My Gut Reaction: Havoc & The Alchemist - The Silent Partner (May 19, 2016)

Babygrande Records may have mishandled Jean Grae, but they seem to have done alright by producer-slash-rappers Havoc (formerly of Mobb Deep) and The Alchemist, having released their collaborative effort, The Silent Partner, back in 2016. Neither man seems to have complained about the experience, anyway. It was unleashed to the hip hop community with very little marketing muscle behind it, which sounds like a horrible thing until you realize that the only rap albums that get big-budget pushes are those from major labels that are carefully calculated to appeal to as many audiences as possible in order to maximize sales. Neither Hav nor Alan ever gave a shit about any of that, so freed from the constraints of higher expectations, they gave us this project.

Exactly why this project exists in the first place is a mystery to me: Havoc is a talented-as-hell producer that has created classics for Mobb Deep, himself, and other artists in the past, so the fact that he would feel the need to outsource those duties to a friend of the family seems… odd. Perhaps he wanted to work on honing his lyrics, which have never been one of his strengths as an artist (although he’s done well for himself over the years). Maybe he felt left out when his partner-in-rhyme, the late Prodigy (R.I.P.), opted to record two solo efforts with Daniel “The Alchemist” Maman, who is best known for his gritty street soundtracks that are sourced from a wide and varied net of influences, and wanted in on the action. Rumor also has it that Havoc’s drinking problem may have had a hand in getting The Alchemist to help him out, either at the label’s bequest or as a personal favor, as he had a project due to Babygrande and wouldn’t have been able to turn it in any other way. Who knows?

Here’s what I do know: The Silent Partner is a project that exists. It follows his fourth solo album, 13 Reloaded, which was released two years prior and which I liked quite a bit. It is the seventy-nine millionth collaborative project The Alchemist has had a hand in producing, putting Havoc in an exclusive company with the likes of Action Bronson, Curren$y, Domo Genesis, and the aforementioned Prodigy, whose two projects with the Chemist, Return of the Mac and Albert Einstein, are held in fairly high regard. It consists of a mere eleven tracks, all of which were handled by Alan, and Havoc runs the show lyrically for the most part, although he does cede the booth on exactly three separate occasions for guests. Interestingly enough, The Alchemist never fills one of those spots himself, even though his own skills behind the microphone had been proven on multiple occasions by the time The Silent Partner saw its release. Maybe that was another condition of his participation, or perhaps he was brought in at the last minute and had to craft beats around bars Havoc and company had already recorded, doing his best to form actual songs out of sentence fragments and the like. Hey, stranger things have happened.

I’m not sure why I’m going out of my way to push the narrative of an alcoholic Havoc being unable to fulfill his own contract without assistance, but I have a weird feeling that at least some of what I wrote has some basis in reality. For example, Havoc hasn’t released anything since 2016. You may chalk that up to Prodigy’s passing in 2017, but I think it may run a bit deeper than that. In the meantime, The Alchemist, who many consider to be one of Cellblock P’s closest confidantes, has dropped multiple new projects, some instrumental, others in a collaborative fashion, in addition to producing many individual tracks for various artists. (His “’94 Ghost Shit”, with Conway and Westside Gunn, is my shit right now.) People process their grief differently, so I understand it, but it still leaves me with unanswered questions, those of the type that Havoc has absolutely no obligation to answer, of course.

Anyway, The Silent Partner seemed to come and go pretty quickly: I can’t even recall seeing a single review for the project anywhere, and both Havoc and The Alchemist are huge names in certain households. Which is why I’m coming to this so late: although I was sort-of aware of its existence upon its release, it was buried so quickly by the multitude of other projects our chosen genre drops each week that I quickly forgot about it until I started putting this month’s project together and realized that yes, I did have another Havoc project I could include.

So here is The Silent Partner.

1. IMPOSE MY WILL

So here’s the deal: even though I praised Havoc’s improved writing on 13 Reloaded, none of that effort shows up for “Impose My Will”, the opening salvo from The Silent Partner. His lone verse on here skips between boasts and bullshit, landing in similar territory as most of his solo work, which is to say the man isn’t impressive on this shit at all. However, The Alchemist strikes gold with the haunting instrumental, which burrowed its way into my brain and now controls my extremities, including the hands I’m using to type this very paragraph. So already there’s a notch in the “win” column for the instrumental version of this project to become a part of your collection. Great.

