Review Summary: This is a really pleasant surprise.
I don't know if there is a more polarizing figure in the independent Hip Hop space than Marcus Hopson. He has found great success with his co-founded record label Funk Volume through, not just his own music, but also that of Dizzy Wright, SwizZz and Jarren Benton's respective musical outputs. But It seems as though the Rap community as a whole is extremely split on the California emcee. Some hold Hopsin as the savior of a faltering genre, who will call out bull *** when he sees it, and educate his fans on what is really happening in the world. While others see him as an immature, corny and gratuitous Eminem biter who rides shallow instrumentals and addresses issues with the most on-the-nose approach possible. I am one of the rare few who doesn't fall 100% on either side. I am actually a big fan of Hopsin and really wanted "Pound Syndrome" to deliver. Especially since 2015 has been such an interesting and somewhat mixed year for FV. They've released five projects as of the last seven months and have a sixth slated towards the latter portion of this 365 day rotation. So on paper it would seem like that was a great thing. Being that all of the label's artists are contributing an album and creating a large contrast from 2014 where a maximum of one project was released from Funk Volume. But it isn't. Not to say there haven't been good albums released under the FV banner this year, because there have. "Slow Motion Vol. 1" by Jarren Benton was a really strong EP, and "Hoppa And Friends" and "Pathomania" by DJ Hoppa and Kato respectively were decent enough, but "The Growing Process" by Dizzy Wright was a huge disappointment. And although all of these recent outputs (save for "The Growing Process") have been good, none of them have been great. And that made me worry a bit for "Pound Syndrome."
Following up his lukewarm received 2013 studio LP "Knock Madness" (a sentiment he shares with his critics stating recently in interviews, and on occasion in "Pound Syndrome," that he isn't a fan of his last album) and a fake retirement publicity stunt in December of 2014 Hopsin had a lot to prove with this new project. He needed to establish that he could rise above the missteps made on "Knock Madness" (an album I actually enjoy quite a bit) and further keep his relevancy in this fast moving vortex of Hip Hop trends and artists. In those regards and many more I would say Hopsin has evolved a lot as both an artist and personality, and successfully solidified his spot in Hip Hop for yet another year. We are no longer getting cross-dressing filled music videos or bars dedicated to dissing contemporary Hip Hop's most financially prominent. In fact only a few times does Hopsin name drop a rapper on this album, outside of his fellow Funk Volume peers, and they're all mentioned in a positive manner and lyrical context.
If there's one thing that all of Hopsin's detesters have gone on record stating it's their disliking for his production. And it's not hard to understand why. On past releases he has loaded his beats with plenty of over the top percussions, thin synths, cheap keyboard effects and never did a lot in terms of creating extremely dynamic compositions. This doesn't go for all of his instrumentals though and I've always found that Hop implements a lot in the way of diversity among his sonic pallets which has allowed him a platform to create albums that are fleshed out and interesting. What becomes very apparent right from the first track "The Pound (intro)," his first "intro" track since "Gazing At The Moonlight," is that Hopsin has put on his producer's hat and taken this very seriously. The improvement is like night and day from "Knock Madness." The drums across the board sound MUCH more textured and never get heavy handed. The kicks and snares are synchronized perfectly with a stronger bite to them, the implementing of bongos in the back of the mix on the banger "Crown Me" and recorded more prominently in combination with toms on the narrative driven "Fort Collins" are tasteful, and the trap inspired fluttering high hats sprinkled in "Crown Me" and dominating the bragadocious "Mr. Jones" are layered really well and aren't obnoxiously loose like the instrumental he produced for Dizzy Wright's song "Explain Myself." The synths as well have a lot more personality and create rich and etherial backdrop using twangy flushes that come in and out on a handful of the tracks. The main synth lines are varied and help fill in any potential dead space on the beats (as opposed to feeling too thin and singled out or too big and farty). In general the instrumentals on this album sound much more competently compositionally structured. Although they're not perfect. At least not all of them.
