Travis Marmon
Editor-in-Chief
I still have not listened to Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (MMLP2), because frankly I don’t have time to wade through 78 minutes of Rihanna features and Rick Rubin production so I can absorb an album that exceeded expectations by not being completely terrible. Eminem, while still tremendously skilled, has fallen off over the years in terms of quality. But more importantly, so many great hip-hop albums that just came out are being ignored in favor of our old friend Marshall. Here is the rap from the past month and a half that you should be listening to instead.
Deltron 3030 – Event II
The Marshall Mathers LP is not the only landmark album from the year 2000 to get a sequel this fall. After years of teasing and misleading, Del tha Funkee Homosapien, Dan the Automator and Kid Koala have once again teamed up to tell the continuing story of Deltron Zero.
The original Deltron 3030 is one of the greatest and most unique hip-hop albums of all time, so it’s a bit unfair to expect its sequel to compete. But while Event II will not be a bona fide underground classic, it’s a fantastic release in its own right. The brass sounds of “The Agony” will have your head nodding for days, and Zack de la Rocha provides an excellent feature spot on “Melding of the Minds.” Del has certainly aged, but it’s a thrill to hear him work with Automator and Kid Koala again.
Danny Brown – Old
If anyone can take Eminem’s place as Detroit’s greatest rapper, it’s Danny Brown. With his bizarre vocal inflections, filthy mouth and mix of both club bangers and socially conscious stories, Brown’s 2011 album XXX took the world by storm. The much-anticipated Old provides more of the same.
Side A demonstrates his verbal dexterity and lyrical brilliance while Side B shows off his taste for great beats. An easy contender for hip-hop album of the year.
Action Bronson – Blue Chips 2 Albanian-American chef-turned-rapper Action Bronson has been working non-stop for the past few years, releasing mixtapes, albums and EPs every few months since early 2011. Earlier this month, he collaborated with producer Party Supplies on the free mixtape Blue Chips 2.
Although it appears massive at 19 songs, the tape is only 52 minutes long, filled with two or three-minute bursts about athletes, cars and Bronson’s favorite subject, food. He sounds like Ghostface Killah, but his style is more similar to MF DOOM. Coincidentally, as those two rappers have still not given a release date on their planned collaboration, this should satisfy fans of both.
Armand Hammer – Race Music
Billy Woods is the greatest MC that nobody is listening to. Last year’s History Will Absolve Me was one of the best albums of the year in any genre. This past summer he worked with famed producer Blockhead on another solid release, Dour Candy. Here he teams up with fellow MC Elucid under the name Armand Hammer to create one of the darkest and heaviest hip-hop albums of 2013. If you like your beats grimy, your mood downbeat and your rappers intelligent, I cannot recommend Race Music enough.