Review Summary: Boldy James and The Alchemist serve up some possible sides from Bo Jackson that wind up being better than most music releases of the year.
Super Tecmo Bo has eye-catching cover art. This is one of those considerably gimmicky moments that works perfectly. Boldy James's face is superimposed on the Nintendo Entertainment System cartridge for the legendary Tecmo Bowl. This one says
Super Tecmo Bo naturally. When you hold the album in your hands, it's got big grey game cartridge nostalgia drip. Some versions even come with the red and black Nintendo branded sleeve except the front says Nintenbo. If you grew up like me playing video games because your parents didn't have anything better to do with your life, this presentation becomes a mixed bag. That doesn't diminish the real fun of this whole setup. From 4k
Bo Jackson to 8-bit
Super Tecmo Bo, Boldy and Alc exceed all expectations on entertainment value.
Super Tecmo Bo is another rap album from the of-late extremely prolific Boldy James in case you haven't figured that out yet. His entire run since
The Price of Tea in China has been noteworthy and places high on hip hop fans' lists. You'd be hard pressed to find ranking lists of Boldy albums that match perfectly. His output seen him teamed up with some of the best producers and beatmakers out there now. Obviously, this one is another with The goated Alchemist. It might even be made up from sides from the
Bo Jackson recording sessions. Don't let the possibility keep you from spinning this album though. Boldy has been on with The Alchemist since 2013's
My 1st Chemistry Set. These good friends have built up some studio chemistry--no pun intended.
The Alchemist deserves some discussion here. His career saw him come up through the Mobb Deep crew. Later he was putting stuff together for full albums like one of my all time favorites that people really need to revisit and reevaluate, Prodigy's
Return of the Mac. That's also a great album to hear Alchemist's evolution. Comparing that one to
Super Tecmo Bo would be like comparing Mars to Uranus. Both albums set you into completely different audio environments. Hearing Boldy work with The Alchemist on
M1CS,
The Price of Tea in China (a masterpiece),
Bo Jackson, and then
Super Tecmo Bo, draws a trajectory. From the strong start, to the masterpiece, to the high quality concept, to the victory lap, fans of either artist and fans of both especially should consider themselves spoiled rotten. Every track on each album they drop together is heat.
The real test of all this is how well Boldy and any features perform on
Super Tecmo Bo. An appealing dynamic is created by a laid back personality from the perspective of beats but a hard hitting and forceful narrative from the lyrics and flows. Boldy puts his passion and pain down on every track, telling stories from his time on the streets. For an introduction to the only feature found in here, ICECOLDBISHOP lives up to his freezy moniker. His rhymes and words are one of the highlights here. ICB's feature suggested he was someone to keep an eye on, and many would say his
Generational Curse maintains that impression. Boldy follows ICB's performance perfectly with his own incendiary vibe. Boldy carries the rest of the tracks here himself atop these jazzy, airy, hazy, and at-times moody instrumentals, the samples never detracting from the overall incredibly consistent hustle-centric yet self-indulgent vibe. Boldy is an artist who gives listeners something often questionable in popular music today: something that's solid, artful, and inspiring all at once. His pop culture references are true to the packaging. Boldy constantly makes connections between relatable touchstones and experiences many can only imagine. All that being said, fire up your regular Nintenbo, play the hell out of
Super Tecmo Bo, but make sure you've got the unstoppable Bo Jack on your team because the rest of the league doesn't stand a chance.
