This is an album review long overdue! With the amount of submissions I have to attend to, it’s easy for me to get lost in the motions of things, but nonetheless, here we are with a record that definitely had my attention when it dropped and for fucking good reason! Let’s talk about it!
This is the October drop by Producer Noisey Ne!ghbour with a monstrous roster which consists of:
-Estee Nack
-Tha God Fahim
-Jalen Frazier
-CRIMEAPPLE
-Action Figure973
-Snotty
-Brother Tom SOS
And let me tell you this. The moment I put this album on and heard those ridiculous beats, I was like ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ out loud! Thankfully, I was alone, but fuck man, this is some heavy, exclusively boom-bap-flavoured grime that will knock you on your ass!
I’m talking about that mean mugging, cold-hearted, break-ya-neck type shit that had me grooving from start to finish until the album stops!
With that intro that describes a famous painting going missing and the re appearing in some thriller-based spoken word, which then evolved into the first official track ‘Horror Flick’ which sets the tone for the rest of the album!
That track alone is one of the most cold tracks I’ve ever heard! It has this old-school, classical vibe to it combined with some modern boom
Bap! You’ve got those haunting organ chords alongside some background piano pieces with some heavy synth and drums so thick you’ll feel winded by the end of it!
Also, let’s not forget the LEGEND himself, Estee Nack (on his one of two appearances), going Old Testament on the instrumental!
From there, we have ‘Bullet Showers’ which takes a more minimal jazz approach that I fell in love with instantly! This track has a noir feel to it with those dark and brooding jazz horns that feel distorted in execution! That loop alongside these high-pitched piano keys! And more skeletal drums!
This is the type of track that sounds like a desperate man in the bottom of a bottle! It’s gloomy, hopeless, and captivating in every single way!
Not to mention the pair of features that dominate the track!
Iron Mic was another standout track for me because of its WSG-inspired instrumental! You’ve got those glossy piano keys on loop alongside these 1950s-sounding keys in the background, which sounds like an old-school ice cream van coming along!
The bass on this song is so subtle it was almost lost on me to point out! Nonetheless, this bare and stripped-back production was perfect for the MC of the calibre of my main man Action to go OFF on!
He took the minimal track and created his own atmosphere on top of it! Stellar performance!
The point to make is that Noisey has presented us with some of the most ruthless beats you’ll hear in your lifetime, and to do so with the most relentless roster you’ll see is an accomplishment most won’t ever be able to attain!
Go back and read this fucking line-up at the top of the review. Those names by themselves would dominate your favourite rapper, but combine them? And you have total destruction! I’m talking scorched earth, massacre everyone type shit!
It’s impossible to know who did the best on here because that would be the equivalent of deciding ‘which god is more divine’, it’s a paradox of a question.
Each man rips through the instrumental provided! He purposely chooses these powerhouses to make memorable verses that will leave an imprint on the mind and make this a project you want to keep returning to, and it fucking worked! The only repeating MC was Estee Nack, but the rest utilised their charisma, original personalities, and verbal gifts to explode on the beat and showcase why they are the best going!
If you haven’t heard this yet. There’s still time to earn forgiveness! Go push play below and listen to the ruthless magic!
https://open.spotify.com/album/6AFmy91c8Bu6BqFx2T3n3Q?si=Jz4eDai8TReORjFRvbiT7w
The Serpent Tongue Reviews 