The Serpent Tongue Reviews

Going back to a project released in December of 2024, the collaboration between rapper Jake Haw and producer Hi-Q for this project. Jake being someone I’ve only discovered with this project, and Hi someone I’ve come to know from an album that came out this year in 2025, but I know that if he’s involved in something, chances are good that you’ll be delivered a dope as fuck project, and that’s exactly what we got with this!

With a total of 10 tracks and running just over half an hour long, we see a collection of tight-nit, hard-hitting, and masterfully crafted units of music that feature that trademark ‘underground’ sound while also maintaining a level of depth and intensity that makes this stand out and not get lost in the sea of albums that get released monthly in the scene.

Starting with Hi-Q, the man is a genius in creating unique sonic landscapes that fill the listener’s imagination and intrigue. He seems to tap in with the collaborator in question and sync together to make a project where both parties bring out their best! 

Every instrumental sounds tailor-made for Jake in structure, sound, and rhythm. After only one other album experience with him, I could already tell his talent for doing this and listening to this only doubled down my views on him as a whole! He’s an aura vessel, and when he gets going, very few can play the hip-hop game of ‘match’ as well as he can!

Now onto the subject of the newcomer (well, to me anyway) rapper Jake Haw, the man has a very distinct style and studio personality to him. A combination of confidence, aggression, passion, and enthusiasm. He also has this certain ‘deep, gravely voice’ which I enjoyed kind of in a similar lane as a ‘Bub styles’ type character. His rhyming was great, smooth, and delivered with fantastic technique as was most likely predicted by Hi himself when choosing the instrumentals! 

Of course in the areas of HI’s rapping he’s an established voice at this point and his rhyming just as complimentary as Jake’s is just as well as his production!

All in all, a solid project one I unfortunately missed when it originally came out but one I’m glad I could cover now! 

Shoutout to the features on this project such as

-Dr. FowlMouf 

• Tha Soloist
• K. Rino
• I.N.F
• Words

https://hiqmusic.bandcamp.com/album/bulletproof-martyr-part-2-the-metronomicon

Man, I was so excited to fuck with this LP. As soon as I saw the name and the album cover I knew I’d love it and guess what? I did!

What we have here is a 12 song, 24 minute wrestling themed project by rapper Fam Ross and producer Kheyzine a man who I covered last year with his work ‘Steel Dreaming’ along side ARSINEL so it’s good to see him already back at again and this time giving the listener a sonic roller coaster of a lifetime with some of the most raw, rugged and cut throat production of the year so far!

This whole album sounds like it was intended to come out rough around the edges and it suits! The instrumentals are wild, unpredictable and grimy. There’s tracks like ‘VNTG’ which has this unsettling Jazz loop played over and over again which kind of sounds like a horror ‘Twin Peaks’ style instrumental but done over Hip Hop mixing! Songs such as ‘Cranberry Juice’ which provides the listener with one of the strangest production in a minute with a whisper vocal loops for the main beat.

When I was listening to this specific song it kind of reminded me of that Westside Gunn song ‘DunnHill’ Ft Rick Ross where the chorus was whispered wordplay but this use of it is a lot better then that song but definitely strange and unexpected!

The point being is that Kheyzine is letting loose on this one and leaving no stone unturned!

Now, on to Fam Ross. A man whose job it was to compliment said beats with equally raw and grimy bars and he does that to a tee! He featured incredibly dope bars, great lyricism and flow as well as original energy, aura and cadence across the LP. 

He wasn’t alone on this one either bringing with him names such as

-ARSINEL 

-Silent Sniper

-Audio Messiah 

All who help bring matching energy and vibe to the project and elevate it! They all come together on that before mentioned whisper track ‘Cranberry Juice’ 

Also, I fucking loved the Sgt Slaughter voice samples across this thing. Especially the end skit track ‘Exit’ with just 6 seconds of Sgt’s voice to close the album off. Absolutely brilliant and I’m sure any wrestling fan will appreciate it.

