June 23, 2009

100 Calorie Gut Reaction: Royce da 5'9" - "D.O.A. (Redemption)"


The short version of the tale is that Ryan Montgomery, in full-on Royce da 5'9" Hulked-out mode, recorded a freestyle alongside his Slaughterhouse brethren (Joell Ortiz, Crooked I, and resident angry young man who takes shots at veteran artists a la Canibus, Joe Budden) over the No I.D. beat for Jay-Z's "D.O.A. (Death Of Autotune)", but his verse was actually taken from a different freestyle he recorded a while back. Now, while most people would never notice and probably wouldn't give a fuck anyway, hip hop fans are (apparently) a fickle lot, and Royce quickly recorded "D.O.A. (Redemption)" as an "apology" to his fans. Although he doesn't really spend a lot of time sounding like he's sorry. (He's already spent the better part of the last decade making up for recording a song alongside pop tart Willa Ford.)

Instead, Ryan spends nearly four-and-a-half minutes proving why he's one of my favorite artists who has been deserving of a much larger fanbase ever since he recorded alongside the white boy from Detroit who turned into the biggest rapper in the free world. (No, not Kid Rock.) The man simply rips the beat to shreds with a potent mix of humor, violent posturing, and good old-fashioned shit talking. The good thing about the Internet is that a rapper's every conscious thought can be recorded for posterity and released to the masses with a very brief turnaround time, which explains Royce's references to his boy Joell's recent mixtape (the one where the man covers a ton of classic hip hop songs), Drake, and the Charles Hamilton-slash-J Dilla controversy (I'm pretty sure the man just reneged on his own promise to leave Sonic's dumb ass alone with that "throwing [his body] in a coffin" line). Shit, I was half-expecting Ryan to discuss the protests in Iran and the Jon & Kate impending divorce.

Simply put, Royce is on fucking fire right now. If Marshall was smart, he would make some room for his old rhyme partner on Relapse 2. The world needs some more Bad Meets Evil material right now.

Royce da 5'9": "D.O.A. (Redemption)" (not a real video):




-Max

4 comments:

  1. definitely rips the beat to shreds!!
    Cant wait for streep hop, give this guy the right beat and you got a banger

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  2. He's one of my favorite MC's, too. Kills this beat, and has killed everything since Independent's Day.

    Where's the reviews for The Bar Exam, The Bar Exam 2, and The Revival (leaked version of album)?

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  3. apology accepted royce, your still one of the greatest underground emcees to grab the mic

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  4. Looks like Jay will have to record another version of the song for the album. You know how insecure he gets.

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