conway the Machine signs with Eminem's Shady Records along with his brother Westside Gunn. He begins work on his debut album, originally scheduled to be completed in 2018 and later modified several times until it's rebuilt after the events the artist faces in 2019. The following year, "From King to a GOD" was published and enthusiastically received by critics. While not released by Shady, this indie effort becomes his debut, and a few weeks after its release, both Westside Gunn and the Griselda group end their deal with the Mathers label.
In February 2022 the second studio album of Conway the Machine is published, which coincides with the end of the contracts with Shady Records and Griselda Records. The production is signed by Daringer, Beat Butcha, Cozmo, G Koop, Vidal Garcia, The Alchemist, Hit-Boy, The Beat Brothers, Bink, Kill, Daniel Cruz, Dylan Graham and JUSTICE League. The guests are Keisha Plum, Westside Gunn, Benny the Butcher, 7xvethegenius, Jae Skeese, Beanie Sigel, Lil Wayne, Rick Ross, T.I., Novel and Jill Scott.
The introductory track is "Lock Load," a special cut that sees Conway dropping bars with Beanie Sigel, a Philadelphia veteran and symbol of Roc-A-Fella. The production is splendid, dirty, earthy, street. Daringer and Beat Butcha bring in light bass lines, a calm and harmless midtempo drum, and great strings. Conway steps in with a heavy step for the intro / pre-hook and hook, then changes pace for the verse, providing frayed thug bars with a shiny, cool, clean, smooth, fast flow. Beanie Sigel delivers the second verse, with a calm, somewhat raw voice, he sounds very different than the Beans you can remember on the Roc-La-Familia records, this is because in December 2014 he was involved in a shooting from which he survived by having a lung removed.
"Tear Gas" boasts Lil Wayne and Rick Ross as guests. You might think it's one of the many commercial concessions that La Maquina left the label, but that never happens in those 48 minutes. The trio behind the keyboards consisting of Cozmo, G Koop and Vidal Garcia places the sample of "Sparkle" by Diana Ross as a background, along with fresh piano keys, a lively drum and light bass lines. Conway enters hardcore and delivers with confidence, Lil Wayne kills the cut with one of his best flows, it closes Rick Ross in style, at ease on a beautiful production. Track number three is one of The Alchemist's masterpieces, which creates the soundscape for Conway around a sick and creepy piano loop that envelops the entire joint of Buffalo MC, one of the brightest tracks on the record and designated first single.
"Drumwork" has the presence of rappers who have signed with the label of Con, 7xvethegenius and Jae Skeese, and is the second least appreciated track of the entire project. Easily one of the best beats of the year, the norm for Daringer, created on a loop of a few piano keys accompanied by a dirty dusty midtempo drum and on a distant horn loop that sounds lonely and mysterious in the mist. Excellent choice not to put the chorus, highlighting the verses of the three performers. Hit-Boy brings out a spectacular beat for "Wild Chapters", a joint venture by Conway, T.I. & Novel: boom bap, sizzling lively drum, magnificent jazz loop, hardcore input from The Machine, which starts delivering more and more personal bars, good Novel chorus, which also closes with a verse after T.I. It's a solid and strong track, even if it remains a bit hidden in the middle of the album, preceded by pieces that are among the best of the year.
"Guilty" could be one of these: there's Kelly Price singing uncredited in the background opening the track, then Conway delivers a single personal verse that takes the listener back to ten years ago, hardcore, smoothness, fantastic, on an ethereal soundscape of Beat Brothers and Bink, thanks to light, crackling percussion and elegant piano keys. The second single is "John Woo Flick", a tribute to the Hong Kong director, whose production is entrusted to Daringer and Kill. Boom bap, dirty and dusty midtempo drum, immaculate melodic loops, magical atmosphere, typical Griselda beat. Conway is flying on this sonic gem, devastating, he places a simple hook, Benny delivers gangsta bars, Gunn completes the track with an equally sharp shorter verse. The rhythm breathes, deservedly, half a minute.
When "Stressed" arrives, you know you are about to hear something different. Produced by Beat Butcha and Daringer, the song opens with a series of dissonant, sad and melancholy piano keys, after a few seconds the drum machine arrives, which feeds this feeling of melancholy. It's dusty, dirty, hard, rough, but somehow the rhythm is born sad for what is one of the heaviest songs in Conway's discography. Over a sublime beat, the man copes with mental health, alcoholism, cousin suicide and the loss of his son, making the hardest track of the record. "So Much More" is an easy winner and one of the best tracks on the album. JUSTICE League somehow creates a fantastic triumphant rhythm, hard dry midtempo drum, booming vibrating bass that has often remained hidden throughout this album, heavenly melodic sample. Perfect musical rug for Conway, amazing outro with the dope top.
