(The River Styx)

I’ll keep it real with you all, compilation albums with tons of features and different producers aren’t really my bag. I’ve reviewed some in the past and there are some exceptions to this done well such as Dr Dre’s 2001. But for the most part, I feel for albums like these to succeed, you need a few key factors.

-Absolute Quality 

-Synchronicity between all artists involved

-Fluency from track to track.

If these three factors can be established, then this kind of album can be an enjoyable listen! Thankfully, we have such an album!

So this is the latest album by Equinox/Crooked Halo featuring the likes of 

-FERKDOE

-CHIEF KAMACHI 

-K3VOH

-PROTOTYPE 

-JACK, THE RAPPER

-REKS

-DJ TMB

-TRAGEDY KHADAFI

-RELLIK

-BEEF THE LOST CAUZE

-SUSPECT

-SABAC RED

-SCANDALIST

-CAPPADONNA

-ONYX

-DOMEZ

-LIZLEO

-ILL BILL

-C. RAE

-RAEKWON

-BLOCK MCCLOUD

-PAST ONE

-DOAP NIXON

And on the production, we have 

-SKINNY BONEZ THA GODFATHA

-VINT MENTALZ

-FLOUN

-K3VOH

-FICHE NESS

-VHERBAL

With cuts from -DJ R & DUB L

Man, it’s always a handful to write all these features down, but it’s always worth it because what you come across in this project is a harmonious combination of artists and producers that provides an engaging experience that will make any hip-hop fan happy regardless of the country or region you prefer to listen to!

This project, compared to his other one, is very mysterious and fantastical in nature. With the theme being ‘The River Styx’, they try their best to incorporate those mythological, supernatural sounds and samples to set the scene. Of course, provided with a hip-hop flavour, but I love how the tracks have stuff like ‘Choir Vocals’ or ‘Big horns, grand strings’ and an overall cinematic quality to it to try best to represent the theme at hand.

If I had to guess their reasoning for the large roster, it is to make the sounds attributed to it done as much justice as possible, and maybe doing that with one or two men would be an impossible task? Whether that’s true or not, and if that’s even their reasoning at all, I understand it. This project definitely benefits from the sizeable team, and they make shit pop!

Speaking of said roster, I gotta say this first. They have a guy on cunt on the roster (Australian term for guy, not a diss) who sounds just like Slim Shady LP Eminem! High pitch with witty flows. Whichever one he is, he’s dope.

For the rest of them, we have your usual suspects come together under the ‘Equinox’ banner, but we also have some new acts appear, such as my main man ‘Skinny Bonez Tha Godfatha’ and even some celebrity names! Such as Raekwon, Onyx, Capadonna, and so forth.

As I mentioned above, a MUST HAVE for albums like these is perfect chemistry and synchronicity, and this album provides both. You can feel their passion and enthusiasm across each verse, bar, and word spoken! You can feel them giving their all and not wanting a single lacklustre performance, trying their best to lock in their flows, outdo the one that came before with their lyricism and delivery, and just be the best that they can be, and I feel that!

You can feel the energy in the room, the competitive atmosphere and spirit, and all of that fuses into the music itself to create a memorable and hard-hitting display of hip-hop music!

Overall, another solid drop from the boys! They may be huge in numbers, but they are equally huge in passion and talent, which makes it all worth it!

https://open.spotify.com/album/6bH6sqnU34nd4QpvJqj2Ao?si=4CGePOM0SaWlYuc2Xqt7GQ