Verse Essential------I'm Not Supposed To Be Here

Verse Essential-I’m Not Supposed To Be Here-Independent-(2014)

Artist: Verse Essential

Album: I’m Not Supposed To Be Here

Label: Independent  

Producers: Black Mic, Kidd Called Quest, Al Capone, DJ Sincere, Juan Lobo, others  

Underground artists have to fight tooth and nail to get recognized. Through hard work and dedication, the music pays off and fans will attract to it. This includes Laurelton, Queens Verse Essential who paved his own way through his music. With many works with other artists, including a couple of his own works, Verse Essential made his name a household word. His album collections speak for itself with his debut album Ingenious sparking a buzz which elevated him to another status. This compelled him to work even harder in music selection that included his two mixtapes, the Artform Rejects collaboration and the highly impressed collaboration with Kidd Called Quest on No Invitation Needed. Now, Verse is on another mission which ponders his existence to the hip hop game with his sophomore opus I’m Not Supposed To Be Here

            This album has a few surprises to its belt. Verse Essential knows how to pick beats that matches the theme of the album. The album starts off strong with Endangered Species featuring fellow compadre Access Immortal over a dark murky soulful Black Mic beat. The unexpected track which compels Verse to step out the box is the Al Capone produced Future which is one of the standout tracks where Al Capone matches the drum kicks over with a xylophone sound. The album continues where Verse screams I’M FROM THE GUTTER while tapping on your skull like Gregory Hines on the gritty DJ Sincere’s Leatherface 2 as Verse exposes superstars with a pocket full of lint to the thought provoking Mobile Slave where Verse expresses the psychological after affects of the average human being succumbing to the power of their cell phone. This is Verse at his strong points where the hard aggressive beats push his lyrical cadence to another level. Other tracks like the Big D track Just A Week Ago with Fess Gotchu talks a true female story that most people can relate to while the single Everyday is self explanatory where Verse expresses the struggles the average person is going through.

            With a strong aggressive approach, the album should stay on course. However, a few tracks wane the consistency of the album. Tracks like New York Giant and My Ghetto are cool tracks but not as hard hitting as the previous seven tracks while Too Easily featuring Mike O’Leary is an album filler with a slow vibe. Brandi has a cool 90’s boom bap feel provided by the Cratez as Verse spits about a girl he knew while Necessary Evil brings Verse to play with your mind over a somewhat lazy piano beat. Towards the end Verse picks up the pace in a major way. If you want to hear musical chemistry to its purest form, the Kidd Called Quest produced Pour My Soul featuring Pennsylvania’s Capcizza and Yonkers rhymetress Golden blends perfectly with precision over a hard consistent drum pattern. How the story begins is how the story ends with Verse dedication to his dad on Mighty Joe Black.

            I’m Not Supposed To Be Here paints a picture of Verse’s struggles throughout the album; it’s like a compelling novel that has a beginning, middle and end. A few minor setbacks pertaining to the album: eighteen tracks on an album will lose the listener especially when it starts off stellar. The album wanes a bit with a few album fillers in the middle before picking back the pace. Lastly, Verse delivery can be redundant at times but his subject matter and the beats made up for it. Verse Essential didn’t succumb to the sophomore jinx that most artists fall into because of their stellar debuts. Although more innovative and production wise captivating than Ingenious, Verse still has not stray from the minor flaws such as a few guest appearance mismatch and monotonous delivery. The theme towards I’m Not Supposed To Be Here is to pull the listener to Verse Essential’s world and come with numerous questions; that’s the advantage of wanting more. I’m Not Supposed To Be Here brings substance to the art form but with stronger guest appearances and delivery, this would have been a classic.

         Strong Tracks: “Endangered Species”, “Future”, “Leatherface 2”, “Breakaway”, “Everyday”,  “Mobile Slave”, “Just A Week Ago”, “Pour My Soul”, “Mighty Joe Black”,

            Rating:out of

Royal Flush-------Grand Capo

Royal Flush-Grand Capo-Independent-(2014)

Artist: Royal Flush

Album: Grand Capo

Label: Independent  

Producers: Grand Papa Tra

In this industry, it’s difficult making the right moves without playing the right hands. Unless you got a royal flush, that’s the only way to win through the industry. Flushing’s Royal Flush is not new to this. The critically acclaimed, highly influenced album Ghetto Millionaire motivated the borough of Queens on a new level as Royal Flush introduced the Cristal, Iced Down Medallion era before anyone ever heard of it. One thing about Royal Flush is he knows how to structure a hip hop album. Ghetto Millionaire is a perfect example of how albums should be constructed with street lyrical wizardry and diverse head nodding production. This time around, the governor of Queens teams up with producer Grand Papa Tra on his 2014 opus Grand Capo.

            With all the ammo resonated on this album, Royal Flush is not pulling any punches. The intro with the late Old Dirty Bastard is the perfect lead off to introduce to the grim street infused first single Shadow of the Streets where Flush and Brooklyn’s Illa Ghee trade blows which paints an eerie picture of the street life. Flush knows how to pick the right people to assist with over hard hitting production providing by Grand Papa Tra. Starvin B tag teams with Royal Flush exposing the fake rappers creepy them with the Evil Spirit and on the eerie piano track Swarm Music while Flush brings in Nutso to rep the hood the right way on Flushtown. Grand Papa Tra knows how to deliver the right production that matches Flush’s lyrical cadence. The hard organic dusty drum lines cause Royal Flush to body the track on the solo tip on tracks like Autobiography and Keep It Live. 

The vibe of the album continues on a hip hop nostalgic sound with awesome lyrical chemistry to production. Sean Price gives the assist on Beasting and on the hard knocking This Is Killing Everyone where Flush and Pop Severe trade lyrics on the street level. Flush keeps the fiery momentum on this project and brings the style of Ghetto Millionaire to essence on tracks like MFM with Flushing brethren Mic Geronimo and Mic Handz, Hoodness part 2 featuring Bam where Flush loses faith on the new wave of hip hop: cuz I’m gonna show you how to do it like a terrorist/mark man head off the roof heads severing. To end the project, the jazzy up tempo Hip Hop where he shows these new cats how it’s done from a legend’s perspective by bringing it back to the real hip hop: is it me or everyone want to rap now/and a lot of producers got these wack sounds (definitely co-signing this line) to Flush’s witty punch line: I spit that hot shit, hot like a fucking razor/and leave your body black and red like I own the Blazers while Stayin Alive sends featuring Noble and Pop Severe where Royal Flush spits the story like reminiscing of the days growing up on the dark moody production with the Raekwon echoes crime side the new york times side sampled perfectly.

            Grand Capo brings back the essence of the golden era with dope dusty drums, moody production and sharp lyrical content. Royal Flush still got the lyrical wordplay that sends artists back to the booth. This is a strong project with the New York hip hop feel that many fans want to here. Fourteen tracks put together perfectly by Flush knowing how to pick the right beats entirely produced by Grand Papa Tra and selecting the right guest appearances to construct a solid album. The theme towards Grand Capo is from spitting sixteens to hood story infused tracks that keep listeners in a trance. This is what you get, a solid hip hop album that will keep heads nodding to track after track from start to finish. Grand Capo is an impressive album that establishes the love of hip hop that fans want back.

            Strong Tracks: “Shadow To The Streets”, “Evil Spirit”, “Flushtown”, “Autobiography”, “Keep It Live”, “Sucka Free”, “Hoodness part2”, “MFM”, “This Is Killing Everyone”, “Hip Hop”, “Stayin Alive”

                Rating:out of

Go cop that Royal Flush album Grand Capo on Bandcamp