Cozmo, Daniel Cruz & Dylan Graham is the trio that signs the beat of "Chanel Pearls", one of the best rhythms of the year. It's wonderfully glossy, shiny, gorgeous, it could easily fit on a Rick Ross album. Vibrant bassline in the background, minimal lively fresh drum, magical piano keys, silky velvety delivery of Conway the Machine. Then Jill Scott delivers in rapping. For me the album could also end here, sensational. It's a resounding gift, the hook sung by Scott's splendid voice at the end is the last pearl of an essential track in the hip-hop season.
Here comes what is believed to be the sore point of the album, "Babas". The big problem is this: the whole song is based on some line of thick synths like metal. The beat is the work of Beat Butcha and Daringer. The two have not done anything wrong here. The rhythm is great, the synth lines are some of the most accessible I've ever heard. This is a bit experimental beat, similar to Westside Gunn's "Frank Murphy" on the other Shady album, except that this beat sounds much better. Not only that, there's Keisha Plum, delivering a verse in spoken word, feeding her play of stream of consciousness with a series of frayed lines that bypass the resistance of the casual listener. The presence of Keisha Plum certifies the entire project as a definitive masterpiece in the Griselda discography, then Conway releases the second verse with some distortion effect.
The title track ends the album. The soundscape is a blessing of what is now one of the best producers of his era, The Alchemist. Totally disturbing sound that leads the way to the rhythm, powerful, dry, hard, dirty and dusty drum, midtempo, elegant piano scale, beautiful keys, powerful and booming bass line. Intro, then Conway delivers a unique verse with phenomenal rapping style for three minutes, in which he thinks back to those days ten years ago and what would have happened if he hadn't survived the shooting that marked his existence. The hook at the end is one of the most powerful things in this record. At the climax of the song, after the hook, it comes the sound of the hospital machine which symbolizes Conway's hospitalization, and there's a tearful audio from his mother, Annette Price, credited, in which she asks the Lord to give her back her son, despite in the last moments of the song, the flat line of the hospital machine is heard which determines the artist's death. This finale remembers the ending of "Ready to Die" a little. This is a Song destined to remain in history.
Second critically acclaimed studio album for Conway the Machine. This third and final album between Griselda and Shady is by far the best done ahead of "WWCD" (2019) and "Who Made the Sunshine" (2020), both a little subdued and disappointing. In the topics department, the project comes close to what many enthusiasts have been asking of him for five years, an extended version of "The Cow", personal, introspective and detailed themes, which here are closely marked by thug, gangster and braggadocio stanzas.
The Buffalo artist gives a lot of weight to this LP, most of the tracks have at least a couple of personal lines and dedicates some particularly deep cuts to describe his life ("Guilty", "Stressed", "God Don't Make Mistakes"), while claiming to receive his props immediately ("Tear Gas", "So Much More"), each personal bar is often followed by things like "you must change your top 5 list", "I'm a legend", "I'm underrated", "I haven't gotten all the accolades I think I deserve", and so on. "Guilty" itself is a good example of this. Overall, the lyrics are good, not great, most of the time covering themes that the rapper has dealt with numerous times in the past. The production is dynamic, simple, accessible and beautiful, giving a modern look to an album that goes from dark tones to lively ones several times. The rhythms change constantly and each track stands out for having its own precise sound, maintaining remarkable musical cohesion and managing to support Conway's calm, velvety and dope flow for over three quarters of an hour.
Ultimately, it's one of the best albums in Griselda's discography and one of the best of the decade. Everything is thought of, and is meant to be bordering on perfection, and to be as accessible as possible for the largest number of hip-hop audiences, from the lyrics to the music, from the cover (among the best of the year) to the title, with the mistake. There's nothing revolutionary. There's nothing mind blowing. There's nothing incredible. The lyrics tell of a guy who started out of nowhere, miraculously escaped death, and managed to make his way and carve out a place in the hip-hop industry, going through various personal problems without having yet obtained the credits and respect that he believes he should have, neither the empathy of those around him nor the critical recognition of the insiders.
It's a story you've heard before, right, so what's different than your usual story that you can hear on almost every other single rap album? There's that it's written well, interpreted in a masterly way, he knows when to go fast, when to go slower and when to stop, when to leave room for the rhythm and when to attack it, and more importantly, it's narrated on excellent music. Still excellent music, always excellent music. This is Griselda. No one has made such good music for so long in hip-hop history, it's starting to be years that can't be counted on your fingers anymore. Even when Conway the Machine makes statements that everyone could make, like "I'm not just another rapper", he makes it timelessly on memorable music. For years it has not been recognized. It does not matter. The blessed retrospective will clean up all the mud and leave the gold. The credits will arrive. The flowers will come. God Don't Make Mistakes.
Rating: 9.5/10.
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