No prizes for guessing what GENERIK's Beats & Raps is, but I'm going to explain it anyway. It's a collection of seven tracks, presumably made independently of each other rather than as one intentional and cohesive whole, one of which is an instrumental. I've reviewed two releases from GENERIK before - ANYTHING BUT, which is quite liked, and Yesterday's Blues | Tomorrow's ZOOZ, which I absolutely adored and which cemented them as someone I would always be happy to check out.
Despite hearing those two releases, both of which are super inventive and interesting hip hop albums, I was still a little surprised when the opening track Natural Born Chiller started spinning. Something that's immediately apparent is that this track is pretty, hell I'd go as far as to call it wonderful. Organ-like synth chords play as the song's central hook is sung over the top (I think this is GENERIK singing but I couldn't be certain), before a simple beat kicks in to accompany the rapping. The way this performance and lyrics interact with the whimsy of the backing track makes for something that feels quite emotional, and it's the kind of thing I could listen to over and over again and not get bored.
Nothing else quite hits that high, but that's okay. When Racket starts it's still a really solid and catchy hip hop track with really great sample powering the beat. What's it from? I really recognise it. Is it The Smiths? It sounds like The Smiths. The more I listen to it the more I think it's The Smiths and now it's driving me crazy trying to remember which song.
The sampling is great throughout. Pickle's beat sounds like it comes from a recording of furniture moving or something, and Walkie Talkie has this spooky piano loop at its core and it adds so much weight to GENERIK's rapping, which is passionate and intense. It's not the only track to have a spookiness to it, either, obviously Tales from the Crypto is on the spooky side, but so is Cult of Maggots. Crypto is particularly cool, with its constant switch ups and vibe changes, it covers a lot of ground over the course of its three minute play time. Meanwhile, Maggots takes aim at all the bad actors that are poisoning the world as we speak.
Things close out with the short but bombastic instrumental FORWARD. A soul loop that's smooth as hell. I think GENERIK could have rapped over this and it still would have been great, but I think keeping it instrumental makes for a nice way to round out the album.
I like this album a lot. It definitely feels lighter than ANYTHING BUT and Yesterday's Blues, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's all very listenable and demonstrates GENERIK's skills as both a producer and an MC. I'm basically always gonna be happy to listen to this guy.
