The Catch Up Pt.5 (Kendrick Lamar & Black Milk)

This will be the final edition of The Catch Up and should have me up to speed with the genre over the last 3 months. For Part 4 of The Catch Up click here.

Kendrick Lamar
With Kendrick Lamar's upcoming release, Section 80, dropping in a couple of days i've held off listening to any of the leaked tracks except the following two. Suffice to say, i'm anticipating the hell out of this.

HiiiPower (Prod. J.Cole) | 10/10
This may just be the best beat J.Cole has ever produced, it is absolutely fucking phenomenal. Not to be outdone though Kendrick kills it for three verses straight and leaves us with one of the best tracks of the year so far.

My issue isn't televised and you ain't gotta tell the wise
How to stay on beat, because our life’s an instrumental
This is physical and mental, I won't sugar coat it
You'd die from diabetes if these other niggas wrote it
And everything on TV just a figment of imagination
I don't want a plastic nation, dread that like a Haitian
While you motherfuckers waiting, I be off the slave ship
Building pyramids, writing my own hieroglyphs

Download | Lyrics 

Ronald Reagan Era | 10/10
I love how well structured this track is. You have a fantastic little sung intro that (a lot like the production) manages to lay out both a cheery and melancholy mood, a great chorus thats a mix of background ad-libs, samples, sound effects and rap, some real dynamic and emotive production and Kendrick himself who's urgent delivery perfectly matches the movement of the drum track. Every little detail is attended to and it helps to elevate this song to such a high standard.
Download | Lyrics


Black Milk
Anyone searching for some more Black Milk after the latest Random Axe release should be happy with these two tracks here. Both these beats are as good as anything found on that LP.

Ketchphraze - My Detroit ft. Trick Trick & Elzhi (Prod. Black Milk) | 7/10
Ketchphraze. The name saids it all really, no one with a name that horrible is likely to have a verse worth hearing. Trick Trick is also predictably horrible but thankfully Elzhi has a great verse, the chorus gets you hyped and Black Milk produced a real head-nodder.

Download

Nametag - S.I.N ft. Quest MCODY & Buff1 (Prod. Black Milk) | 7/10
The Black Milk production and the opening verse by Nametag are the highlights here. Quest and Buff1can't keep the standard up but their verses are still far from shocking.

Download


And that's it for The Catch Up. To check out the previous installment head here.

Album Review: Random Axe - Self Titled

Admittedly, I wasn't expecting too much from this release and was really only looking forward to the Black Milk production. Individually I find Sean Price and Guilty Simpson way too monotonous to enjoy over a whole release, they have their moments but the lack of variation in flow, delivery and content really starts to grate on you after a while. On this release here though I feel like they've managed to avoid that as much as possible. The addition of Black Milk on a number of tracks as well as a couple of guest verses and some fantastic production has made for a great combination and the fact the tracks are on the short side has helped alleviate any real monotony. Both Sean & Guilty had some better punches and schemes than I was expecting and Black Milk put out a performance behind the boards that's not far off rivaling his Popular Demand / Tronic days.

For all that the lack of variation in the content does start to wear a bit thin by the albums end. No, I wasn't expecting anything different - battle rap was always going to be the flavour of the day - but neither Sean or Guilty is dynamic or impressive enough to engage with battle raps over a 15 track album. Onto the guest verses where I felt Danny Brown added some much needed energy to the record and Rock put out one of the best verses on the entire release. The rest the album could have done without. Oh, and next time, throw Elzhi on there as well. It's a travesty that Detroits best MC right now wasn't on this and 'Fatt Father' was.

Highlights: Random Call, Japhy Joe, The Karate Kid, Monster Babies
Lowlights: Understand This

Rating: 7.7/10

Elzhi ft. Royce Da 5'9 - Motown 25 (Prod. Black Milk)

' n****s call me arrogant
That's because I'm confident, I found it when I found a pen '

It'd be hard not to be a bit confident, arrogant or downright cocky after releasing a track like this. Back in 08' when this first dropped with Elzhi's Europass CD I played the hell out of it. Then i forgot about it for a few months until the song re-appeared AGAIN on Elzhi's debut, The Preface. And then I played the hell out of it all over again. Elzhi's combines some great schemes with one of the best flows in the game while Royce comes in and shows why, at times, he's capable of possibly having THE best flow in the game. This is when Royce was probably at his peak (prior to his falling off post-Bar Exam 2) and he was capable of outshining anyone and everyone. Not to be outdone, Black Milk, one of the best producers in Hip-Hop and a personal favourite of mine, whips up one of his trademark vocal sample led beats that's just as much a  highlight as either of the verses.

9.5/10

Lyrics

If you're keen for more Elzhi check out his debut album The Preface