The album runs into a sonic and creative lull on tracks eleven "My Love" and twelve "No ***s Given." The overly sentimental instrumental on "My Love" in combination with Hopsin's hoaky singing on parts of the verses and the hook make for an unpleasant listen and a step backwards into territory he indulged in on a song like "Good Guys Get Left Behind." But if you can look past the gawdy surface and dig into the lyrics you get some interesting looks into the effects clinical depression can have on an intimate level and it's nice to hear Hopsin actually make the effort to show the perspectives to one of his relationship narratives in a two dimensional fashion and admit that he is to blame for certain issues and that it's not just all his girlfriend's fault. And in the case of "No ***s Given" I can't stand the instrumental whatsoever. The stale and thin Acoustic Guitar riff in combination with the slowly layering synth lines do nothing for me, but Hopsin's flow is really strong and almost interesting enough to make up for it. Or at least it would be if the lyrics were captivating at all which they're not.
The story telling and features on this album are fantastic. And the reason I combine these two very different elements of song writing are because Hopsin uses each of his features perfectly to elevate a narrative. Jarren Benton's verse on "Ramona" is easily the most light hearted and joke oriented feature on the LP, but that's because the song is also very much a funny and exaggerated look at obsessive fans. I have a way of describing the track that may sound like an insult but it isn't. To me it's like an amazing Tech N9ne song. And the reason that could seem like a stab is because my feelings on Tech are pretty negative, but with the way the hook plays out, the electric guitar riff and style of content I could very well see Tech N9ne making this song on a good day. The thing this cut does most importantly is showcase Hopsin's improvement in mixing. He said in some recent interviews that he had spent the last year learning more about mixing and mastering and with all of the backing voices and how well they're sewn together you can tell his studies were put to good use. On the opposite spectrum of "Ramona" Hopsin delivers a track like "Fort Collins" which has a fantastic feature from Dizzy Wright. The interplay between them and how they use their respective sides of the experience in Fort Collins the night Hopsin skipped his show makes for a really well rounded and genuine story and aplogy. I can't totally swallow the tracks hook, along with a few other hooks on this album, but his passion and sincerity do plenty to make up for it. Similar to Dizzy, SwizZz is called upon to tell another side of a story. This one being on the track "FV Til I Die" which if you're a Funk Volume fan you will love. In a lot of detail and in chronological order Hopsin and SwizZz essentially breaks down their stories that lead them to the creation of FV and how it got to where it is now.
Hopsin does seem to cut down a bit on the conscious Rap to make room for some bonafide bangers like "Forever Ill," "Mr. Jones," the hilarious "No Words (skit)," "Crown Me," and the album's closer "I Just Can't" and these all make up a list of most of my favorite songs on this LP. The pumbling bass and energetic hook on "I Just Can't" as well as the hooks on "Mr. Jones" and "Crown Me" are extremely addictive and on all of these tracks (excluding "No Words (skit)") Hopsin is delivering some of his most technically effecint verses to date. His flows are more dynamic than ever and his consistent and tightly constructed rhyme patterns are extremely impressive. The two more conscious driven tracks he does deliver are "Ill Mind Of Hopsin 7" and "Fly" and I absolutely adore both of these songs. The combination of single note keys and a finger picked guitar make for a fragile through line for the instrumental on "Fly" which Hopsin then uses as the backdrop at which he stacks on a beautiful and mesmerizing layer of reverb, pitch shifting and octave manipulation on top of his voice to create this majestic aesthetic valley that soars during the outro.
Overall this is a really pleasant surprise. Even as a huge Hopsin fan I thought we might be in for a dud with this album but it ended up being his most strongly produced, well sequenced, cohesive, and accessible project to date with his most focused set of narratives and dynamic compositions. He made great use of his outros throwing in musical passages full of midi-guitar solos and DJ Hoppa scratches to give his tracks a more complete finish. It did have its fair share of pitfalls mainly with a handful of the hooks and a few tracks towards the end, but even on these tracks that I didn't like I was still able to find redeeming qualities and musical take aways that I appreciated. This is certainly the strongest album Funk Volume has released this year and in a while.
