It’s been almost 10 years since Kendrick Lamar spit this line on his song “Hood Politics”, And since then Killer Mike still continued to push the needle of hip-hop, but to many it was a surprise that he would win the Grammy for Rap Album of the year for his album “Micheal”. A 14-track 53min and 51 second album that was released in June of 2023. To be honest it was a star-studded category with Metro Boomin (HEROES & VILLAINS), Nas (King's Disease III), Travis $cott (Utopia, and Drake & 21 Savage (Her Loss). Killer Mike beat Nas, Drake, and Travis $cott. All I could think was that this has to be an amazing album. So, let’s see why this is the Rap Album of the Year!
The album starts out with the track “DOWN BY LAW” that features fellow Dungeon Family member CeeLo Green. This track sets the tone for the album, Killer Mike lets you know, this is a rap album. His delivery and tone are similar to that of a revolutionary and he is unapologetic about his use of words. The song also represents an era where songs where 4 minutes at the minimum. Just skimming through his album, the shortest song is “TWO DAYS” which is 2 mins and 14 seconds, which is still long in this current time of streaming and it’s just straight bars. This can’t be taken lightly Kiler Mike is really rapping on this album. There’s so many quotable lines in this album for instance on NRICH “It's underwhelmin' to be so overly underrated”, I could only think that he has been the long shot his whole career. Now he has the championship. Another line is “I don't give a fuck who the president is, if the president ain't for me”. Or this one on SPACESHIP VIEWS, “What you know about college educated and still had to sell cocaine, nigga?”. To be album of the year, especially rap album of the year, you have to have memorable moments in the album, and that's just what these quotable bars are. A high point of the album is seeing the Dungeon Family lineage of artists featured. From Rico Wade to CeeLo Green, to Andre 300, to finally Killer Mike and Future. The Dungeon Family has created the sound for Atlanta hip-hop and to this day continues to push the genre forward. On SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS is where the reunion continues as the futuristic production lend room for two artists from the future themselves, Andre 3000, coming off a totally instrumental flute album, reminded people that he still loves rap and is still one of the most anticipated featured artists. Check the wordplay “A stamina stampede of happily happenings, dabblin' into obliv-ion, neon, beyond the ambiance”. Let’s not forget about Future who is undoubtedly the Andrė 3000 of this time. Few people realize that it’s not by chance that Future is such an amazing artist. He is a part of the musical branch of the Dungeon Family and it shows in lines like, “Learned how to turn a trap house to a mansion, Watched me watch the world take my pain and balance it, It's better to be an outcast in a world of envious (Oh, yeah)”. To be a fly on the wall when this track was made would be Heaven. Talk’n Shit is probably the most turnt up songs on the album, the song pays homage to Three 6 Mafia by sampling two of their tracks “Tear da Club Up” and also “187 Invitation”. He further pays homage by mentioning DJ Paul and Lord Infamous who are credited with creating Three 6 Mafia. Killer Mike shows his versatility as he switches his flow multiple times throughout the track and just executes so masterfully. He even switches from talking about underground kings like Bun B and Pimp C to talking about being in rooms with politicians. His bars are as versatile just much as the company he keeps. “I don't give a fuck who the president is if the president ain't for me”. There’s plenty of depth in the album, one example being the track SLUMMER, where Kiler Mike talks about having an abortion, and then his lady going and having a baby with an older man. It doesn’t get more deep than this track. It also showcases his storytelling abilities. With bars like, “A couple summers and our teenage love had turned to somethin' slummer, can't love her like I used to, she somebody's baby mama”. These are real life bars. Then you get to the track SOMETHING FOR JUNKIES which is another song that has a lot of depth to it. The way he raps in this song puts you into the conversation he had with his aunt. To still see her as a person and not what she’s been labeled is empathetic and what the world needs more of. Also, we find out that he hit a laced joint, which was huge plot twist when going in with a preconceived idea of what the song would be about. The depth of the songs on this