The Appetition EP - Raekwon: Review
AKA The Chef is a New York rapper and founding member of legendary hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He delivered some of the most exciting and iconic performances in the groups history and since then has found critical success with his Only Built 4 Cuban Linx pair of records. His most recent solo record was 2017's The Wild and he made few appearances on the most recent Wu-Tang EP's and records.
Review By Lavender:
Who isn't excited for more music from The Chef. Even though his last record The Wild wasn't perfect he proved on numerous tracks that he still had it and to this day is one of the most exciting Wu-Tang members to catch as a feature. Unfortunately The Appetition is short but very rarely sweet.
The opening and closing songs both fall short of the reputation The Chef himself has earned. Solid Gold comes off as just kind of lazy in almost all parts. The hook is well sung but not at all well written and while Raekwon's performance is as sharp as ever some of the bars are incredibly weak. Shells Kitchen is the closer and despite the fact that is barely reaches over two minutes about a fourth of it is aimless outro. The song also features some questionable and eye rolling lyrics that do make me wonder about how his pen game has aged.
The one great track on here is Chef It Up a hard-hitting tune with rattling trap drums and a cutthroat performance from Raekwon. His flow is classic Wu-Tang and the combination of new and old is a refreshing and compelling one.
On The Appetition Raekwon spends too much time underwhelming me and not enough time sounding like the hip hop veteran and New York legend he is. Despite this I look forward to what he does next and hope it isn't too long before we hear a new record from him. 4/10
