Looks like we are taking a trip back to 2021! It’s always exciting to see where an artist you fuck with came from and how they have evolved or progressed since! It’s double exciting when it’s a man you fuck with on a daily! So let’s talk about it!
This is an album by MC Weapon E.S.P., a man who blew me away last year with his album ‘Kensei’, which was before I started this website back when I was still writing for the legendary ‘Raw Side Hip Hop’.
But regardless, we got this one, 14 tracks and 35 minutes with the likes of
-Lo Gun
-DJ Grazzhoppa
-Ghost Of The Machine
-Estee Nack
-Jamil Honesty on the mic AND
-Johnny Press (On Guitar)
-William Wallace
-Reese Tanaka
-Cee Gee
-DJ Proof
-Hobgoblin
-Hanzo Bladez
-Reckonize Real on the production side of things!
With this combined roster of beat makers and MC’s, you know this is bound to be a banger and that’s exactly what happened! This thing is NEXT LEVEL!
I guess I’ll start with Weapon. The man who’s always stood out for his precise flows, his introspective and lyrical superiority, and storytelling abilities that always make you sit and wait for every time he speaks because he has that special power to concentrate his mind, heart, and soul into all his bars that makes it sound like you’re listening to a Hip Hop spokesman or preacher! Someone important who has a message to share!
This album is no exception. Across this album, we hear his confident, high-energy, and enthusiastic dope bars that not only sync with the beat perfectly but are sharp, well thought out, and powerful in execution.
He has an incredible vocabulary and a certain level of street poetry that gives his wordplay that extra level of gravitas and aura that most don’t have!
Of course, at times he taps into his more braggadocio side, but that’s just the art of rap at this point; nothing out of the ordinary with that. With the extensive features on deck, he’s able to not only manage the superstars on the album but also prove he can hang with the best of them and provide just as good of a verse as they did! A sign of a true MC!
The production on this thing is raw, rugged, and captivating! I’d describe it as ‘Fancy Boom Bap’ because there are a lot of cinematic and lush instrumentation at work here with intricate keys, deep chords, and orchestral vocal loops to give this project a more ‘prestige & high-end’ feel to it.
But at the same time, it also feels gritty, relentless, grimy, and muddy. It doesn’t feel polished at all but rather kept in its original rough form to maintain the true dominant nature of the sounds and textures surrounding the album.
This album is truly the best of both worlds, and the various producers help maintain that momentum and carefully crafted tightrope of the two atmospheres coming together as one to create an album that’s equal parts lavishing and badass!
If you listen to no other album this year (even though technically this is four years old), but make sure you listen to this! I’m sure it will satisfy any and all hip-hop fans!
https://open.spotify.com/album/0CsIMLgJkE6dYDGp5wGKhb?si=qHgJFS6oQKSqyKb1acut2A
The Serpent Tongue Reviews 