album is definitely my criteria for Rap Album Of The Year. When you think about Killer Mike and who would be in his class I think Curren$y and 2 Chainz are right up there. All three artists had to grind and create their own cult-like audience that helped them to reach different degrees of success, Killer Mike now having the highest musical accolade with 3 Grammy wins this year, it was great to see all three on the track SPACESHIP VIEWS. Plus, they are all car junkies. The self-proclaimed “King Of Car Talk”, Curren$y really shined on this track, “I bought this hoodie on Fairfax, I'm all over hundred” (Peep my Genius annotation). Don’t forget about 2 Chainz, who brought his original signature flow “Half a mill' for my fee-finder, Use a coffee grinder for a weed grinder, Search your house for a key, find it”. This is one of the many great moments in the album. I take it back when I said about SLUMMER and that it doesn’t get more deep that that, because MOTHERLESS is one of those powerful, emotional, and thought-provoking songs period. “My momma dead” The song could’ve ended here, and that would’ve been enough, no other words were needed. But Killer Mike fought through the emotions of this bar and gathered himself enough to deliver a powerful performance. His words really had me sitting back and thinking, like in this line, “If God sent me back to normal to be next to you, I would gladly trade it all 'cause I be missin' you”. And let’s not talk about the performance. There was this relatable pain and flow of emotions that translated as he stood in front of a live audience on the Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show and rapped his heart out. Look at the emotions in this and tell me you didn't feel it. DON’T LET THE DEVIL definitely sounds like a Run The Jewels track, as both members Killer Mike and El-P showcase their ability to rap and why they have been so successful as a group. El-P gets off on this track, “How you movin'? One of two in, super groupin', Gorilla glued up to the cash, couldn't lose it”. Maybe this track is a foreshadow to another Run The Jewels album in the chamber. We’ll just have to wait and see. The last track of the album is HIGH AND HOLY which starts out with this lady of African-decent that is speaking what sounds like an African language. It’s spoken so beautifully that I found myself wishing that I could understand and speak this lost language, it’s somewhere rooted in my DNA but lost through the enslavement of my ancestors and probably further lost with the burnings and killings of my people. Until now, I feel like the resistance of the blacks is in this album sewn into each bar is this language that we created, and without a computer it’s constantly being updated through hip-hop. He forreal spittin’ holy bars, "'Cause we just trifle, we carry rifles, granny carry Bibles, We carry hatred for our rivals, same as Cain and Abel, Killed his brother 'cause God showed him favor”. But wait there’s an extended version of this album, that’s just how good this album is. And as I get deeper into the 2nd part of the I keep coming back to the production of the album and how big the sound of the album feels, this is probably partly because of the amazing engineers, mixer Migui Maloles, and engineer mastered by Nicolas de Porcel at Million Dollar Snare. Who is known for Baby Keem and Kendrick Lamar’s “Family Ties” and also Roddy Ricch’s famous track “The Boxx”, just to name a few. This album is another masterpiece to add to their resume. Killer Mike described this album as "Like A Prodigal Son Coming Home". That’s exactly how I would describe the second part of this album. It feels so Atlanta. It feels like you’re there. You know where the good spots of town are. You know where the bad spots of town. But all-in-all you know what it takes to make it here. The 2nd part of the album features 4 new tracks “YES!, MAYNARD VIGREETTE, “GET SOME MONEY”, and “ACT UP”. You probably can't mention Atlanta rap without mentioning T.I. who is featured on Maynard Vignette, he kept it playa partna, and the T.I. we all love to hear lent some dope bars, “my life full of highlights, if it was a book, it'd be a page-turner” The track also features JID who just came off a huge single “Surround Sound” that was pushed by TikTok, it was well deserved just like Killer Mike, he’s been paying his dues and now is being rewarded. He shows his crazy wordplay, especially in this line, “Tell me more about the war, the wins, I know the stories of the horrors we in, Now we goin' for the glory, I'm on a victorious binge”, GET SOME MONEY is about what you think it’s about. The