It's good to have Freeway back. He's been through a lot as he talks about throughout the album including his kidney disease and tragically losing two children. He's been an underrated rapper over his career, but I do find Stimulus Package 1 overrated, so let's see what this is like.
It begins okay. 'Time' is decent, then 'Philly' is better. The high-pitched sample in 'My Own' is overpowering and annoyingly repetitive and it makes it the worst song by far. Aren't we past producers just looping four bars worth of instrumental repeatedly throughout a song? 'Keep Winning' is good, but again, the looping could do something else. It hardly changes for the duration of the song. A lot of the loops Jake One has created aren't anything special. Freeway's best songs in my opinion are ones like 'All My Life', 'It's Over', 'Microphone Killa', 'Jungle' and 'Around the World' with their thumping energy and a catchy hook. There's not enough of that on this project. In saying that, the song that best does these things, with a memorable hook, that has different musical elements to the verses and more energy is the closer, 'Family Tree'. 'Crystals and Keys' has a Rick Ross type hook with strong instrumentation making it one of the best. 'Freezer' has more bounce and a memorable hook. I don't like the single, 'RIngin', much. "Phone keep ringin' ringin' ringin' ringin'". The hook is weak. 'Heartbreaker' has an odd poppy hook for a Freeway song.
On initial listens, this didn't do much for me, and while it has grown on me, there's nothing here I'm loving with a few skips.
Beats: ★★★
Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆
Hooks: ★★★☆
Best Tracks: Philly, Keep Winning, Freezer, Family Tree
Time (feat. Conway the Machine) 63
Philly (feat. Peedi Crack) 70
My Own (feat. Sauce Walka) 30
Keep Winning (feat. Black Thought) 66
Price of Fame 54
Lord Forgive Me 60
Freezer 74
RIngin (feat. Jadakiss) 50
Heartbreaker 50
Nothin They Can Do 60
Crystals and Keys (feat. Scholito) 70
Bearded Legend 66
Surgery (feat. Symba) 68
Family Tree 80