Alright, this intro has to be one of my favourite I’ve heard all last year. I wasn’t expecting it, and it had me laughing out loud. Low-key, having a hotline that would do that would be helpful! Anyway, this is an artist I’ve seen and heard of through the grapevine but never had the time to properly sit down and dissect, but that ends today as I get to cover an album that has a lot going for it! Let’s talk about it!
This is the March 2025 album by Producer/MC Donny G & MC ILLtemper, and together they drop a massive 17-track, 44-minute project that has the sole feature of -Kabal.
And as I made a big deal about above, this album starts off pretty hectic with a suicide hotline that helps you die! (Again, maybe not the worst idea). But regardless, hearing the hotline lady trying to hasten the man’s death was hilarious!
As the album officially starts, we get a glimpse of the sound profile that will be contributing to the record. I’m talking about that old-school, no-nonsense, in-your-face type production that is reminiscent of the mid-2000s underground era in the way it’s crafted!
As gritty and as rough as the underground sounds today (and I do love it), but it really doesn’t have the same ambience and atmosphere of the OG underground hip-hop instrumentals. These felt damn near raw and unmastered! It has a level of bareness to it that lacks in most of today’s music.
This album isn’t afraid to sound rough around the edges, and it’s in that ruthlessness that this album shines! Not to mention the various skits that are pretty fucked up in concept, but they made me laugh nonetheless!
Across this tape, we hear these powerfully skeletal sounds come together in a united front from start to finish in this rugged score that I can’t imagine too many would be able to handle! I want you to invade R.A. The Rugged Man X Mid-2000’s Aussie rap, and you get this sound! A truly insane mix that is not for the weak of heart!
There’s a level of intimacy to albums that are executed in this fashion. Can’t help but remind me of my teen years when you used to hear those pirated mixtapes of those gutter MC’s who rapped over beats like these and gave you pure, unadulterated production that became a cultural experience amongst the 90’s kinds of my time, and to hear it resurfaced in the present day (at least for me) is quite sick! I fuck with it heavy!
As far as the MC work goes, these two are as savage as the music they rap on! They definitely define the ‘hardcore’ genre they identify as! It’s borderline horrorcore to me with the gruesome and chaotic lyricism and bars! They are trying to get a reaction out of the audience while showcasing serious techniques and MC skills!
These two have a very unique yet interesting chemistry! Imagine ICP (if they could actually rap), and you’d have these two! They embrace the dark, violent, and controversial verses with an intense and heavy performance to give their words even more power and weight!
I feel there’s a bad stigma attached to horrorcore/hardcore artists due to the worst ones being in the spotlight.
But forgetting there’s artists like Tech N9Ne, Geto Boys, Twisted Insane, etc., that have proven that the subgenre can thrive and create dope music, and I feel these two are further examples of that!
P.S if the show ‘Pointless Questions’ was real, I’d definitely tune in weekly just to hear the judges go ‘KILL YOURSELF’ at the end of each question, that would be crazy!
Anyway, this one is definitely not for the faint of heart. It’s going to take a specific kind of fan to appreciate the raw art here, but for those that will, this is a BANGER of production, performance, and utilising of the persistent hardcore/horrorcore elements that are so often trashed and not often enough progressed!
Check the link below!
https://open.spotify.com/album/4EKNVsRx4Ma4a0UTcH3nnR?si=jreOpy1gRv-nMQK33smndw
The Serpent Tongue Reviews 