Powernomics. Killer Mike is rapping like the rent is due. At times the chorus becomes this chant. He sings, “Get some money bitch”. The song even does some interpolation by using Yung LA’s hit single “Ain’t I” that Killer Mike uses in verse 1. He doubles down on needing money by ending the track with the bar, “You can't do nothin' if you're broke”. ACT UP is a track where Killer Mike is not playing fair. He’s just doing rap somersaults on this track. You’ve already proved that you're a rapper. You ain’t gotta step on the competition’s necks like that. Just bars! Just bars! We ain't worry! But also, I would say this is balanced by Young Nudy’s slower tempo’d verse. It feels like Killer Mike shooting the shit with his trap homie. It's a really good song. Like I said, the 2nd part of this album is so Atlanta, this point is brought home with DOWN BY LAW - Live frin Atlanta, GA. The song is literally a homecoming for Killer Mike. The track draws you into what it would feel like to be from Atlanta in front of your home crowd. Listening to this track is like hearing the record for the 1st time but with the addition of live instruments and hard-hitting bass. What I like the most about the live version is hearing the different voice inflections and imperfections and improvisation that comes with performing live. It's better my Nigga. Plus, he got CeeLo Green to sang like he was pulpit in an Atlanta church. Wooo!! Another track that was remade for this second album was RUN titled RUN - Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley Version. The song is a great marketing move on Killer Mike’s part seeing that music is going to a more worldly sound. This version is heavily Reggae influenced and even featured one of the greatest musical linages, the Marley family, that is Damian Marley, you gotta go through him to get that co-sign that you aren’t riding the wave of a certain vibration, that is not to be messed with. But it's a dope rendition of the song. MOTHERLESS hits so much harder on the 2nd version called the MOTHERLESS - Robert Glasper Rendition. They way the piano plays so somberly in the background coupled with the life lessons that Killer Mike puts into his verses is fucking amazing. One thing I also noted was just how vulnerable he allowed himself to be in this song as he rapped about missing both his mother and grandmother, there's still the deep emotion this song provokes on even the 2nd and also 3rd version of this track. You saw that right, there is also a 3rd version of the song MOTHERLESS. The last one being the single version that has that radio feel. It’s like he knew MOTHERLESS specifically would be the song to make it undeniable that he should win a Grammy. When it comes to TALK'N THAT SHIT, the 2nd version, it’s like he invited Three 6 Mafia in the booth with him. The DJ Paul ad-libs and the sampled productions seem to run deep into the core of the Three 6 Mafia sound. This is re-emphasized when the beat switches to “187 Invitation”. It’s a track that you have no choice but turn up to. It's his club banger. Every Album Of The Year needs that one club banger. Who's better than Three 6 Mafia at doing that? The last track of the album. No really this time. The last track of the double version is DON’T LET THE DEVIL - Single Version. This is a more polished version of the song. The production is crisp and clear. What’s still there is the lyrical assailants that are Killer Mike and El-P, their verses are a display of their lyrical skill. Again, I ask, a new Run The Jewels album??? Maybe. Let’s just enjoy this track until then. There you have it. The album of the year and Grammy Award Winning Rap Album of the Year “Micheal”. This album was worth all the hype, because it wasn’t hype. It was a masterpiece, a work of art, and worthy of every award that it wins. The album was filled with some of the biggest features and also took you on the journey that was Micheal. It was an album where Killer Mike was the reason why the featured artists stepped up their bars and knew they had to "rap rap" or be destroyed by Killer Mike on the track. But also this album has a lot of depth that hits hard. Maybe that's because it is so relatable. The constant duality of being human. The album cover illustrates this as a young Killer Mike is pictured with a Halo and the devil horns. We are both good and evil. There is a message for people who do good and a message for the people who do evil. And it’s all told through Michael. That's why this is RAP ALBUM OF THE YEAR! So give the album a listen and tag Killer Mike to read this album review.
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