Rick Hyde - Plates [2019]

With Griselda running the underground scene right now, it’s easy to overlook the achievements of the individual members with big moves being made. Benny the Butcher in particular is spending his free time building his own label, Black Soprano Family, and while I’m not 100% sure how much of this is in ink, the deeply affiliated artists include Dufflebag Hottie, Elcamino (also of Griselda), Rick Hyde, and most recently RJ Payne. All four of these dudes, Benny notwithstanding, are some of the nastiest that underground hip-hop has to offer right now, but there are some members that have a penchant for self-reflection. Rick Hyde, who has been affiliated with Griselda for years now, producing and featuring on many of their tracks, is one of the most well-rounded artists in that sphere of influence, with his skills on the boards and lyrical skills having drawn my attention long ago. People were waiting for a proper project, whether that was under Griselda or BSF remained to be seen. BSF became his home, and after making this decision came his debut album Plates. Ricky’s deeply personal lyrical subjects, excellent beat selection, and his passionate and energetic flows give him the sense of a scarred underdog in the game, who not only has demons to overcome in his life, but people that depend on him today to overcome those demons.

Keep your eyes on these guys; if you like Griselda, but like a little more of a hyper-aggressive mid 2000’s feel to it, these dudes are for you

Rick Hyde’s style is deeply rooted in other lyrists of struggle: Meek Mill, 50 Cent, some Nas in there. He’s not yelling at you, but he’s firmly and loudly stating his facts. His voice is scratchy, but also has a sort of relatable warmth to it, while his flow is steady and constant; I never felt like he was trying to show off lyrically like Benny or RJ Payne would try to do, but instead his focus is on being as real as possible in his bars. Whenever he speaks on the terrible things that have happened to him, you feel his pain; whenever he brags about his clothes and jewelry, you can sense the grind that he’s gone through to get to his position. His conviction in his raps make it so everything he spits is top priority all the time, and his believability factor is more than many other rappers out there. The specifics of his lyrics are what get to me, and Ricky is rather unflinching in sharing the details of his life. His relationship with his father, his own fatherhood and providing for his son and daughter, and the homies he’s lost in the streets (and those fake ones that prey upon his fame).

The biggest details come from his relationship with his late mother, with the track Shameah being the centerpiece to Plates by describing the emotional fallout of her decent into cancer, and the ways that Ricky looks back on his interactions with her. He describes the literal day she died (“July 1st was the worst, watching moma fade away hurt / July 2nd got the call, not I gotta put my momma in the dirt), and tries to think of ways things could have been different (“If I probably prayed a little more as a little boy we’d evade that shit”). He reflects on the emotional support that his mother gave him with “Momma always was in love with me even when I wasn’t lovin myself”, and realizes that there was no way he could have been ready, saying “I remember one night after one fight momma said be prepared / when it hit me it was too late shit was already taking me there”. This is a tough track to listen to for me… it’s so raw and he clearly isn’t 100% sure how to feel about the situation himself, but the beat is so happy and upbeat in that bittersweet sort of way; the sample flip is so soulful that DJ Shay should get props too for soundtracking this beautiful moment on the album. If you listen to anything off of this album, it must be Shameah.

Plates is not only a personal experience, but it’s a relatively short one at 29 minutes, and the number of features reflects this. Elcamino and Benny the Butcher are the only two featured artists, but they both have two features each across the project. Elcamino is rightly relegated to hook duty on both Lanez and Off the Corner, with the former having this older mid 2000’s crooning quality to it, and the latter honestly being one of my favorite hooks this year. I love the vibe of Off the Corner to begin with, but Elcamino’s sinister delivery and this hood-anthem lyrical quality sounds like it something I would love to be screaming at a concert somewhere. Benny is also on Lanez where he’s stunting hardcore in a way that only he can; Lanez sounds so much like an old 50 Cent song with it’s banging baller beat, and Benny is really channeling that old bling era in the way he describes his lavish life and I’m all here for it. Benny is also on the next track, No Seat Belts, which is by far the strangest track in the listing where the two basically rap over the alert sound the car yells at you when you don’t have your seatbelt on and some boom-bap drums; it’s surreal, but Benny’s verse matches the strangeness with an overexaggerated gangster flow.

As you can see, BSF’s in-house producer DJ Shay has his hands all over this album, producing some of it’s more memorable beats

Being such a short project, each of the beats being as good as they are adds to the flow and cohesiveness of the album, which means I can listen to this over and over again without tiring. The intro literally sounds like the beginning of some sort of hood fairytale, with these choral vocals and string sections waxing and waning; it’s like the beginning of Snow White or some shit, but Snow White is about to offer you a deal you can’t refuse. It’s appropriate that it leads into Shameah, which kind of shatters this layer of happiness with it’s guitar licks and a perfect vocal sample that convey this bittersweet sadness. The Motherload is this somber, horn driven loop, with it’s instrumental layers and sharp playing lending it this “on the corner” sense to it, smoking a cigarette late at night in the cold of a detective noir. Off the Corner and Lanez are two slightly mainstream inspired tracks, with sharp snares and dense bass notes; but while Off the Corner is this movie-quality drama soundtrack to a life of slinging crack and dealing with your enemies, Lanez is this speedy romp of a throwback to like a bling era sound with this sick guitar lick and super crisp drum hits. Daddy Day Care closes out the album, the sample on this beat being the same that Flying Lotus (and Earl Sweatshirt) used on his Captain Murphy track Children of Atom. It’s flipped a little different, chopped tighter and slowed down a bit, throwing some trap drums over it; all of this makes it a bit more soulful and high-class.

I think the Black Soprano Family can easily make their own name for themselves with the amount of talent that they house right now. It reminds me a lot of Wu-Tang’s early come-up, where the clan had affiliate groups and side project all around them that fed off of that same energy, making amazing music alongside the more mainstream acts. With Plates, Rick Hyde cements himself as a well-rounded and big-hearted emcee, with his touching lyrical performances and fantastic beat selection setting himself apart from so many other that try and operate in the same lane. But, despite all of his trials and tribulations, Ricky remains humble, handing out plates to his homies in the process.

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