What a blessing today is. We get to celebrate a duo of epic proportions. Two men who could (and have) easily take over the wave solo, but together? That almost feels like overkill but in the best way possible. So with that in mind, it’s time to discuss what could be the biggest collaboration of the year!
This is the brand-new album between MC’s Passport Rav & Bloo Azul and they have with them the producers as follows:
– Good Food
– Custee
– Passport Rav
– Wavy Da Ghawd
– Sherman
– Retrospec
– The Standouts
– Showalter!
And man, I can’t even front. The production on this thing is fucking beautiful. As it has this real old-school vibe to it that I fell in love with immediately.
Each track has a melodic and atmospheric rhythm to it that’s impossible to ignore, each instrumental is glistening, powerful, and surreal in their own right.
Somehow each man contributing to this record came together under one vision as it feels as fluent as if one man made it. You can tell each producer put their best foot forward and gave us some of their best work to date!
Not gonna lie, when I saw the early concepts for the artwork I was expecting a more ‘boom bap’ flavoured album! A more heavy, in-your-face take on the music. But no! It surprised me by having some of the most elegant and nostalgic moments I’ve heard all year.
But here’s the thing, although there are influences and inspiration from the past they utilise those into the modern hip-hop landscape! It’s not just a copy and paste of the same music you heard in the 80s or 90s but a new, refreshed, and refined version based on the present. That’s what makes it spectacular!
To see so many men share the same vision and energy and synchronicity is absolutely incredible. Trust me it’s fucking RARE for that to happen. We have exactly 8 men on the beats, do you understand how hard that would be to manage 8 different mindsets for one album? Hard. BUT somehow they all came together and created pure hip-hop magic.
My two favourite cuts on the record had to be the opening two songs. The angelic vibes they gave off had me in a relaxed state I haven’t heard in a minute! True mastery of smooth vibes!
The big selling point of this album is the fact that two of the HARDEST SPITTERS in the underground. Nah scratch that, IN THE GAME PERIOD! Have come together under a common goal to create pure, unadulterated verbal chaos together and put the game on lock. When I first heard about this collaboration, I was blown away, but now that I’ve heard it? I can’t imagine the game without it!
These two lyrical monsters, trading verses back and forth, in brotherly competition trying to outdo each other, one up the other (just like a fighting game), and they are the two best of both worlds.
We are getting the underground equivalent of Jin Kazama VS Ryu. It’s on, and these two don’t stop until every single of the 14 instrumentals is left dormant from their incredible bars and sharp wordplay!
Listening to two legends on the same team is a dream come true for me. Both men bring their trademark charisma, personality, and passion to the record and execute them flawlessly! With deadly precision, incredible vocabularies between them, vivid scenes spelt out in the bars, complex structured verses, and more.
They don’t let up the whole album! The production might be predominantly smooth and atmospheric, but the MC side of things is killer and cutthroat!
Even though every record they’ve been on, they sound dope, but they just sound even more so here. They understand the stakes of representing both on the same album, the bar to set, and the quality needed to be achieved to make this album a showstopper, and with no features in sight, the MC work resting solely on their shoulders, they commit to making one of the most riveting and dynamic albums we’ve heard all year! And they make it look easy!
They didn’t have to flex this hard, BUT THEY DID! Two of the best to ever do it under some of the most ridiculous production you’ll hear! What are you waiting for? Click the link below, support the two, purchase, and enjoy!
https://passportrav.bandcamp.com/album/83rd-strike
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