First Listen Review of Leaked At. Long. Last. A$AP.

When I heard the singles and read the interviews leading up to A$AP Rocky’s album I knew we were all in for a new look at the New York based rapper. The album was affected before release by the death of the A$AP Mob creator A$AP Yams who produced the album. When I got my hands on the leaked version of the album I was in for a treat. This is an experimental album with great production for Rocky. When I say great I mean it. Rocky had samples all over the album from Rod Stewart in “Everyday” to the beginning sample in “Holy Ghost”. The beats never sounded the same and had various change ups in them. To go over this great production Rocky brings a refreshed sound on his take of Women, Money, and Drugs along with an occasional statement about police brutality.  Rocky also showcases various flows from his famous slowed voice to a more melodic singing type. Rocky had multiple artist feature with Joe Fox being all over the album. Artist like Juicy J, M.I.A, Future, Lil Wayne, James Fauntleroy, SchoolBoy Q, Miguel, Rod Stewart, Mark Ronson, Bones, UGK, Kanye West, Mos Def, Acyde, and A$AP Yams featured also. Kanye produced the track he featured on along with Joe Fox “Jukebox Joints” which was a smooth multilayered  beat with a singing background that switched up to a classic horn filled sound during Kanye’s verse. This was an entertaining song where Rocky even drops mention of getting with female artist Iggy and Rihanna. Another song that caught my ear was “Pharsyde” with Joe Fox featuring. The beat was one with a more rich sound of drums and base. The song by Rocky is a emotional, self realization, higher thinking type that is different coming from him. This album is filled with plenty for me to write about but you can read the full review next Monday!

What I will say is this album is great overall and will definitely kick off the summer season well. Rocky makes a bigger name for himself and experiments with his sound. He makes a run for Rap King title against his peers but I’d say he falls short just a little. This isn’t knocking him but dethroning Kendrick would take enormous work all though the production level this album has is right there with TPAB. Read More on my take on A$AP Rocky’s album At. Long. Last. A$AP.  Next Monday!

Just X

The Future of Review Blogs

I’m making this to inform reader’s of my reviews. I have set up a system that will be in place ASAP. First I will do a First Listen Review on all new projects in Hip-Hop that can be singles, mixtapes, or albums. For albums and mixtapes I will then give a full review a week after the project on a Monday! Singles will be a one time review blog. I will also do a series of review blogs on older and even classic hip-hop albums every other Wednesday! I still don’t have a rating system set up but I  will ASAP and update you on it! Thanks for reading and please Like, Share, and Comment! 

Just X

First Listen Review of “The Growing Process”

My first listen of Dizzy Wright’s album “The Growing Process” was a textured one. It displays huge growth in Dizzy as an artist himself. He has plenty of tracks for all crowds of his audience the stoner crowd, the conscious crowd, and the party crowd. His strength is not in lyricism to say, but in creating a understandable message like in songs “False Reality” and “Train Your Mind”. In these songs it’s all about one’s mentality to certain situations that he creates in these songs or the vibes he gives out. He seems to try and succeed at making an industry sound single “Floyd Money Mayweather” for the album which gave him buzz while a contradicting sound from his previous single “Train Your Mind”. I personally felt misguided when I heard the single being so different at first I didn’t know what direction this album would go in, but releasing this single was perfect timing for Dizzy as he had both eventually played on ESPN to help hype the Mayweather vs Pacquiao fight. The album has a real attention grabbing intro “Higher Learning” which was a great start to the evolving project. “The Growing Process” had production that really matched Dizzy’s style for every song and made smooth transitions throughout the album. While the production was good Dizzy used multiple producers to achieve his whole sound and a highlight to me was the track produced by Hopsin “Explain Myself” featuring the Funk Volume crew. Not only did this song have strong features by the members, but showcased Hopsin’s producing which I feel lacked a little on his Knock Madness album then again it has been a couple years and Hopsin himself has grown as an artist. Features on this album were mainly good, but I feel the feature by Berner on “I Can Tell You Needed It” didn’t add well so it subtracted from the song and wasn’t a strong feature like others. Dizzy had his Funk Volume members feature along with artist Tech N9ne, Mod Sun, Big K.R.I.T, Chel’le, Irv Da PHENOM!, Lazyie Bone, Krazyie Bone, and Njomza on the album. While listening I felt Dizzy creating an Old-School vibe with a modern day sound wanting to relate back to the “Golden Age” in hip-hop. While this was only a first listen review I can tell already this album is a big step forward in Dizzy’s career as an artist. I don’t have a rating system set up for album reviews at the moment because making this was an in the moment idea, but I plan on having one in the future. All I know is that I would definitely support this album if you are into well crafted Hip-hop albums. P.S Please make sure to check out other post on this page! Thanks!