AOTY #2: Big Turks - Big Turks [2019]

Welcome to my Album of the Year highlights! I’ll give you a little run down with a brief history to start, show you the tracklist (with the tracks in bold being my favorites) with all of the featured guests (if any), give you some descriptors that might make you more inclined to check it out (if my recommendation isn’t ain’t for you), and I’ll provide links to stream/buy the project down at the bottom. Enjoy!

With an atmosphere as thick as a Istanbul hookah lounge, Big Turks takes traditional boom-bap acts like the Wu-Tang Clan and fuses them with the mystical and historical sounds of Turkey. We have three entirely capable emcees in Lord Juco, Jamal Gasol, and Rome Streetz, and tales are woven of debauchery, battles, drug-slinging, and ancient Turkish history. With a spread of beats provided by Ro Data, Big Turks is the most thematically consistent and unique project I’ve heard all year.

Tracklist

1. Intro

2. Son of Solomon

3. Lionman (Feat. Solomon Childs & Chong Wizard)

4. Turkish Delight (Feat. Planet Asia)

5. The Island of Princes (Feat. O the Great)

6. Interlude

7. Seven (Feat. Rim da Villin)

8. Gods (Feat. Napoleon da Legend)

9. Persian Carpet (Feat. Supreme Cerebral)

10. Leave It to the Turks

Jamal Gasol (Left), Lord Juco (Middle), and Rome Streetz (Right) all operate in the shady underbelly of NY hip-hop right now (despite Juco being fro Canada). Individually, they are more straightforward 90’s-inspired emcees, but together, and with production from Ro Data, they create a completely original group with uniquely genius ideas.

Recommended if you like:

Wu-Tang Clan, obscure samples, Nas, Middle Eastern instruments, AZ, engaging traditional lyricists, Gold Chain Militia, excellent rhyme schemes, Mobb Deep,

Here’s my original write-up of Big Turks:

August 2019

↓ Listen to Big Turks ↓

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music/Bandcamp