AOTY #8: UFO Fev & Big Ghost LTD. - The Ghost of Albizu [2020]

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, and I’ll provide links to stream/buy the project down at the bottom. Enjoy!

If there is one producer in the game today that I feel like doesn’t get the credit they so rightly deserve, it’s this guy right here, Big Ghost, who has been dropping an unstoppable stream of A-tier hip-hop not only throughout 2020, but dating all the way back to his breakout Griselda Ghost with both Westside Gunn and Conway. 2020 was when he took it to a new level: back to back to back to back homeruns that ended with this flawless record, teaming up with rising underground star UFO Fev to deliver an airtight 34 minutes of hip-hop. When I say flawless I mean there is not a single blemish on this record, the only one on my top ten list that I can say with certainty contains zero dead air, a masterclass in both keeping the audience engaged with it’s culturally significant sounds (Fev leans heavily into his Puerto Rican heritage on this one, and Ghost matches that energy with similarly flavored instrumentals) and superb sequencing. The rapping is perfectly clear without being bogged down by awkward lyrical acrobatics, speaking to the common man and his family, while also speaking heavily on the experiences of a young man just trying to get by for the ones he loves. This got me to get up off my ass and really dig into who Pedro Campos was as a revolutionary figure, so for that alone I thank the two. From both the historical and musical angles, this album is a resounding hit, one that warrants some flowers sent Big Ghost’s and Fev’s way.

Tracklist

1. Don Pedro/Coca Blessings

2. Got A Feelin

3. SPIT

4. Dxngxr (Feat. Red Inf)

5. Broken Promises/1000 Blessings (Feat. Zandra Kaye)

6. Today’s Math

7. Trinidad Vs. Camacho (Feat. Jose Santiago)

8. Box Cutter Jiu Jitsu (Feat. Nems)

9. El Maestro

10. Demigods (Feat. Rim, Eddie Kane, Mooch, & Ty Farris)

11. Zoe

Special shoutout to Nems for being one of the best feature artists you can buy. His verse on this and many other albums (as well as a full length with Ill Bill earlier in the year) made my day on several occasions

Recommended if you like:

The Alchemist, culturally relevant bars, Termanology, great storytelling, DJ Premier, unmatched sampling skills, Anoyd, DJ scratches, Large Professor, down-to-earth lyricism, Nas, rapping ones reality, Big Daddy Kane, cinematic hip-hop

Here are my original writings on The Ghost of Albizu:

Weekly Fix #44 ('20)

↓ Listen to The Ghost of Albizu ↓

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music