A Heavy Hitter From E. Grizzly & Height Keech
The new album release from E.Grizzly & Height Keech manages to deliver this boombastic and robust hip hop and rock approach by utilizing classic and hard rock backbones and blending them in with conscious, flowing, and detailed rapping, delivered with attentive lyrical phrasing and an infectious energy right from the very start.
The megalopolis album is not something that you can easily describe with words. Yes, bringing together elements of rock and hip-hop, heavy guitars, and rapping is not a new idea.
Legendary acts like Beastie Boys laid that out on the table back in the '80s. However, this take on the approach brings together this sort of underground street style rapping that is again, very conscious and detailed, descriptive, impactful, and honest, with vintage-sounding heavy and hard rock soundscapes, and because of that, it really feels like something special.
The record wastes absolutely no time with the first track 'New Year's Day", which is one of the hardest-hitting ones of the group. The drums are huge, the guitars are edgy but thick, and the wrapping is addictive.
What's amazing to me is how the wrapping and vocals match the energy level of the music itself. There is a rock band in the background just chomping away, and the rapping is on the same energy level as the band.
This first track is an outstanding introduction to the rest of the record because you are definitely getting some of the best staples of this release right here in the opening act.
The flow of the rap is non-stop. It's totally fluent, it feels like it never takes a break, it's a bit intense, but you're paying attention to every single word that's being said.
This first track sets the tone. It lets you know that you're in for something big.
Having said that, you absolutely have to hear this entire record from beginning to end to really soak it all in properly.
The first track may give you a little idea of what you are in for, but it will not give you anywhere near the full spectrum of what the full album has to offer.
The stories that are being told are, again, so descriptive or detailed that certain lyrics paint a picture in your head as soon as they are being said. This also happens with full songs or bigger segments of lyrics at a time. It happens fast, too.
You'll hear a couple of lines out of a verse, and you can imagine exactly what he's saying in your head, and then suddenly tell me you're on to a completely different line now.
You have to keep up with it, and that's something that keeps you on your toes, which I absolutely adore.
Tracks like "Pretty Ugly" hit with a certain kind of sharpness and not just musically either. When I say sharpness, I mean lyrical wit, speed, and again the ability to let a story sort of unfold line by line with a quickness.
Meanwhile, the music is heavy rock, blasting drums, fierce guitars, cinematic backbones, and all of this creates such a unique atmosphere for you to fall right into.
Trucks like "Senior Week" come through with so much color, flavor, brightness, and description that by the time it's over, you have to pause just to let what just happened soak in properly.
I love stuff like this because it's inventive, intelligent hip hop. It's definitely a record that is built with fewer boundaries than whatever you may be used to, while still having a familiarity to it. It's not reinventing the wheel, but it's bringing a fresh approach to genre-bending and creating something that has a great punch and loads of character behind it.
This is one of the biggest attributes of the entire album. Character. There's so much personality laced throughout this record that when it's all over, you want to start it again.
This is something that gives pieces of the artist with each song, based on memory and a picturesque approach, cinematic description, flowing backbones, and a certain kind of elegance that comes with intelligent rap in general.
Not only that, but it's got swagger all over it. Not a dirty, gritty, street kind of swagger, but more welcoming, 'I'm here to tell you about my life, and you're not going to forget a single track' kind of swagger.
There's a pure love behind all of these songs. It's a love for their craft.
It wants you to really hold on to the aftertaste of each track and all of the lyrics that came at you.
It's slightly outside the box, inspired by classic hip-hop, rock, and you get this kind of Kanye West undertone in certain songs.
Say what you want about Kanye, but he was a reinventor of the genre himself.
"Hamster Wheel" is a damn near perfect example of what I mean. You just get that vibe.
The whole album carries with it this very unique and particular aesthetic that you don't often get when listening to hip hop records.
It's not just a vintage or old school thing; it's a unique approach to genre-bending, and coming through with heartfelt, storytelling lyrics and vocals that you end up holding on to.
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