We are so fucking back! ANOTHER ALBUM? I knew they had the intention of taking over the game, but this is a fucking dictatorship! Three albums in the space of months between one of the most consistent duos you’ll find anywhere! So let’s fucking talk about it!
This is the brand-new album by the legendary pair of producer Big Ghost Ltd and MC Mickey Diamond, and together they drop another 12 tracks with just under 39 minutes, and one again in the third of a trilogy of banger drops. This thing continues that powerful, prolific energy that the other two faced!
Now, across this album, it feels like Mickey is enabling the two different sides of his latest drops to create a middle ground of both. On ‘Dollar $ign Diaries’, we hear a more personal and bearing side to him, while Wolf Ticket is straight, brash, cocky raps reminding the game who the fuck he is! But on this tape, I feel you get a bit of both.
There are so many occasions where he’ll go from discussing his life and events of his time off to immediately going back to verbally smacking the completion in the face with his iconic one-liners! Like we have his aggressive side showing when he says stuff like ‘I took a year off, and the underground went to shit’ or ‘I’ll kill myself if I see another rapper with a mask on’. He’s clearly out for blood on this tape, and he’s taking the time to express all his range of emotions across the verses he’s rapping on!
Even on tracks like ‘Matthew 7:15’ where he talks about a conversation he had with his daughter about why he carries guns and saying that she will understand when she’s older, it’s these glimpses of personal bars that make all the difference on a Mickey Diamond album!
Even on the sound ‘When It Rains’ when he talks about his relationship with the Umbrella Collective and talking personal about situations that’s revealing for him. This is soul searching for Mickey as we continue to see him evolve as an artist!
On this album, he sounds like he has a chip on his shoulder, and he’s using his immaculate chemistry with Ghost to portray his anger, grievances, and frustration with the game and the culture itself. I mean, we are talking about a man who was at the forefront of the underground for almost a decade, and I suppose in that break, a lot could have happened professionally and personally, and on this tape, we are hearing all about it!
He still has his signature rapping style, his deep octaves, his raw/in-your-face performance with his gritty cadence. A confidences he’s built over the years that makes his verses sound better and better with each drop!
As far as the production goes, we get Big Ghost back on his cinematic, minimally layered production! Similar style to the original ‘Gucci Ghost’ series but this time with a lot more emphasis on grandeur (something I don’t even know was possible with Ghost at this point, but he somehow outdoes himself yet again) with beats that don’t just penetrate the headphones but go through your whole soul and body! Every instrumental feels like an orchestra had made it themselves, and Big Ghost played the role of composter!
Whether we are talking about the opening track -Shepherd’s Pie, where we get that gorgeous, choir-inspired vocal harmony that transitions into this soulful and theatrical take on a boom-bap beat with this secondary subtle vocal loop that’s accompanied by sharp plucked strings in two different layers (guitar and violins) as well as some delicate keys deep into the background!
Or if you wanted to talk about tracks like -Murda He Wrote, where we hear a snippet homage paid to Notorious BIG with a sample of -10 Crack Commandments, but for the main beat, we have these exquisitely plucked bass strings, high-pitched key progressions, and a super subtle drum pattern that is skeletal but itself acts as a skeleton to the whole track!
There’s also a light vocal snippet that tunes every 10 seconds to give this a lighter/soulful take on it!
Even the track -Cry Wolf one of my favourite beats on the record because it brings back that old school, vicious Mickey from the Gucci Ghost days back!
This track is raw enough to rip skin from bone, you’ve got that absolutely ridiculous drum beat that runs through the track as well as these funky as fuck key progressions in two different variations as well as some thick bass and chaotic adlibs that make this track feel like a shot of adrenaline right into the veins!
Man, this duo can’t miss even if they fucking tried. I’ve said this once and I’ll say this again. There will never be a duo that can outshine Big Ghost and Mickey. Is it even a question at this point to ask you all to peep this? If you ain’t itching to press play already then fuck Your life, it’s the umbrella bitch!
https://open.spotify.com/album/1imJ5xnjvRTV0xhsQCzcMY?si=VbWpqNydSK6AFLNXoquPSQ
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