I have two albums for y’all this month, a little short from the usual, but July was flooded with middle of the road projects, but dry in terms of quality. The past month has been great in other ways: the website is going great and I’ve gotten some great feedback already. I have plans for other forms of content that should be rolling along soon, and key among them now is an interview that I have planned with local Tulsa artist Reed Stepp. I’m not going to put a date on it, but stay frosty and it’ll be along soon. Besides that, I have plans to test the waters with a podcast, but it’s still in the talking and planning phase. Thank all of you who read every week and who visit thasoupdude.com, it’s appreciated.
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38 Spesh & Big Ghost LTD.
A Bullet For Every Heathen
The first album I have for you is somewhat of a mystery. I saw this album posted new on YouTube and decided to click thinking I had missed an album while going through Big Ghost’s discography (which is fantastic by the way, Aguardiente with CRIMEAPPLE and The Lost Tapes with Ghostface are quality). It turned out it was a leak of some kind, with the album, A Bullet For Every Heathen, supposedly releasing the next week. After being unceremoniously dropped on Big Ghost’s Bandcamp, and still no Spotify, I’m still not 100% sure this album was officially released, but damn if it’s not one of the best projects from both collaborators.
I feel like it’s not the best idea to be shooting glass this closely? At least he’s wearing eye protection.
Spesh’s album with Kool G Rap, Son of G Rap, was #5 on my Albums of the Year list for 2018, but his output this year so far has been so-so: 38 Strategies of Raw was underwhelming, and The Trust Tape 3 featured way too many collaborators who aren’t on the skill level of 38 and Benny. With Spesh having recently come through with one of the best verses on Benny the Butcher’s recent project, his name was fresh on my mind.
Seeing an album from golden children of both hip-hop writing and producing go so under the radar is unusual, especially given the quality we are given here. At 23 minutes, the album wastes no time getting to the murder, with Master Your High and Black Moses being packed to the brim with wordplay that only Spesh can give. Wordplay is really Spesh’s undeniable strength, since he mostly sticks to one or two flows for the most part; but for me personally, it evens out in the end. Gomorrah is a more reflective track with Street Justice contributing, Extendos is the most lowkey joint on the album but also the most menacing besides the closer, the posse cut Barbarians with killer verses from Eto and Klass Murda. Purple Lotus and Sorrow continue the fantastic wordplay over some truly immaculate beats.
Speaking of beats: these are some of the most soulful, tight, and expertly sampled beats I may have heard all year. Big Ghost has truly outdone himself with these instrumentals and deserves *way* more credit that anyone is giving him right now. Sampling is a lot more that just recording and reusing existing work; it’s process of repurposing and tweaking the material, mixing instruments and vocals in different ways, adding layers, and creating a loop that both makes sense as a beat to rap over and stands out on it’s own merit. In all these aspects, Big Ghost excels, and the selection of beats here demonstrates this. Firstly, his vocal chops are so clean and precise that the beats roll along with no awkward jumps or stutters, and his selections are perfect in their soulfulness. Secondly is his basswork, which grounds his beats and drives them almost more than the sparse drums at times. These are his best beats, period, and only leaves me wanting more out of this short project.
A Bullet For Every Heathen is an example of a collaboration between artists who’s styles complement each other entirely, with 38 Spesh’s gritty, dark, intelligent, and drug-laced wordplay finding a perfect home among Big Ghost’s golden age, perfectionist, dusty, and straight gangster instrumentals. If I had a bad thing to say about the project, it’s that it’s too short.
Here's the Bandcamp/YouTube Link(s) for A Bullet For Every Heathen:
YouTube / Bandcamp
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Hus Kingpin
Slime Wave
I’ve never followed Hus, and this would be my first time trying out one his projects. I’ve seen his name thrown around often, mostly in the Wu-affiliate circles with Fred the Godson-like characterizations, but based off of some features I had heard never decided to check out an album. To be honest, it was really the collaborators that drew me into this one, with a solid list that draws from late-era Wu to deep underground Bandcamp cats. Hus Kingpin isn’t my favorite rapper, and in fact many of the problems I have with this record can be boiled down to his contributions, but Slime Wave as a whole, taking into account the guest rappers and producers, is a solid album. When it isn’t wearing Wu-Tang influence on it’s sleeves (and I mean literally with tracks like Ghost of Camay), the project is forging a uniquely profound, dramatic, etheral, and occultish sonic direction.
This mummy probably wants your wallet and timbs more than your soul. Oh and he’s had sexual relations with every female you know; he talks about that a lot.
Let’s talk about Mr. Kingpin for a minute. His voice is nasally, high-pitched, and slimy. His flow works well enough and his rhyme schemes are not much to write home about. Technically, he’s a very average MC, and his closest contemporary, Roc Marciano (who, fun fact, is also from Hempstead), is leagues ahead of him in all of these aspects. But where I think Hus really suffers is his lyrics, and his lack of lyrically diversity on this album. I have no problem with bars about sex, but having 60-70% of your bars be about fucking someone and the cringy metaphors and similes that come with it is hard to listen to. Maybe it was intentional, but it just sounds slimy in a very bad way, and paints Hus as a one-dimensional MC with little to say. I believe every guest MC suns him on his own tracks.
Moving on, the rest of the Slime Wave is an incredibly positive experience. To start with, the beats and instrumentals are solid from front to back, and features no-names on up to established and legendary Wu-Tang contributors. Mathematics on Ghost of Camay lives up to the original Ghostface track spectacularly with its eeriness. Bronze Nazareth kills Wisewave on both the boards and on the mic, lacing some piano keys with sharp vocal clips, reminiscent of RZA’s work on Ironman. But these are also the “safer” cuts, sticking to tried and true wu-banger formulas, with the real pearls found amongst the weird. Sky Closers is a heavy, minimal track that marks impending doom with its keys that Hus correctly muses “Sounds like the sky is closing”. Sunkist (the only Wavo solo track that I fuck with) is a more esoteric, higher tempo, and digital track, featuring distorted synths that bring you into this warped Kingpin-computer. Pyramid Prism is the crown jewel here, with an absolutely bonkers beat, featuring an oboe?, transcendent drum-kicks, and a barrage of samples and vocal flips, topped off with crazy DJ scratches near the end of the track.
As I mentioned, every guest verse is worth something here. SmooVth, who collaborates often with Hus, is on two tracks here and kills both verses (especially Hempstead Pt. II) with his cold matter-of-fact flow. Chuuwee brings much needed energy and lightning flow to Ultra Slime. Killah Priest is in rare-form in his late career, bringing his deep, gravelly voice and esoteric lyrics to Sky Closers, going back and forth with Hus, making it one his best verses I’ve heard from him in a minute (and that’s even taking into account the Sunz of Man album that just dropped). Crook kills The Conversation, but I probably didn’t need to say that given he kills everything. And, finally, to make Pyramid Prism an even grander track, we have verses from both Fashawn and Guilty Simpson, the latter having a brutal and menacing verse, while the former has not one but *two* excellent verses with some amazing wordplay.
My final thoughts on this album consist of a wish that anyone else had put this album together, because in all aspects but Hus this album is fantastic. But if Hus Kingpin has that pull to get these names in, shit, keep going, because I need more of this in my life.
Here's the listening links for Slime Wave:
Spotify / YouTube / Bandcamp
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Only two albums this month, but I suppose this balances out the five album monstrosity I gave y’all last month. Hopefully August will be more fruitful, and some more heavy-hitters who have yet to drop get down to it.