2. MAINTAIN (FUCK HOW YOU FEEL)

And now both sides of the equation have lost me. Al’s beat falls squarely into the “miss” portion of the “hit or miss” description I consistently give the man’s catalog, as it is boring as fuck, leaning too heavily on soul samples that crumple under close scrutiny. For his part, Havoc also shits the bed, turning in a performance that is as lazy as it is eye-rolling ridiculous. His profiling of women, as portrayed on “Maintain (Fuck How You Feel)”, is misogynistic at best, as our host uses them just so he isn’t just technically masturbating all the goddamn time, and I say this even though one female companion here is only digitally penetrated. But, you know, given the portion of the song title in parentheses, I get the feeling that neither Kejuan nor Daniel really care what I think of their misfire.

3. OUT THE FRAME

Unlike Al’s two projects with the late Prodigy, The Silent Partner is, thus far, struggling with sounding like a meeting of the minds: “Impose My Will” and that garbage that played after it both seem like Alchemist beats that Havoc simply purchased and used. (Kind of goes against my theory in the opening paragraphs, but.) Not a whole lot of teamwork there. (And that last statement brings that theory back into the game.) “Out The Frame” shifts course by coming across as a legitimate collaboration: Alan’s instrumental is pleasant, melodic, and downright hopeful (until the end, when he distorts everything just to fuck with the listener), and Hav, to his credit, feels like the only artist who could ever perform over it. Said performance isn’t very good: Hav rhymes “go”: with “go” and “year” with “year” during the first verse. But at least the vocals mesh with the beat well. Al’s choice to use entire chunks of Havoc’s verse from the Mobb Deep classic “Drop A Gem On ‘Em” toward the end was questionable as fuck, though: all it makes one do is want to put this review on hold while listening to their brilliant Hell On Earth in its entirety. Actually, you know what, I’ll be right back.

*two hours later*

4. SEIZE POWER

Okay, I’m back. Man, is Hell on Earth a great fucking album. Every track bangs aside from the title track. (I’m not trying to reopen that wound, but those of you two who love “Hell on Earth (Frontlines)” must admit that the song sounds nothing like the rest of that project and, therefore, doesn’t fit.) Anyway, “Seize Power”. The instrumental has a bit too much going on: it’s pretty clear to me that The Alchemist is just showing off. It does sound pretty good, however, as does our host, who conforms to the musical backing like Jell-O in a mold, and his bars are pretty decent to boot. “Seize Power” is easily the best track on The Silent Partner thus far, the perfect marriage of Hav and Alan the Chemist, and most certainly what fans were originally hoping for when this project was first announced.

5. NEVER TRUST A SOUL

I wasn’t expecting The Silent Partner to feature some of the Alchemist’s more experimental compositions: this is still street music that relies a bit too much on R&B and soul samples, but my guess is that Daniel felt comfortable enough around his longtime collaborator Havoc to play around with the musical piece of this puzzle, the results of which are a tad bit too busy on “Never Trust A Soul”, but still entertaining. For his part, Havoc blows. The man slows his flow down to match the rhythm of the instrumental, but overcompensates, and this ends up sounding like the first song the man had ever recorded in his fucking lifetime. Pass.

6. THE GUN HOLDS A DRUM (FEAT. PRODIGY)

You know those songs that you just really want to like, because of the guest list or the producer or whatnot? Yeah, “The Gun Holds A Drum”, an admittedly great title, is one of those. The Alchemist’s beat is more simplistic than usual, a loop that never builds to anything greater than itself, and Havoc’s verse is just bland. It’s too much to ask the late Prodigy to pick up the slack, and he definitely does not do that on here: Cellblock P is alright, his own chemistry with Daniel well-established at this juncture, but out-rapping his rhyme partner isn’t a measurement of his skill when he used to do that all. The. Time. Sigh.

7. SMOOTH RIDE MUSIC

Remember what I wrote earlier about The Silent Partner being The Alchemist’s stealth opportunity to experiment with his craft? “Smooth Ride Music” is another notch in that bedpost, as Hav not-so-smoothly rides the music, which seemingly evolves throughout the song’s running time, growing on the listener with each passing moment. Havoc sounds fine, but not great over one of Daniel’s unpolished gems of a beat: I wish he had saved this one for another artist (like, say, Prodigy), but what we’ve ended up with is still enjoyable, if a bit hollow.

