MUSIC REVIEW: Won't He Do It

What Conway “does” with Won’t He Do It is hurt his legacy!

I was nervous when I heard the promotional Flex Freestyle, with most of the content there being so “flex” heavy that The Machine sounded like he was only bragging just to hide the insecurities that he has spent years in and out the booth attempting to overcome. Now, a year removed from God Don’t Make Mistakes (an album I gushed over here on Music Crusaders X x Comic Crusaders when it was released), Conway has come back to wax with Won’t He Do It, and it is one of the more underwhelming albums within his now one trick pony catalogue. Gone is the mystique of who is the best out of Griselda : We$tside Gunn is the most versatile, B.E.N.N.Y. is the hustler meets the everyman, and Conway is hung up on his vulnerabilities.

There are too many tracks here where Conway boasts about breaking bread in Atlanta, when the last time I heard from him being over in the A (on Bootleg Kev’s show), Conway was robbed at gunpoint in his own hotel room with no retaliation. All that boasting, and Conway is still talking about doing some shooting or getting shot in the head, so it robs Conway’s boasts of their validity when graded by the emotion of security. French Montana had similar experiences and every song is not about getting shot or shooting someone. Plus, Montana can actually not sound awkward on a potential lay-up radio jingle alongside Juicy J (“Super Bowl”). And then the drug dealing anthems from “Monogram” to “Brooklyn Chop House” … Conway can you promote something else? From A King To A God had more depth than this and that was two albums ago !

Won’t He Do It in it’s entirety is like the beginning of Rocky III without the rest of the movie where Rocky gets his fire back. In respect to that metaphor comes the realization that Conway The Machine has gotten lazy languishing in lavishness and it shows all over the runtime of this LP. And what was up with 7xve (“Wont He Do It”) and Sauce Walka (“Super Bowl”) not being able to ride the beats on the epononymous joint and the album closer that followed? These are two of the most exciting lyricists of today, and the way they had zero harmony over these closing instrumentals on this record was embarassing and a terrible way to introduce newer listeners who have not heard either of these wordsmiths who fly under radio radar. Underground emcees need to treat every feature verse that they have with a bigger artist better than this.

Jae Skeese got the memo on what sounded like a “Just Blaze Type Beat” on “The Chosen”, smoking Conway like Dave East did on the desperate attempt for a radio hit on “Water To Wine” or like B.E.N.N.Y. did on “Brooklyn Chop House” – which wasn’t much of a feat with Conway carrying on in such poor condition on the record and Fabolous sounding bored as ever – not to fit this album necessairly content-wise, Loso is just the most unenthusiastic Dominican to ever touch a microphone; which still baffles me to this day since Latin-Caribbean culture is stereotypically rich in pomp and riotousness.

There are shades of the Reject-era on the Daringer produced DMX tribute “Flesh of My Flesh”, some of Blakk Tape ‘s spookiness on “Brick Fare”, and “Kanye” is far more deeper than it’s Throne championing counterpart “Monogram”, but the rest of the LP finds Conway beating the same old drums of the his Griselda-glory days as he tries to push forward his DrumWork brand without the support of Griselda or Shady. Gassed up off his last major release with those two brands behind him, Conway, from start to finish on Wont He Do It, runs on E. Whereas the other members of the Griselda camp can come up with something fresh and new with nearly every release, Conway is back in the same bag he’s been stuck in since 2020, sans God Don’t Make Mistakes.

Conway has room to grow as an artist, but if he continues to rehash the same subject matter of trap houses, getting shot, shooting people, and dealing with shiesty females that he will either boast about dropping a bag on or putting a bag on, all Conway will do is continue to get in his own way.

Score : 1/5

Release date: May 5, 2023

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Label: Drumwork Music Group LLC / EMPIRE

Won’t He Do It is Conway the Machine’s third studio album and the first part in the Won’t He Do It duaology, following up his February 2022 album, God Don’t Make Mistakes.