“You ****** ain’t ill to me, unless you mention Pac, Nas, L and Em to me.”
KXNG CROOKED places himself amongst hip-hop’s greatest in the line from “I Hear Voices,” refusing to concede his experienced position in the rap game to concede to new fans.
The 37-year-old emcee collaborated with Boston producer Statik Selektah to produce the latest of seven studio albums, STATIK KXNG. Rapping since 1995 and boasting an impressive seven albums, six extended plays and 8 eight mixtapes, the LA rapper clearly has experience in the genre.
This experience, however, is founded in an older brand of hip-hop, something he seemingly continues to carry into the modern era.
CROOKED delivers creative punchline after creative punchline throughout the album, holding certain rhyme schemes for up to six bars at a time. In “Everybody Know,” he rhymes commission, kill em, permission, missing, position and kitchen all consecutively. It’s rare to find a rapper today able to prolong one rhyme for that long without the lyrics sounding repetitive.
His flow, on the other hand, is rarely varied. He sticks to the standard, medium-speed cadence he knows, rarely deviating from it. One example on this is on “Good Gone Bad.” The high-energy instrumental carries CROOKED’s suddenly rapid bars throughout the song, one very bright spot on an otherwise dull album.
This isn’t all his fault, though. Statik Selektah, a highly acclaimed producer, really hasn’t done anything impressive on STATIK KXNG. Most beats are slow, slightly ethereal and very predictable, with tempo changes occurring very infrequently.
This is most evident on the track “Lets Go.” A slow drum beat pulls the remainder of the already lacking energy out of the choir. Crooked does what he can to retain interest in the song, but even his occasional angry flares can’t keep the song exciting.
While extremely talented lyrically, CROOKED is unable to bring a sufficient amount of energy to the album to stand out in the competitive world of hip-hop.
For a rapper and producer duo with so much of their lives devoted to rap, one expects a collaborative album to display old school characteristics.
The question, though, is just how much longer people will continue to enjoy this type of album.
Rating: 3/5