So, how does this album hold up? Fantastic. We’ve got so many albums so far across the years such as

-Nobody Bleeds Like Flair

-Nacksaw Jim Duggan

-The Steiner Brothers

Now you can add ‘Slaughter Tape’ to that list to dope Hip Hop X Wrestling inspired albums! 

https://kheyzine.bandcamp.com/album/fam-ross-kheyzine-slaughter-tape?search_item_id=2163669740&search_item_type=a&search_match_part=%3F&search_page_id=4012934514&search_page_no=0&search_rank=5&logged_in_mobile_menubar=true

Man, I can’t say this enough. ‘What a fucking year it’s been already!’ After arguably one of the best years in underground Hip Hop in years with 2024, it’s not even February yet and I feel I’ve already heard 5-6 album of the year contenders and I guess it’s time to add the 7th because this shit is dope!

So what we have here is a 9-track album with a 27-minute run time that is one of the most no-nonsense records that’s come out this year, straight fire from the start to the finish and I mean that literally! There’s no elaborate outro or long-winded way to end the record, just the song stops, loved that!

JR Swiftz should be a producer that needs no introduction to those who have been rocking with the underground for some time now, he’s already a legend in this shit where everything he touches turns to gold and this one is no exception!

What we have here is a dope throwback to the prime East Coast Grime of the 90’s to early 2000’s when I was listening to this I could hear that old school, Jay-Z, Styles-P, DMX, Nas, AZ etc. 

He’s taking the best of the classics and putting his own modern spin on! This is the kind of instrumentals you could leave on loop for days and never get sick of them, absolutely unreal production!

On the rapping side of things, Napoleon, another proven veteran in this shit who wouldn’t know the word ‘wack’ if his life depended on it. Across this project, he uses his experience, expertise, knowledge, and passion into his songs to create some of the best-crafted verses we’ve heard all year! 

You can always hear someone who is confident with their craft. Too many try-hards in the game try and be too much to overcompensate for lack of skill or experience but Da Legend is named for a reason, if Hip Hop is Russia then best believe this Napoleon ain’t gonna lose nothing! 

Overall, phenomenal performance by everyone involved. I can’t believe we are getting this level of quality already in the year and I can’t wait to hear more by both! Also, shoutout to the features who helped make this album what it was!

-D-Styles

-Reks 

-Nejma Nefertiti

-Awon

-DJ Grazzhoppa

https://open.spotify.com/album/3AXbVPztGiRX7UVG5p3OTB?si=MbY9l18aS3mW2EPGgsQ4GA

Can we all appreciate the fact Artwork Kennedy released a 17-track album on the 17th of January? That’s dope.

Anyway, here we have the new release by Artwork. A man who I’ll be honest haven’t heard of prior to this one, but I saw he had Maze Overlay featured on this, so you know I had to check my main man out and in the process discovered one of the best releases of 2025, go figure! 

So, as stated above, this is a 17-track album that runs 47 minutes. I could be wrong, but I think this is the longest Hip-Hop album I’ve covered so far this year!

The first thing I noticed about this project was just how larger-than-life it feels! This feels like an audible movie with its luxury production, sound effects, samples, and voice clips. Artwork definitely went above and beyond for this record, and including the small handful of features he had accompany him on this one, he definitely lived up to the grand feel this album has as a whole.

As far as the sounds go, there’s a lot of different influences I hear on this, such as:

-Classical/Orchestral

-Ambient/Lo-Fi

-Trademark Underground Hip Hop

-Jazz

-2000’s Era East Coast Hip Hop

He’s choosing the best of these worlds and combining them to make the upper-mentioned ‘larger than life’ experience, and for such a long record time, flies like no other; you’ll put it on and be so swept up by the energy and sonic aesthetic that the silence of the end will come before you even realised what happened!

Talking about the rapping side of things, as expected, it was flawless. He brings the determination, passion, aggression, and soul to each bar and sentence he spits. I love his wordplay, especially one line where he says ‘I don’t exist, I ain’t canon’ or something like that! 

As an anime fan, that hit me hard as fuck, but that’s just one of many lines that had me thinking ‘Damn, that’s cold.’

Across this one, we also have friends such as: 

-33grey

-Kuna

-vny

-Maze Overlay

-FlyG

Only have heard of Maze, but they all did fantastic keeping up with the vibe and ruthlessness of the record. A great team to have accompany you for this one, and the artwork was chosen well.

Overall, a fantastic January edition to the 2025 Hip Hop collection and most likely will remain a strong choice for album of the year! Loved everything about it and can’t wait for future releases by Artwork Kennedy!

https://artworkkennedy.bandcamp.com/album/need-money-for-porsche