AOTY #4: Your Old Droog - It Wasn't Even Close [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!

Lyrics. At the end of the day, after all of the bangers, club hits, and gangsta posturing, lyrics are what make Hip-Hop what it is. No one today understands that better than Brooklyn’s own Your Old Droog, who for years now has consistently supported the fact that he is one of the most clever, detailed, and rustic emcees in the game today. On his second full length album, It Wasn’t Even Close, the flowing references to dated popular culture, the constant barrage of genius turns of phrase, and the Jedi-like devotion to the rudiments of his craft define YOD as a first-class rapping prodigy. Supported by an all-star cast of features, and a murky and low-fi spread of beats (executive produced by none other than Mach-Hommy), this release serves as the most faithful of Golden Age revivalism released this year.

Tracklist

1. Gyros

2. RST (Feat. MF DOOM & Mach-Hommy)

3. Tried by 13 (Vaclav Havel)

4. Bubble Hill

5. World’s About to End

6. Babushka

7. Funeral March (The Dirge) (Feat. Mach-Hommy)

8. Devil Springs

9. Smores (Feat. Lil Ugly Mane & Wiki)

10. Ugly Truth (HOMMO MIX)

11. Chasing Ghosts (Feat. Roc Marciano)

12. Haunted House Beat (Not a House Beat)

13. 90 From the Line

A native of Brooklyn, Droog grw up in the shade and in the influence of some of Hip-Hop’s most legendary figures, and the imparted skill shows in his rhymes. While he’s a student of the 90’s, he is also taking to this newer, darker wave more than many of his contemporaries.

Recommended if you like:

MF Doom, comic book and television references, Sean Price, left-field boom-bap beats, Nas, smoky and traditional delivery, Aesop Rock, inventive and thoughtful lyricism, Dave East, the 90’s, Elzhi, Golden Age Hip-Hop

Here’s my original write-up of It Wasn’t Even Close:

April 2019

↓ Listen to It Wasn’t Even Close ↓

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