Review Summary: It could have been great
The strongest emotion this latest output from Detroit rap group Clear Soul Forces evoked from me was a constant irritation. And not from exploiting a laundry list of hip hop cliches, relying on contemporary trends as a basis for creativity, or compartmentalizing the genre's most important elements and focusing solely on one while disregarding the others. It was rather it's immense, and almost blatant, potential.
The emcees that make up this young rap quartet are E-Fav, L.A.Z., Noveliss, and Ilajide, and all of them do an admirable job displaying their skills behind the mic along with making their individual voices known. This comes as a huge upside for this album since I had no prior exposure to these artists, and delving into an LP by a rap group can be intimidating being that I have to take the time to learn which delivery belongs to who.
Now you might ask what deep and thought provoking themes do these self proclaimed "Rhyme Scheme Revolutionists" examine and dissect to their most skeletal core and ideas? Well none other then one of the most impactful and influential attributions to the millennial generation. Video Games. Now obviously I'm exaggerating for comedic value right? There's no way across a 16 song tracklist, with consistent lyrical contributions from 4 different rappers, the topics aren't varied right? Unfortunately the answer to these questions is a very disdained no. There is never a break from the monotony of the repetitive punchline-bar-punchline-bar formula and it makes for a very long, almost overwhelmingly claustrophobic, 50 minutes.
While I stand by there being a lack of variety in lyrical content the few topics they do cover (these also include superheroes and the apparent ever devolving rap game) are discussed with loads of personality and a genuine care and understanding for the nostalgic subjects. And it's that loads of personality and the chemistry between the emcees that keeps this project's samey onslaught from becoming boring or bland.
Looking at the title of this project you'll see that it is Fab Five not Fab Four, so who's the fifth member? It's underground producer Nameless and what he brings to this project is a collection of decent instrumentals with FAR superior outros. Legitimately every beat on this album has a special 10-20 seconds at the very end that personifies, better than anything else, the lack of ambition put forth on this LP. With interesting glitches and pounding off kilter ethereal vibes you're left bewildered as to why Nameless and Clear Soul Forces didn't flesh out these fantastic outros into full tracks as opposed to the not at all challenging beats ultimately chosen for the project.
Overall this album is a mixed bag of missed opportunities. The rapping is fantastic but the song writing lacked the substance that solidifies a full project and the instrumentals are decent enough on their own, but consistently reminded me that they could be better. It's a good album but it could have been great.
