Written by: T- Millzz
Most people my age remember first hearing Royce Da 5’9” on Eminem’s first album The Slim Shady LP on the song “Bad Meets Evil.” Unfortunately we never heard him on a major label, nationwide scale, until 2011 when he squashed his issues with Eminem after Proof’s death and began creating music with Eminem. “Bad Meets Evil: Hell The Sequel” came out in early 2011, and arguably showed that Royce was one of the best lyricist in the rap genre today. To do what he did on that album with Eminem, in a rap game, where lyricism is not as appreciated as trap songs (at least to mainstream radio) is almost unheard of.
Royce was able to bounce off of Eminem almost flawlessly and create a sense of brotherhood with him. Speaking of “brotherhood,” Royce is one fourth of the super-rap group Slaughterhouse, if you needed any more proof of his rhyming capabilities. This is something else that Royce taps into on this album as he delivers new flow after new flow and punchlines that probably made Crooked I yell out “Slaughterhouse!” a few times over.
Recently pushing his “Bad Half Entertainment,” Royce’s promotion and rhetoric for this album has been, “peeling back layers,” he has discovered throughout his career and different styles he has adopted over approximately twenty years of rapping. This project definitely puts Royce in a place where he is showing versatility, especially with beat/production quality and rhyme scheme differentiation. From the first song, which is also the album’s lead single, “Tabernacle,” Royce tells a beginning to end story about the most important day of his life, where three major events occurred. I won’t spoil the story for those who have not listened to the song yet, but it is no doubt the best story for a hip hop/rap song up to this point in 2016. The thing that stands out to me in this particular song, aside from the story, is that we essentially see that Nickel Nine’s rap name, “Royce Da 5’9”” essentially works as a triple entendre, which I find even more jaw-dropping throughout “Tabernacle.”
Royce’s storytelling and eye opening thoughts and punches on tracks like, “America,” “Gottaknow,” and “Off,” is something that really stood out to me as an artist who is tip toeing on going down as an artist who is versatile, in a genre, that for the most part has been stagnant over the last five years. By the way, hats off to Mr. Porter, (formerly Kuniva of D12) with his INCREDIBLE production on this album. I don’t think there was one track that Royce rapped on with Mr. Porter production that I wasn’t astounded by. In fact, FIVE out of the seventeen cuts on the album have Mr. Porter’s involvement in some type of way, either as the main producer or co-producer: Something to definitely take notice to when you’re listening to this album.
I will say that when the track listing was announced, I was surprised that there was no feature from Eminem, or any members of Slaughterhouse. I was even more surprised when I took a look at the production credits and saw NO production from DJ Premier, the legendary producer who Royce did a collaboration album with in late 2014. Royce and DJ Premier’s album PRhyme flew under the radar. My thinking as to why there is no team up of this duo on the album is because they are working on the sequel to PRhyme, which both artists have gone on record saying will happen. They want to keep fans who know their work waiting, so when we finally get the sequel, it will be even better than the first time.
On the flip side, there are some weak points to the album, in particular, “Shine.” While I wholeheartedly think this is one of Royce’s most introspective songs on the album, the vocals just don’t hit the feeling I got from other songs on this project. Also, the Nottz production on the album seemed a little random, and sandwiched in between two skits and almost lost between two songs in “Wait,” and “Flesh,” whose beats are harder and also have bigger presence both in flow and punchlines.
Another weakness I found happened to be the skits. Yes, I know, most of the time skits are not something that a huge artistic value will go into, but more so an attachment or movement throughout an album that breaks it up a bit. However I found the skits to be a little cumbersome with the tone of the album. Taking nothing away from Melanie Rutherford on the “Hello” Skit, but to be honest, I could have done without it.
I will say this, one of the funniest moments came when I had the realization that at some point in our lives, we all know a “Lincoln.” The skit where he gets into the Uber cab had me laughing and in multiple points of the album Lincoln is mentioned in ways that made me smirk, laugh and say to myself, “which one of my friends/acquaintances fits this mold:” Hats off to Royce for throwing that on the album.
The Verdict:
Royce Da 5’9” does indeed pull back different things he has learned and uses it to his advantage as he arguably delivers his best album to date. With production quality from multiple producers, he allows himself to dictate the pace of the album, which flies by as you are listening. His rhyme patterns, lyrics, flow, metaphors and punchlines arguably put him as one of the best lyricists in the Rap Game today. We will see what he has in store for us next as he has said he is working on his follow up album, an album with DJ Premier and by the way, many Slaughterhouse fans are waiting for the third album to come out.
Final Score: 4.5/5
Standout Tracks:
1) “Tabernacle”
2) “Quiet”
3) “Gottaknow”
4) “Off”
5) “America”
6) “Dope!”