Beats took some time to grow, and are trending in the right direction. More and more enjoyable with each listen. Was expecting something different coming into it. Al’s production is the most cohesive it has ever been on a single project. That’s not to say it’s monolithic, but the beats sound like they belong together. The sequencing is seamless.
On first listen, the only thing that stuck out to me was the rapping. Freddie and all guests annihilate. Bar for bar, flow for flow, the best rap shyt I’ve heard in the longest time. This is a fukking rap album. No one was hoping that the beat would save or carry the song. No one waited for Al to cook up the best beat he’s ever made, and then skate by on a so-so verse. Not a bad verse or hook on this fukker. On the first couple listens, I made the mistake of thinking Al phoned it in for the first time in a very long time, with some relatively basic beats that weren’t experimental or ambitious. I was sorely mistaken.
This morning, I’m picking up all of the work Al put into these beats. This is not to be held in contrast of Covert Coup. Covert Coup was Al’s most ambitious tape in terms of creating a constellation of single tracks, each of which twisted and warped new forms of experimentation that was unfamiliar in the territory of rap music. Alfredo, like I said before, is a cohesive, perfectly sequenced and paced work of art. This isn’t a series of paintings and statues at the museum like he had strung together on Covert Coup. On Alfredo, Al built a physical museum. He built a museum made of marble, ivory, gold, and pearl to house artwork, and the artwork is the rap. Covert Coup beats felt more like artwork from Al’s corner, and the raps were an interpretation of the paintings.
It’s always hard not to assess a project coming from Al against Covert Coup, because to date, it has remained his best project. After this piece, though, collectively, Alfredo takes the throne, no question. It has more substance and polish than Covert Coup. By no means am I putting Covert Coup in the trash, it still gets all of the love and memories, still has a spot in my top albums. Without the bars put in on this project, it would have felt a little slow, odd, and not on brand for Alchemist beats. You put both the raps and the beats together, and this project has some serious longevity. No beat was left on the stove too long, he didn’t try to outdo the raps, but the beats perfectly complement the raps, and the transitions/sequencing make the project bulletproof. Can’t find any faults.
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but I understand what you mean.
nikkas is really out hear cookin
