Bo Jackson - Boldy James & The Alchemist: Review
Boldy James & The Alchemist
are a pairing of Detroit and California rapper and producer who first met up last year on the critically acclaimed The Price Of Tea In China. Both artists have proven to be quite prolific recently with Alchemist scoring critical successes last year alongside Freddie Gibbs and this year with Armand Hammer. Boldy dropped a number of projects in 2020 headlined by China and the Sterling Toles collaboration Manger On McNichols.
Review By Lav:
In the past 16 months Boldy James has gone from a rapper I had only ever heard mentioned in passing, to somebody whose every move I am anticipating in 2021. His brand of storytelling and lethal vocal delivery made for effective and often conceptual hip hop tracks and has already been attracting the attention of some legendary producers. Boldy and Alchemist's second collaboration in as many years has massive potential and while the record is quite good, neither of them does anything we haven't heard them do before.
The best moments on the record are highlights where Alchemist takes the reigns with impressively unique beat crafting or heavily narrative tracks where Boldy flexes storytelling excellence. The intro Double Hockey Sticks kicks the whole record off with horror movie keys and some off-kilter drum samples popping up here and there. It also has an incredibly slick beat switch-up at the center of the song that brings with it an increase in lyrical and vocal aggression from Boldy. It's a great song and great statement of intent at the start of the record. Steel Wool is a flashy soul-rap cut built around an actually impressive hook and the idea that nobody is "cut from Boldy's cloth, cause he's steel wool". It's another example of his ability to sound lyrically intense incredibly cold.
There's a handful of features on the record and for the most part they really bring it. Brickmile To Montana is a Benny The Butcher collab with an absolutely murky beat highlighted by bumping bass hits. While Benny isn't quite as lethal in his delivery as you may expect from him he does drop some more upbeat flows that match the songs energy and he also matches the records sports concept in his lyrics. Photographic Memories sees Roc Marciano and Earl Sweatshirt coming on board and everyone does some reflecting on the rap world they came up in verses what it looks like now. Earl and Alchemist really steal the show with an absolutely angelic beat and Earl spitting a fiery and impressively maintained set of bars in his trademark delivery. Fake Flowers is the best of the bunch as an eerie gangster rap posse cut with great performances from Boldy and Curren$y. Freddie Gibbs shows up and delivers one of the best verses on the entire album trading out the relaxed vibes of his Alchemist collaboration last year for something much more hard-hitting and it fits well. All things considered this is one of the best tracks on the entire record.
Flowers actually comes in the midst of a pretty impressive run that the record goes on in its back half. Illegal Search & Seizure is one of the tracks here that is basically just one long verse but I find the autobiographical nature of the track really compelling and well done. While hip hop and law enforcement are no strangers Boldy finds new ways to show just how much of an embarrassment the system is. 3rd Person has a pretty bold instrumental with wailing guitar absolutely noodling away in the background for pretty much the entire track. While that would swallow a lot of rappers Boldy is confident and direct in his performance and the repetition of "how many times you think you can get away with murder" is intoxicating.
The last two tracks on the record are its two singles and while I like both of them, the placement on the album seems like they're so obviously tacked on. First 48 Freestyle's subject matter lives up to its title and features one of the dreamier beats on the record with steady drums to keep it grounded. Boldy's loose flows and street storytelling shine on the record once again. Drug Zone doesn't feel like a closing track but I guess it does run over a number of the same kinds of themes that pop up all over the record. The impressive lyricism particularly in the most narratively direct moments make for a really solid outing.
Speed Trap is the shortest song on the record but the pair take a great opportunity to switch up their style. This is one of the weirdest beats here with incessant drums and weirdly alien synths hanging in the background. Boldy also brings some out of character vocals to the track spitting a series of short fast bars but still managing to maintain his narrative lyrical style.
On the other hand Turpentine features a classic Alchemist type beat that has a lot going on in the background but is never quite loud enough to disrupt Boldy. There isn't a strong lyrical concept or compositional string through the song and it's only major selling point comes in the form of Boldy's technically impressive bars. E.P.M.D has similar shortcomings on the instrumental and compositional side but this time around the highlight is Boldy's lyricism. He takes on all challengers on the track and sounds like a kingpin while doing so. While Boldy is pacing himself he sets up for a number of strong lyrical punches.
Flight Risk has an insanely distracting beat with a simple drum pattern that they clearly felt the need to dust up. The vocal samples and keys really over-do it and Boldy's performance alongside it is just okay. The worst song on the entire record is a surprising throwaway tier song in Diamond Dallas. The hook can be best described as awkward and takes up way too much of the song. On top of that Boldy spits some of the most uninspired lyrics I've ever heard in one of his songs making for a surprisingly painful inclusion.
Bo Jackson is solid, carried off the weight of the talent involved in making it. But there isn't really much on the album that sees the duo elevating themselves to something greater than the sum of their parts. The compositions are normally on the simpler side and make use of a lot of sampled snippets rather than actual hooks. The beats are probably the highlight with a versatile array of sounds from Alchemist but even these occasionally come off as forgettable by his standards. There are plenty of highlights to the record and I liked a lot more of it than I didn't, but I can see the potential for these two to make something that's all time great, making Bo Jackson feel just alright by comparison. 7/10
