Despite coming out with some pretty classic songs and solid work in the first part of his career in the early naughties, the "Boom" rapper from Detroit has really come in to his own in the last 5 years or so, putting out, arguably, his best work.
Royce is one of the most talented, lyrical and underrated rappers ever. He is definitely one of my favourite MC's, he is someone I look up to and am inspired by, there is no doubt, Royce is in my top 10 list of favourite MC's of all time.
Royce has been on a roll. His 2016 album Layers was brilliant, his 2 joint albums with DJ Premier Prhyme were hard and his 2018 effort Book of Ryan didn't fail to miss the mark, and it felt as though Royce was finally getting the credit he deserved.
He picks up were he left off with Book of Ryan, fresh off his 3 epic features on Music to be Murdered By, Royce drops The Allegory on us. Royce has been EVERYWHERE. This has been the most extensive press-run on an album that I have ever seen. Recently he's been on Sway, Hot97, LA Leakers, Hip Hop DX and probably a few more that I haven't remembered. It's been great to see Royce in the mainstream media.
The Allegory is completely self-produced, which is crazy considering he only learnt to produce recently. A lot of the beats took a few listens to grow on me, much the case with a few elements of this album. With Royce producing this album, it definitely feels as though Royce is in constant control of the music, how it sounds, how he sounds, the different flows he goes for per song and which messages are portrayed at which parts of the album and even how the listener is supposed to receive them messages.
An example of this is on the song Tricked featuring Crooked I (KXNG Crooked), Royce and Crook's flow is very simple for their standards. This is clearly intentional. It is simple, almost to the point where they are dumbing it down, ensuring that the people they are speaking to fully hear and understand what they are saying. The flow goes from bar to bar in a really elementary way, accompanied with the repetitive sample on the beat, it is like Royce and Crook are trying to hypnotize the listener, reflecting what they are rapping about as they explain how coming up rappers and others are tricked and duped by the people who are really in power. I watched the music video and I felt them vibes in that too.
After first listen I wasn't sure if the album had completely met what its intentions were. I wasn't sure if the album was infact a well tied-together allegory, it felt like if it was meant to be one, the point of it had very much gotten lost. However, after a few more listens and watching a couple interviews, I realised that it is more that each song itself is an allegory. There is something to take from each song. There is a lesson to take from each song. The skits in the album are like supplements to the songs giving you extra lessons, rather than skits to tie the album together (like in To Pimp a Butterfly). All this packaged together made for a brilliant piece of art. For example, the opening skit on Mr Grace, wow, what a great way to start an album, and then Royce delivers this smooth as fuck flow over this filthy beat.
I actually found so much of this album interesting and shocking. On Upside Down when Royce tells the listener to Google "Sarah Baartman", I did Google it and couldn't believe what I found.
The sampling was so brilliant on the beats. The beats felt contemporary but still had that dark old-school feel, going forward I'd be happy for Royce to produce for himself and others too because I know there are some rappers who'd kill them beats he made - which is exactly what the Griselda boys did. Pretty incredible that Royce had the ear to pick out 3 different beats that'd suit each member of Griselda perfectly. Each of them absolutely suited the song that they were on, it was really good for each of them to show people what they can do and have some light shed on them. For example, Westside Gunn sounded so cold on that Overcomer instrumental. I actually preferred that song when it was just Westside Gunn or Royce rapping over the choir, I wasn't huge on the drums, although they did lead to a pretty good transition period in the song before they once again dropped out for Royce's verse. Griselda's album WWCD was incredible last year, so hearing them smash their features on here didn't surprise me.
Theatrical, emotional, cinematic and classic beats, hard bars and lyricism and nice deliveries, this album has many good things going for it. The only criticism I have really is, I feel Royce could have been a bit more ambitious on some of the hooks. I'm not saying Royce should be dumbing-down his music or try chase radio play, he shouldn't do that, he doesn't have to. But just being a bit more ambitious and attempting a few hooks that would catch the listeners ear a bit better, would go a long way. The only song that I think really does this is Black Savage, this is one of the best songs from the album and probably has the most replay-value.
Overall, this album is going to really stick out in Royce's discography. For a start, it is unique as he produced it all. It isn't a concept album, but it is very hard for the themes and intent. I learnt so much from listening to this album - how often can you actually say that about music. Being white, I know that I'm not going to understand all of this album and some of the lessons to be learnt from this album might not be aimed at me. But I can still appreciate them. Even after 10 lessons I'm still learning more and more about the album and what to take from it. I'd definitely recommend giving this album a listen to see what you can take from it, I think this will be talked about at the end of year roundups and hopefully will go down as a contemporary classic.
From rapping technical side of things, which is how I prefer to listen to hip hop albums, rather than getting too invested in the content (even though I inevitably do), there were things I didn't like, but mostly it was spot-on. Royce is a top-tier lyricist and his pen game seems as sharp as ever.
Whatever's next for Royce, whether that's another Prhyme album, another album or EP, another Bar Exam, or another Bad Meets Evil EP, I know that it's going to be fire. And even if it's nothing and Royce decides he's finished with rap, I am safe in the knowledge that Royce is a seasoned veteran and is going to go down in history as one of the best rappers of all time. Adding this inspiring, educational and powerful project is just another way of supporting this.
Star Track - Black Savage
8.25/10
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