We are so fucking back. I get another opportunity to cover a pair of artists I haven’t heard yet. Two men who have been making waves in their own respective fields and now are coming together for one capitalising record that is sure to leave you better off than you started! Let’s go!
This is the brand-new collaboration album between MC Bandini and producer Magnificent, and together they drop a solid 15 tracks, just under 30 minutes, with the likes of
-Laylo Holmes
-L.S.P
And it’s obvious I didn’t know what to expect for a record between two new artists to me, but I was given better than I could have visioned. This is easily one of the smoothest albums I’ve heard, period.
I feel the production is the part we have to start from because my god is this infectious. With the first play-through, my initial thoughts were ‘early Odd Future vibes’. I feel a lot of people are too young to remember, but back then, those guys had a sound of hip hop that can only be described as ‘magic’.
It was a mix of alternative, experimental, and atmospheric production that no one else was doing really before or since. Until now. This album feels like a homage paid to those delicately crafted beats from the late 2000s early 2010s, those surreal, methodically paced, and avant-garde brand of smooth instrumentation that takes over your mind and soul.
I refuse to believe you can listen to this album and feel nothing. On the basic view of this record, you could label it an album full of slow jams, but it’s so much more than that because they blend so many elements from
-R&B
-Soul
-Art Rap
-Hip Hop
-Funk
-Alt
-Jazz
-Experimental/Ambient
-Classical and more.
But the fact is, it’s incorporated in a more modern and original style instead of copy-pasting old-school genres for nostalgia; they instead capitalised on the best parts of the influences and put their own unique spin on them that is their own!
This is truly a score unlike anything else I’ve covered in recent memory, hell even the current OF members aren’t making the music from their debut era, so this is truly a sonic reincarnation of the most in-depth experience I can think of!
To match such marvellous production, we have the performances of Bandidi, who has one of the most impressive and freeing performances I’ve heard in a rapper in a while. I can’t really put my finger on it, but he sounds like he’s ripping off the top of all his parts as if he’s deciding to feel the moment and use his present/in-booth emotions and thought processes to guide his choice of words, his tones, and cadences.
So many aspects, such as how he opens the fucking album with that genuine laugh! Before he starts spitting some of the smoothest and calming bars you’ve heard in your life. Again, it’s as if he’s just high on life, riding the vibe of the universe and releasing that energy into the booth that is further translated into our headphones and giving us that divine presence of his introspective pen game and wavy charisma that makes him feel like he’s just fading in and out of the beat like grass in the wind!
This is beyond smooth. This is that awakened Buddhist monk level chill. He’s sharp and equally contained. He’s the type of MC that could rap your head off but make you his best friend right after the battle is done. A walking contradiction in the best way possible!
I loved his verses and how they soaked into the ears of the listeners! Also, the fact that he can swerve between vivid scenes and brash lyricism and everything in between.
He’s a man who has no verbal limitations and goes with what feels best to him on any given day, and that’s a special trait to have!
This is honestly one of the most beautiful records I’ve heard all year. My words can’t really do it justice. This is the kind of thing I’ll have to advise everyone to try out now and feel it for themselves!
https://open.spotify.com/album/52CLsK7oVr7syHn354JGFV?si=LOrBhVpOQd6JM6HMeuXAqg
The Serpent Tongue Reviews 