Tha Wolf On Wall St. 2: The American Dream - Your Old Droog & Tha God Fahim: Review
Your Old Droog & Tha God Fahim
are a pair of prolific New York rappers who have managed to stand out in the already extremely prolific world of underground hip hop. On top of their own solo material they dropped a pair of collaborative tapes last year the first of which was the predecessor in the Wolf On Wall St. series and the second of which was a tribute to one of hip hops favorite lyrical subjects, basketball.
Review By Lav:
I haven't made my enjoyment of either of these artists a secret particularly in recent years. Droog had a fantastic 2021 dropping two of my favorite projects of his to date in Tha Wolf and Time. Even given that, I did come away from the pairs second collaboration of 2021, The YOD Fahim thinking it was one of the least impressive and most scrapped together projects I heard that year. So getting a sequel and a third collaboration in just over a year had me a bit skeptical of whether this thing would be getting the treatment it deserves, even more so once I saw the tracklist. While this thing isn't as robust or consistent as it's predecessor it is certainly an improvement on YOD Fahim and one I think it worth underground rap fans committing a short 20 minute to trying out.
Yes you read that correctly this tape runs pretty slim at just over 20 minutes spread across 8 songs. Thankfully there are tracks here who make a warranted impression right out of the gate. No Days Off has a beat that I would describe as a "great vibe" which isn't exactly the type of thing you'd expect from a record like this. The performances are good all around with Droog in particular being the highlight as his usually hilarious self in the opening verse. Later on in the record we have War Of Millionz which grabs you right away with some sweet drum interpolations and keeps you with solid verses from both Droog and Fahim. Even though Droog spits a struggle bar or two that are unintentionally funny, there are also a ton of clever double entendres on this song that show off the lyrical proficiency of the pair. My favorite track on the record is Corporate Ladder which starts off with a soaring trumpet line and never loses that larger than life wonder. Droog in particular delivers a number of the most memorable and impressive bars on the album and his entire ending sequence of football comparisons are great, even greater with all this Tom Brady retiring business going on.
There are a couple songs here like Bull Market and the short closing track I Won't Stop that are generally reserved and not that thematically distinct. Even though there is no doubt talent on display they don't make a huge impression on me. Chubby Pockets has a Conductor Williams beat which is always exciting and it sounds great with the lo-fi vocal sample and steady plodding drums making everything feel so melancholic. Unfortunately the lyrical tone of the song doesn't match that sentiment at all as both Droog and Fahim spend their entire verses bragging about their success both creatively and financially. The conflicted sound of the track is so obvious that I almost feel like I'm missing something and maybe it's all just extremely ironic, but it doesn't come off that way.
The opening track and only single Wall St With Briefcase attempts to hold up the records thematic concept for about 5 bars total and otherwise abandons it completely. Fahim's bars about Kevin Durant and "united like the states" are pretty weak and while Droog is better and the instrumental is good enough to not be a total loss, it's certainly a big drop in quality from the opening of its predecessor. Finally there's War Cry which features a pan flute beat and is almost entirely dominated by Fahim. While this is one of his better verses on the record from a technical standpoint the beat is extremely distracting compared to how reserved and spacious the other tracks are and the rapping isn't adjusted to match.
Tha Wolf 2 isn't quite as good as the first but it's better than YOD Fahim which is definitely worth something. At just 20 minutes some of the inconsistencies come off as glaring but the talented duo also manage to hit their stride on just enough tracks to pull it off. There is nothing groundbreaking here or even anything that will come off as all that impressive to underground hip hop fans, but it is a serving that mostly holds up to expectations and serves as a worthwhile entry in both of their incredibly packed discographies. 5.5/10
This cover is a little dated. I'm not very into the dead on concept and the mixtures of fonts and colors. It's like someone had way too many ideas and couldn't decide. The composition is laid out well but the image itself is pretty muddy and doesn't have enough contrast to make a subject extremely legible. That mixed with the spotlight on the text makes the title the heaviest part. It reminds me of a bad movie poster and it can work as a cover but it's not innovative or interesting. 2/10
