MICHAEL 2023 Album

Killer Mike

There is an attempt to open the album with a bang on 'DOWN BY LAW' but ending half the bars with "My Nigga"... Ehh... It kind of ruins it for me. 'SHED TEARS' feels like it's trying too hard as well. I liked 'RUN' at first. The chorus and aspects of the production are decent, but on revisits it drags on, and then with the wack Young Thug, it only gets worse towards the end. 'NRICH' continues the weak start with most of 6LACK's depressive and tired sounding feature being terrible. I'm not going to pretend to be offended by the "brokeback shit" line but some of the bars in songs like 'TALK'N THAT SHIT!' are elementary. "I'm too cool, AC." "I'm the shit, I go fecal." It sounds like a bad freestyle at times. The beat is dope though, particularly before the beat changes ups. 'SLUMMER' is the best from the first six with Mike reflecting on when he was a teenager and impregnated a girl that led to an abortion. The beat drop 3-minutes in is great. I know this next clause is blasphemy, but I hate Andre's verse on 'SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS'. And then you have the almost always horrendous Future after him. From bad to worse. Killer Mike helps do his best to save the song with a strong performance though when he enters making for a song of two halves. 'TWO DAYS' features some of the most enjoyable rapping on the album. - "Can I stop it? Pocket profit every time I push a pin/But I do not push a pin, fuck a pin and the pen/That imprisoned all my kin and my partners and my friends/Fuck the politicians that sponsor the prisons that they in." The album finishes strongly with the emotive 'MOTHERLESS', the EL-P collab, 'DON'T LET THE DEVIL', that is easily the best song, and 'HIGH & HOLY', that features maybe the best chorus here, and is only let down by the Yoruba spoken intro/outro that I don't think anyone would want to listen to over and over except Mike. After first hearing Mike through the OutKast features, I had hope and thought he'd be a favourite of mine, but he has never made a full project I've adored. Here you have some weak features (6LACK, Future, Young Thug) that without them would have me easily giving this a 3.5/5, and too many songs with a similar feeling-those choir like vocals backing Mike's raps. 'DON'T LET THE DEVIL' is the only song I'd truly save for later. While he does change it up a bit throughout the album, I also find his way of rapping at times annoying. It's hard to explain, and a minor complaint, but it's that robotic kind of flow-almost like there is a longer pause than there should be between each word. Beats: ★★★☆ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★ Best Tracks: Slummer, Two Days, Motherless, Don't Let the Devil