Question. How many of your producers can say they were in ‘The Source’ Magazine? Well, this guy was! Both artist and beat maker from Saginaw Mi and both came together on this project to unleash their audio secrets and enlighten the culture and the audience alike! Let’s get into it!
What we have here is the latest album by MC Veteran Ray P, collaborating with notorious producer Prophecy, and together they dropped nine tracks and thirty-two minutes of hip-hop bliss!
Starting with the production aspect of the album, I can completely understand now why this man was in ‘The Source’ as ‘The Unsigned Hype’ because this man has that ‘it’ factor that separates the average from the phenomenal! Right from the very first track, you can hear the deep levels of mastery, atmosphere, and cinematic brilliance that these instrumentals hold!
Whether you’re talking about those chipmunk-inspired classical vocal harmonies, the simplistic yet hypnotic drum patterns, and those bass strings that just thud their way into your heart and soul as the listener. Everything I just described was included in the first track, and it only grows more theatrical, technical, and graceful as time passes!
If I had to sum up the album’s essence, I would say it’s a throwback to the golden 90s and early 2000s. The era that delivered us precise and consistent hip-hop beats with soulful and delicate melodies that not only had a hard-hitting presentation but instrumentals so fresh and memorable that they’d stay in the hearts and minds of the listeners decades after its release!
Honestly. This album more than any reminds me of ‘Common: Be’ in its absolutely gorgeous form of production, those sweetly laced vocal harmonies, the loud and clear instrumentation, and the introspective vibes the music itself gives off.
I honestly feel that this thirty-two-minute project will not only satisfy the hip-hop audience of today’s era but also be remembered for eras to come!
Now onto Ray P. The man who has the mission of utilising this fantastic production and making it his own (which he does with flying colours).
He’s the kind of MC that you can understand just by listening to one song of him, how he is as a person, personality, and character within his performances.
For me, right off the gate with his introduction to us on ‘Come As You Are’, I could hear his self-confidence, his inquisitive mind, and his unwavering enthusiasm for this rap game.
You can tell by his tone, his methodical pacing! How he’s not rushing to get out his words, instead taking his time to deliver the perfect speech patterns, the most effective use of his wordplay, vocabulary, and lyricism. He’s a real ‘Philmore Greene’ type of MC.
Someone who comes across as genuine, down to earth, original, and most of all authentic. For whatever reason (whether it’s just me) or not, I can always provide myself with analysis on an artist based on how their music goes. The way they talk, the way they present themselves, and the puns, the vocabulary, and cadence they show on the tracks.
It’s with this insight (natural or otherwise) for me that I could gather how real he really is. How much love and respect he has for the culture and his homage paid to the former era of hip hop. With every song on this album, it felt like a sonic letter being written to his childhood idols in the rap game, and this record is his grand, larger-than-life way of saying ‘thank you, for everything’.
Could I be reading too much into this? Perhaps. But with the aesthetic of the production, the choice of producer, and the way he utilises his flow and rapping style, I truly believe this album, on top of being one of the best albums of the year, is also an audio statement of respect, love, and appreciation for the atmosphere that made him.
You truly can’t go wrong with this album; it’s near perfect. For 32 minutes, it will be the best you’ll hear all year, guaranteed!
https://open.spotify.com/album/0Tc5HdRZ6gyekbq0ZmoMxw?si=sCYxcDgqTqyZPTlXawzNxA
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