This Thing Of Ours EP - The Alchemist: Review
The Alchemist
is a legendary hip hop producer whose discography really speaks for itself at this point. He is a veteran of the craft but has maintained a pretty prolific output both of solo material, collaborations and one off production credits pretty much every year. In 2020 The Alchemist wowed alongside Freddie Gibbs with Alfredo and even earlier this year saw another collaboration released with New York underground hip hop duo Armand Hammer.
Review By Lav:
The Alchemist's discography really does speak for itself, and any hip hop fan will likely tell you the same thing. He puts out so much music that not every single thing he touches necessarily turns to gold but when he is on, there is almost nobody better. Historically his solo material hasn't always provided necessarily the best of the best Alchemist work but with this short EP recruiting a stacked feature list there was no reason to believe it wouldn't be another hit, and for the most part he delivers
Nobles is the first of four tracks and both the intro and outro sample The Neverending Story. In between Earl Sweatshirt and Navy Blue show off their always excellent chemistry trading off bars over a pair of verses. The beat is a pretty classic soulful Alchemist affair and at just over two minutes the song wraps up pretty nicely. Earl Sweatshirt shows up again on the EP's final track and it's there where he makes his best contribution. Loose Change features the jazziest instrumental by far with some vibrant samples soaring over the top of the track. Earl dominates the song with a hard-hitting performance that brings out some of the fastest flows we've heard from him in years. His lyricism is both funny at some points and serious at other all in under two minutes and it closes the EP out with a bang.
TV Dinners kicks off with a Sideshow verse. He's the one rapper on the project I'm the least familiar with but I think it's decent and I only wish he changed his demeanor up a little bit at some point on the verse. Boldy James shows up on the back end and delivers a mellow but very fitting verse that sounds great alongside the hazy key sounds in the instrumental. It's a song that's lowkey in practice but everyone adds to it with their performances. The last track is Holy Hell which features a brighter instrumental right from the drop. While Pink Siifu's verse is lyrically solid I wish he has been a bit more vibrant in her performance to fit the tracks instrumental. Maxo's verse on the back half suffers in a bit of a similar way sounding way too relaxed and not as emotive. While there is plenty of talent on display on the track there are some conflicted priorities that lead to the guests getting outdone by the beat.
This Thing Of Ours isn't a revolutionary set of tracks but it does feature some very solid contributions from a versatile bunch of experimental rappers. Despite the talent on the roster The Alchemist provides most of the highlights which is good given it's his own project. Ultimately I admire the consistency all around and I think the project shows off why The Alchemist has the untouchable reputation that he does. 7/10
Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:
This cover is really nice and concise. The text is one of the first things you are drawn to because it's the brightest color in the composition, The art is rendered well for it being a relatively messy scene style and it all comes together with the color palette they chose. It's not my favorite conceptually or stylistically bit it's done very well. 8.5/10
For more hip hop check out my review of Conway The Machine's La Maquina here
