[Reaper16]

08. G-Side – GzIIGodz

(the Youtube embed here is a music video for every track on the album. It's cool. Skip around if you want to)

G-Side BACK. This perpetually underrated Alabama rap duo split up a couple of years ago after frustration with the larger hip-hop industry not paying enough attention to them. Or rather, not giving them their share of success while also biting their style. I’ve written a lot about this duo’s greatness in my 2011 list. I was very excited about this album and it didn’t disappoint, though it did surprise. The Block Beattaz production feels like a throwback on this album rather than the years-ahead-of-its-time feel of iSLAND. Not that it is looking backward, but that it is using the past as a tool. Like on “1 Thing”, which sounds early 90s like something that would play on the set of In Living Color or something. Or “2004”, which plays with the idea of a Kanye-style soul music sample (without the pitch-shifted vocal sample). ST 2 Lettaz is predictably great, and Picasso Finessin (formerly Yung Clova) hasn’t lost a step from 2011. Lyrically, the duo is still rapping about the common man but this is an album with less optimism than before; there’s more talk of having to go back to the trap because following their artistic dreams has been risky financially. That’s real shit. This album is real shit, from the best producers in hip-hop. If you like rap you can’t miss this album. I have a feeling this album might sound ahead of its time even a couple years from now.