It’s that time again! After binge-reviewing this man’s incredible production journey, Fredro is back with a second Vol showing off more of his progress, and I’m here to talk about it!
So, this is the second volume of his ‘Beats By Dro’ chronicles, with his first bringing to everyone’s attention just how diverse and fresh he can sound when he’s on the beats rather than the mic, and he’s back again to double down on his claims as one of the best beatmakers going right now!
This new record has 11 tracks, 35 minutes in length, and features the following:
-UFO Fev
-RayZa
-Ricky Bats
-LaQuan
-Yah-Ra
-Red Inf
-Jody Larenz
-Kidd Pryde
And across this project, we see Fredro inherit and retain his early claim to fame with a lot of these beats sounding absolutely ruthless, raw, and hardcore boom bap royalty like back in the debut Onyx days!
With a combination of cold piano key loops and old-school beat rhythms, he uses his vast knowledge of the game and his newly found ability as a producer to combine and make one of the most infectious and tough-sounding projects of 2025!
There are so many examples I could use, such as ‘Ladies and Gentlemen’ with that repetitive loop that makes your brain go wild as the instrumental takes over your body, and your head is in a constant headbop for a straight 1 minute and 30 seconds. If I played this song daily, I’d probably be forced to pay for a chiropractor with the damage to my neck from the involuntary movement that would happen!
Let’s even look at the song next to it, ‘Cool 2 Rap,’ with a drastic switch-up with a classical music loop which sounds like something Gang Starr/Premo would make back in his heyday. It’s criminally smooth, crisp, and funky in ways most people could only dream of.
Should I take this examination even further? The track after even that one ‘High’ which has another change with what has a flavour of ‘Trip Hop’ elements with the combination of that drone like beat plus the way the female vocal tones go it reminds me of a type of track ‘Portishead’ would do in their prime.
See, this is the main aspect of Fredro. Although most of the skeleton and base of the songs have that OG Hardcore Hip Hop flavour, the rest of the organs are variations of different inspirations, sounds and textures that he’s incorporated through decades of being in the game, being a student of it and coming out the other end smarter, wiser and more gifted then when he came in.
It’s for these reasons he’s such a threat to the industry right now because he was always an established one with his raps now he’s a double threat with the production? I can’t see anyone fucking with what he’s doing right now!
Of course, the rappers involved are solid. Did you see the list I made above? Can you imagine a world where any of them do mediocre? None the less while working with Starr? Yeah me neither. Each person destroys their tracks, dope verses, lyricism top notch and they all help maintain the atmosphere of the record which is exactly why there were placed on this record to begin with!
Overall. Unsurprisingly this one goes hard yet again. Whether it’s Onyx, Solo or producer he’s not one to be fucked with and all this is, is further proof that he’s the man to beat!
https://open.spotify.com/album/1cT8pzpny9jSCUz1naGgkM?si=xOCuCSeCSb-lmGCd4t8aLg
The Serpent Tongue Reviews 