(NOTDEADyet)

This is an MC I find myself covering more and more this year. What started out as the occasional feature appearance has turned into now my third or fourth full-length review! What that means to me is that he’s making his rounds around the underground, and that’s an exciting thought! Anyway, let’s get into it!

This is the February EP Drop by MC D-DON with production from 

-RVSE

-Darius Lazar

-Q Three

-D-DON

And across these five tracks, although there’s a small handful of different names on the beats, it feels as fluent as if one man was responsible! And that fluency is a heavy experimental and noise-based take on the boom-bap genre that I feel is well executed!

So many of the tracks have this dark atmospheric  aura with sharp string progressions, chaotic and abrupt synth notes, methodical drums, and an overwhelming sense of unpredictability and insane sounds that come together in this one expression of unadulterated obscurity that somehow WORKS! 

It’s as if a tornado came through and created a house! You don’t expect all these abrasive elements to click, but the fact that they do (especially across a few different individuals) speaks volumes about the level of trust, communication, and commitment to this EP! 

You can tell each man had the same vision in mind. That each member knew what the project itself was going for, and that D-DON himself, acting as head of the table, made sure everyone and everything ran smoothly, and that’s a dope effort on his part!

If I had to play ‘DEVIL’S ADVOCATE’ and pick a favourite beat? It would have to be -unLIKE (track 2). To me, it’s the most eerie display of chaos across the whole five songs, and that kind of production is up my lane, so I loved it!

When we discuss D-DON himself, what makes him such an interesting MC is the fact he never has a stuck lane for his lyricism and storytelling. He’s always switching up what he wants to talk about and make it sound smooth as hell! Whether that be talking about his experience talking to his homies, or talking to his girl, or even talking about how he must be addicted to being uncomfortable off the last track.

That’s why he’s such an unpredictable card. You never know what side or mood you’re going to catch him on. He’s like a walking talking ‘etc a sketch’ board. Shake him once and you’ll get a whole clean slate for him to try something new!

We even have small moments of him testing out singing! (Such is the case on track 3 -orangeCRUSH) which is something I haven’t heard from him before. Regardless of his topics, he’s always got a crisp flow, a strong performance, and a heavy presence on the tracks that’s laced with cold tones and precise bars. I love the fact he can run an EP all on his own without any help! That’s the level of performer he is! A one-of-a-kind by the definition!

Although short, definitely not worth sleeping on. The production is unique and refreshing, as is hearing D rap whatever is on his mind! Peep the link below!

https://d-don.bandcamp.com/album/notdeadyet