It Wasn't Even Close - Your Old Droog: Review

Your Old Droog

is a New York rapper and predominant old head who rose to popularity across 2014 and 2015 when many believed his early mixtapes were Nas rapping under an alternate persona. After revealing himself to the public Droog dropped his first big breakout album Packs in 2017 and has released a number of features and a set of looseys since then, as well as one single leading up to this album.

Review By Lavender:

Droog is truly an old head's rapper, more so now than ever before. Coming from New York he matches stylistically with the conscious and lyrical flavors of rap music that came out of the east coast in the 90's, carrying the torch for artists like Wu-Tang, Mobb Deep and of course Nas. Packs actually surprised me with its variety in sound and consistently sharp performances, this was the album that proved to me just how capable Droog was of blended the sounds of new and old into sharp and intelligent hip hop for the ages. But on It Wasn't Even Close Droog is sprinting away from anything you could consider contemporary.  

Another thing Droog doesn't really bother with on most of this album is catchy or concise hooks, numerous tracks on the album don't even bother with hooks at all, but usually this turns out pretty solid. Gyros is the opening track and sets the standard for what nearly every song on here is like. A very lowkey, sample based beat that calls back to east coast hip hop, dizzying double entendres and fancy wordplay full of references to everything from Buckethead to Beverly Hills Cop and a flow that always borders on cutthroat without ever really seeming like Droog is trying too hard. Tried By 13 is another one of these cuts that I liked a lot and features a cool radio call-in sample as its outro. 90 From the Line and Devil Springs also help to round out a set of solid tunes in this format.

Also a credit to west coast hip hop is how sharp and consistent the features are across this album with few exceptions. RST contains features from MF DOOM and Mach-Hommy and while DOOM kind of steals the show, no surprise there, the entire track is well performed. Smores has two pretty solid features but my highlight is no doubt Droogs line "Like a saxophone store, get down to brass tax". Lil Ugly Mane is explosive and energetic especially as his verse goes on and Wiki redeems himself after having a questionable verse on Droog's last album with a pretty solid entry here. Even on a track I don't enjoy the features prove to be the best part. Roc Marciano's verse on Chasing Ghosts is the highlight of a song with an incredibly annoying instrumental that overpowers Droog's delivery.

That is where I'll jump into some of the songs here that I consider to be big misses. Funeral March is probably the worst track here as it just pushes your patience to the extreme. Both Droog and Hommy deliver barely there bars in slow motion that match the painfully underdeveloped beat for a tune far too indulgent for this style of rap. The Haunted House Beat is certainly an interesting diatribe that features a cool instrumental, but once it develops it doesn't stand out much from what litters the rest of this tracklist and kind of falls short of what I'd like an instrumental track on an album like this to be. Finally World's About To End has a decent but forgettable instrumental and a completely non-chorus, but the real problem here is how badly Droog dates himself in this track. Rap shouldn't be politically correct by any means but in a little bit of a misguided attempt to keep it real Droog delivers some out of taste bars that are completely unnecessary and ends the song with an awkwardly placed interlude from The Cosby Show that has aged poorly.

As far as the final trilogy of songs I haven't talked about yet, they are all pretty much fantastic. Bubble Hill has some good piano that helps separate the beat from the other songs and Droog is as sharp as ever on it, this is one of those tracks that requires busting out pen and paper to trace all of the lyrical wonders. Babushka is a great song that deserves to last way longer than its brief 1:30 seconds. It hooks you straight away with the "eaten Count Chockula in my Pajamas" bar and interpolates some classical music into its great beat, it just needs to be longer. Finally Ugly Truth serves as one long verse full of tight delivery of solid bars and features a standout moment when Droog goes acapella at the end and kills it. 

So yeah It Wasn't Even Close is a good album that contains some sharp performances and great bars. It is also a bit of a slog to get through considering just how one dimensional it is. If old head rap is your bread and butter you'll surely love this and if it's the only type of music you enjoy maybe listening to this album start to finish will be no big deal. But given the renaissance of rap brought on by the internet this album sounds particularly samey and it's unfortunate that Droog has taken a step back in his variety and beat choices in the two years since Packs. But since he is so clearly talented there's no reason not to look forward to more music from Droog going forward. 6.5/10

Best Track: Babushka

For more old school rap check out my review of Czarface and Ghostface Killah's Czarface Meets Metalface here.