Review Summary: I BE SMOKIN' ON THAT REEFER TIL I PASS THE FUCK OUT
Chief Keef is a name that any fan of rap music should know. From his early ultra violent mixtapes to his run ins with the law and of course his membership of one of the biggest gangs in Chicago, Keef has been making a name for himself since the early 2010s.
Almighty So 2 is his latest album and is the sequel to the classic
Almighty So released over a decade ago. This feels like the culmination of Keef’s entire career and good lord is it sweet.
We all know that Keef has never been the strongest lyricist and he doesn’t have to be. His energy and delivery have always been his biggest draw. While the lyrical content is still mainly focused on violence, money, hoes and reckless drug use, you can tell Keef has matured. Now pushing 30 years old, he’s not the same wildchild that he once was. His drugged out, mumbly flow is still very much prevalent, but he also experiments heavily with a gruffer style of almost Waka Flocka-esque yelling at times, which just adds to the overall energy. There’s a few features here, most notably fellow Chiraq drill stars G Herbo and Ballout on “Neph Nem”, a classic throwback to early 2010s drill with Keef bragging “I can get you gone with just one nod homie” and Herbo warning “if its really smoke we gon’ blow, we gon’ spin again”. Quavo also makes an appearance on "Never Fly Here", a piano driven traptastic headbanger.
Keef’s biggest asset to himself is his growth as a producer. He made almost every single beat himself and it shows just how he has come since experimenting with producing over a decade ago. “Treat Myself” is my personal favorite production job here. It has an almost angelic ambience and funkiness to it, detracting a bit from the hardcore face melters of tracks like "Banded Up" (featuring Tierra Whack, who is indeed NOT whack) “Grape Trees” (featuring Sexyy Red, who actually has a banger verse), or “1, 2, 3”, a track that pays some homage to the classic boom bap of hip-hop's early days. Even a track like "Runner" has a soulful sound and "Believe" sounds very inspired by early 2000s Kanye with Keef lamenting "I'm that kid that ain't get to be a kid, early age I started sellin' dope like my people did". It speaks to Keef’s willingness to branch out from what made him a household name. He never makes the same album twice and is always willing to experiment with different sounds. Hell, we even have a Michael Blackson skit thrown in for a hilarious change of pace, making fun of Drake, Chris Brown and a bunch of other clowns.
Almighty So 2 is Keef’s most mature and most varied release so far. At its core, its still Keef being himself, but its also an evolution as he ages into his 30s. He isn’t the same teenage lunatic he once was, flashing guns at cops and dissing all of his dead opposition. He has evolved in every way and this is the payoff of that evolution. Like it or not, Chief Keef is one of the most polarizing people hip-hop has ever seen. And he’s also one of the best this genre has ever seen.
