MUSIC REVIEW: The Alchemist x Boldy James : Bo Jackson

Alchemist lost the Grammy’s last year, but it looks like he’s back at it again this time around with Boldly James for this third quarter offering under the title “Bo Jackson”.

Starting off with “Double Hockey Sticks”, it’s par course as Boldy reunites with Uncle Al once again to take a trip through the hellish landscape of the Eastside of Detroit taking listeners along for the ride through the vantage point of a past riddled with a plethora of illegal pharmaceutical distribution and street justice .

It’s funny really, because the slow methodical drawl of Boldy’s cadence is no more than just a byproduct of the Detroit spirit as I know having spoken with my biological sperm donor that hails from the same area that Boldy does. There’s a hopeless authenticity there which can be felt from Boldy as opposed to say a out-of-towner who moved to Detroit after his formative years in the vein of Big Sean – who speaks the dialect and represents the city but there’s still a obvious disconnect like Ludacris throwing up the A, when really he spent a majority of his life born and raised in Chicago.

There’s something special about someone who was born and raised in a city, represents it, and stays there rooted. And authentic Motor City pain runs through this LP like hot oil through a Chrysler engine. Alchemist’s production has not missed a step, and this is guaranteed to be another Grammy nominated project that should garner Alchemist his well deserved and overdue academy accolades. The sample selection ranges from deep Motown album cuts (not just the singles, as old Kanye West production would have any instrumentalist believe is the only way to sample from that rich catalog), B-movie mafioso/gangster cinema, and gorgeous 80’s guitar riffs (sleeper cut : “3rd Person”) in the same vein as previous Alchemist work with Domo Genesis (“Power Ballad”) , the late great Prodigy (“R.I.P.”), and Freddie Gibbs (i.e. Grammy nominated album opener, “1985”).

Boldy’s drawn out cadence may not be for everyone, and may put some listeners to sleep with the repetitive subject matter coupled with Boldy’s Detroitee drawl over Alchemist’s eerie-yet-sleepy production; thankfully this album does not skimp on allowing other emcees to tag in and deliver quotables over arguably some of the best production airing over any airwaves in the current state of music, let alone Hip-Hop.

I’ve never heard Curren$y claim to be the King of Louisiana, but after his verse here on “Fake Flowers” he doesn’t even have to put his bid in to be considered as perfectly suited for that throne. To be able to lyrically spar with not only Boldy but Freddie Gibbs with his best Scarface impression, is a feat that not many emcees can accomplish & definitely an iota of rappers from the South can even fathom. It’s been years since Curren$y has put together a project with Alchemist, but the man spits as if he never left the recording sessions of “Fetti”, and Curren$y continues to walk the fine line of legendary rap impresario in a region unconcerned with lyricism until Jay-Z retired around ’03 and Lil’ Wayne began to have illusions of grandeur.

Also shining on the LP is an amazing verse from Earl Sweatshirt (“Photographic Memories”) sounding a lot more chipper than in his Odd Future days and evolving into the poet and philosopher that is in his DNA from his closest ascendants, as Roc Marciano drops another impeccable verse over the instrumental gives way to a belted-out back mask. Stove God Cooks expands his pallet by refraining from rapping and instead delivers a surprisingly listenable sing-songy hook on “DDP”, and Benny the Butcher shows off in a BSFxBoldy face-off (“Brickmile …”) that clearly explains why Boldy was given the opportunity to ink the dotted line with Westside Gunn’s unstoppable (yet underrated) Griselda imprint. And it wouldn’t be a Griselda record if there wasn’t WWE inspired sound bites peppering in and out of the narrative, and there’s plenty of that here, but the main focus is on the survivor’s guilt that Boldy betrays on “Bo Jackson”.

Such survivor’s guilt makes possible first person tales of paranoia like “Illegal Search & Seizure” and for the stories on “Speed Trap” and “First 48 Freestyle” to be released from the forefront of Boldy’s mind, whether it was written or on the spot. It’s been years since Boldy James was presented with his “First Chemistry Set” and not far from him and Alchemist finding their chemistry on “The Price of Tea in China”; now with “Bo Jackson” it appears that this duo is more than ready for the recognition from the major leagues too busy giving passes to players boosted up off synthetic enhancements. “Bo Jackson” is all authentic Detroit soul infused with the gritty-yet-mystic sateriological sound that only a master of the MPC hailing from Venice, California who got his start on classic cuts in Queensbridge, New York could produce. The stories may all be a slice of life from Boldy’s past that nobody could blame him for wanting to leave behind, but somehow someway Alchemist is able to live up to his name and transmute that shit into sugar and create a delectable delight that audiophiles will be feasting on for years to come.

Score: 5/5
More info at: https://alcrecords.com/

– C.V.R. The Bard