8. BUCK 50’S & BULLET WOUNDS (FEAT. METHOD MAN)

Alright, scratch that shit I wrote about “Seize Power”: “Buck 50’s & Bullet Wounds” is the best song on The Silent Partner, and I can’t imagine how the final three tracks on here could ever top it. Over an Alchemist loop that is the epitome of sinister boom bap, Hav unleashes his most polished performance of the evening, while guest star Method Man, who has always been one of the best and most entertaining out of the Wu-Tang Clan but has only been credited as such during the last decade for some reason, fucking kills it. Is this the first time Meth has spit over an Alchemist beat? I could have done without the guest’s proclamation of being in the rap game for twenty-plus years, as it just reminded me of my own mortality, but this shit was flames. Huh.

9. JUST BEING ME

The sample Daniel chose to loop up for “Just Being Me” is kind of annoying as shit to listen to in earbuds: it’s pitched at a high-enough frequency to shatter your eardrums, and it buries Havoc within a hellish cacophony at times. Otherwise, this plays like The Automator by way of The Alchemist, so maybe listen to it in your car instead, as “Just Being Me” was entertaining otherwise. Hav’s bars never extend beyond typical boasts-n-bullshit, but perhaps he stopped drinking long enough to ensure this would be an excellent performance on his part? And that Automator comparison is dead fucking on: you’ll be left wondering how Kool Keith could have sounded on here. Now there’s an idea for a joint project, Daniel.

10. THROW IN THE TOWEL

So Hav and Al chose to put all of the good songs toward the end of The Silent Partner? What sense does that make? Not that “Throw In The Towel” is vintage Mobb Deep or anything, but I thought it was enjoyable enough, and Havoc, once again, sounds like he gives a damn about the quality of his work. Al’s instrumental is alright, if not exactly to “Just Being Me” standards, but you can tell both beats came from the same twisted mind. The interlude at the end of the audio track annoyed the fuck out of me, but that’s what the ‘skip’ button was created for.

11. HEAR ME NOW (FEAT. CORMEGA)

Hav and ALC stick the landing with a musical interpretation of those old Verizon commercials, as our host wanders down lonely, desolate city streets hoping for the cell phone signal that will propel his life forward. Or not, who cares. Havoc’s verse is merely alright, but he probably knew that frequent collaborator Mega Montana would steal the show from him, and as such, purposefully didn’t put in the effort. This Alchemist beat should have been stronger, but it does the job, and The Silent Partner ends on a high note of sorts. And Cormega though.

THE LAST WORD: The Silent Partner is one of those projects that has an unpromising start, growing in quality steadily throughout so that, by the time you reach the end, you’re praising it to high heaven, having conveniently forgotten its iffy roots. So allow me to remind you two of how The Silent Partner actually sounds: the first half is kind of shitty, and the second half fucking rules at times. It’s not the fault of The Alchemist, however: his instrumental work is as hit-and-miss as always, but he manages to hit the target more often than not on this project, and I found myself appreciating the chances he took with his sound. This is still gritty street shit, obviously, and I don’t expect Alan to ever deviate from it, but he uses The Silent Partner as an opportunity to branch out a tiny bit, and it is both noticed and welcomed. Havoc, however, sucks as a solo artist in this environment. I feel that he’s able to adequately compensate for his lyrical flaws when he’s producing his own songs, at least enough so he sounds decent enough to pass for what we like to call a “rapper”, but handing the reigns to The Alchemist only serves to position a spotlight aimed directly at him, and he folds under the pressure like the laundry in the basket I’m avoiding by writing this sentence. Here’s the thing: Havoc isn’t a bad rapper. He’s always been “fine”: being paired up with Prodigy, who I think we all agree was one of the best that ever did it, may have caused him to shift his focus to the more musical part of the equation, and he found his muse behind the boards. So again, I ask why The Silent Partner even exists in the first place. There are multiple tracks on here where Havoc sounds fucking fantastic, but there’s an equal amount that shouldn’t be in the Mobb Deep pantheon in any form, so what exactly was the purpose of this project? Was it to showcase The Alchemist? Because if it was, the dude has multiple other projects out there that do a better job. And if you want to hear a Havoc that sounds like he fucking belongs here, his previous effort, 13 Reloaded, is going to be your shit. But The Silent Partner is the most puzzling of projects: parts of it sound excellent, but without being able to rationalize its own place within our chosen genre, it’s doomed to vanish (again). I know you all hate it when I say this, but it’s most appropriate here: it is what it is.

-Max

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Catch up with the continuing exploits of Havoc and The Alchemist by clicking on their respective names.