Pray For Haiti - Mach-Hommy: Review

Mach-Hommy

is one of the most notable voices in the world of underground hip hop, having prolifically dropped projects for years while maintaining his distinctive lyrically dynamic sound. On Pray For Haiti Mach-Hommy is re-uniting with Griselda records and more specifically Westside Gunn who executive produced the project and makes numerous appearances on it.  

Review By Lav:

Mach-Hommy is one of those voices that you can't really talk about underground rap over the past few years without getting into. While I haven't commented on all of his numerous projects leading up even to earlier this year, I've mentioned him frequently for his features on other records from the likes of Earl Sweatshirt, Your Old Droog and more. This record saw Mach-Hommy linking up once again with the Griselda records crew, but since the last time they collaborated, Griselda as a brand has grown massively in recognition and status in the hip hop world. As a result this was one of the most talked about releases of Hommy's career immediately upon release, and nearly all of that discussion had been extremely positive. 

Once you get into the record it isn't hard to see why so many people are responding so positively to this record. Both the opening and closing tracks take a no frills approach. The 26th Letter kicks the record off with a lowkey beat made from a short horn loop and some distant percussion over which Mach delivers his bohemian poetry with a cutthroat demeanor occasionally backed up by Westside Gunn adlibs. The closing track is similarly stark but takes some time out to wind its beat down and get one last Griselda adlib into the mix. 

The real highlights start piling on in a hurry once the record kicks off starting with Folie A Deux. It has some solid features from Westside and Keisha Plum over a genuinely eerie and unsettling beat. Mach shows up on the back end spitting a reference heavy verse that shows off both his lyrical scope and simile game with strong results. The Stellar Ray Theory has been one of the more talked about tracks on the record and for good reason as it seems Mach-Hommy spitting a series of autobiographical bars over a more conventional jazz rap instrumental. On top of his lyricism he shows off a fantastic performance style on the track coming off as both meditative but also confrontational with an intoxicating voice even on the slightly echoed hook. 

Kriminel features a killer vocal samples worked into its beat that does a ton to perfect its hook. Hommy sounds pretty methodical on the verses and even though it isn't one of the busier moments on the record I do appreciate its most substantive elements. Magnum Band is another one of the records best tracks with sharp lyricism and an unstoppable performance that sees Mach dominating the songs snappy drums. This sets up Tha God Fahim to come in hot on the backside of the track and deliver a really solid feature. 

The lyricism on this record is consistently and routinely one of its best qualities with a near constant stream of memorable highlights. On the front end of the album we get the incredibly badass "Put this 38. in your mouth and let you spit your Magnum Opus." Later on in the record Hommy transitions into a tracks bridge focusing on how important he is to the word of rap music with the sharp double entendre "I'm very instrumental." There has been the heavily discussed "Biscuit to your "tea" like it's England line" and pretty much the entirety of the track Blockchain is a high caliber bar fest. Not only are these moments well written but Hommy delivers them with veteran poise always bringing the appropriate amount of theatrics in his performances. 

Murder Czn is one of numerous appearances from Westside Gunn and this time it makes for one of the coldest tracks on the entire record. They team up for a series of braggadocios drug and street bars with convincing demeanor. The pair have an obvious chemistry between them and when the subject is drug talk they are both operating at their peak. Rami is probably my next favorite of the Westside tracks that once again proves their poise as a duo and features some rap staple sports lyrics proving that they really do this stuff well. It isn't my favorite beat on the record but that doesn't slow them down at all. 

While I think the records biggest flaws are on big picture issues there are still occasionally some tracks that just don't land. Marie features some vocalizing I'm not a huge fan of particularly on the first verse where Hommy is sort of sing rapping and it comes off a bit awkward. The hook doesn't improve on it much either and while I think the beat is solid the weird spacing between some of the tracks compositional elements plus the vocals make it a very tricky listen. Au Revior may be my least favorite song on the record even though I like a lot of what Mach has to say on the track. I think the hook is a huge miss and on top of that the feature here is definitely my least favorite on the entire album. I can imagine the vision for this song as a more reflective and brighter rendition of Hommy's usual sound but I don't think it's executed nearly as well as it could be. 

Pray For Haiti definitely has its highlights, plenty of them. Unfortunately trying to squeeze 16 tracks in and keeping the record under 40 minutes caused some of these ideas to just feel a little under baked. There are tracks here with so little going on they may as well be interludes and had they been labelled as such I think it would be a little bit clearer how much time is spent on this record sort of wandering. This makes the listening experience of the album a drastically varied one at different points on the record. Thankfully Haiti never goes too long without hitting its stride and the good tracks tend to come in bunches making for plenty of memorable highlights and keeping the record from ever drowning in any kind of aimlessness.

With what it accomplishes conceptually relative to its Haitian concept and with how much veteran poise Hommy has when he gets on the mic, Pray For Haiti is a very solid hip hop release that I think myself and a lot of other people are going to be talking about when we get to the end of the year. 7.5/10

Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:

This cover is fun. I love the vibrancy and the line quality of the drawing. It makes it seem chaotic when it's actually very well composed. If you took away the advisory you wouldn't think this was any more than a piece of art so I might have branded it a little more to add personality and give it a more personal touch. 7.5/10

For more hip hop check out my review of Conway The Machine's La Maquina here