Anyone who has dug into the modern wave of hardcore hip-hop or gangsta rap has most likely heard of Freddie Gibbs who has released two albums and a collection of EPs with legendary underground hip-hop producer Madlib as well as the Grammy-nominated Alfredo with the producer the Alchemist or the Griselda trio consisting of Westside Gunn, Conway the Machine, and Benny the Butcher who between the three of them seem to be releasing some type of new music every week. Included in this collective of artists is the revival of 90s New York style boom-bap made famous by artists such as Mobb Deep, Nas, the Wu-Tang Clan, and The Notorious B.I.G. is rapper Boldy James. Boldly James before this year only had one album to his name, and now as 2020 comes to a close, He has released 4 albums all with different producers including
The Price of Tea in China with production done by Alchemist, The Versace Tape with production done by vine star turned producer Jay Versace, Real Bad Boldy with Real Bad Man, and Manger on McNichols as a collaborative effort between Sterling Toles and him as well as plenty of features including multiple Westside Gunn albums and Big Sean’s Detroit 2. Out of everything he has released this year, the most interesting and most standout project was Manger on McNichols.
Unlike all the projects that were recorded and released throughout the year, Manger on McNichols has been in the works since 2007 before Boldy James was known on hip-hop forums and journalism publications. While only 25 at the time, Boldly James had lived a dark life of selling drugs and dealing with the violence around him including the deaths of his friends. While still being in the streets of Detroit hustling during the initial recording of this album, he can directly take the current events of his life during those periods and use them as the backbone of this record. The track “Mommy Dearest (a eulogy)” revolves around a singular line from Biggie’s Suicidal Thoughts where he says, “I know my mother wish she got a f**kin’ abortion”. The song discusses the troubled relationship between Boldy James and his mother due to his involvement with peddling drugs as well as his childhood when he felt that his younger siblings were favored over him and the time when he got his Nintendo console stolen from his house on Christmas Eve. His mind is occupied with a constant feeling that since he got stuck in a life of drug dealing and violence, he is a failure to his family, and most importantly, his mother. “Got Flicked (the rebirth)” featuring rapper Louie P. Newton is a remix of a Chuck Inglish produced song called “Gettin’ Flicked” that utilizes a heavy drum beat as well as booming bass and sampled police sirens. The remix is an eight and half minute chamber jazz piece that creates this dark but beautiful soundscape for Boldy’s rap where he reflects on his current life of crime, the anxiety of being a criminal, escaping from state troopers, and his evolution from small misdemeanors to federal crime. The darkest element of the song is towards the end right after Boldy James’s last hook where Sterling Toles rearranges Boldy’s verse to say “This is a jail” which refers to him, at the time, being stuck in this life of crime without being able to see the escape from drug dealing where he can get out of this life of crime.
The entire album may seem like it is Boldy James and a producer collaborating, but this album is Sterling’s as much as it is Boldy’s. Sterling Toles took a soon to be boom-bap and hardcore rap album and turned it into a horrifying tale of street life and a somber story of drug dealing by creating this eerie and dark soundtrack accompanied by chamber jazz arrangements composed and produced by himself. The use of the anxious saxophone and other eclectic elements allows for every word to come out of Boldy’s mouth to hit harder and tell the story better. The musical foundations in this album allow for the listener to be emerged in the stories told and feel the pain of death and anxiety Boldy James describes throughout the album. Over a period of 10 years, Sterling Toles was able to take raw and unedited vocals by Boldy James and use those as the building bricks to create this tragic and deadpan story of crime. This is apparent in tracks like “Detroit River Rock” where Sterling Toles starts with a bass line and trumpets and builds on the track by adding a soul sample and more brass instruments on top of it. Unlike a lot of jazz-based rap albums such as A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul that loop bits of jazz and soul songs to create their tracks, this album has fully composed tracks that build as the tracks progress such as “Got Flicked (the rebirth)” that has a saxophone solo amid Boldy’s 3rd verse or the flute throughout “Welcome to 76”.
While Boldy James has moved passed his life of crime in Detroit and has progressed into a rapper reflecting and introspecting over his past actions and involvement of crime in Detroit on albums like The Price of Tea in China that utilizes a more traditional style of hip-hop, using decade-old vocals of a young rapper stuck in a life of drug dealing and suffering while trying to make it out of the streets of Detroit allows for a heart-wrenching and depressing piece of art at the crossroads of chamber jazz and gangsta rap that opens your ears to raw and unfiltered poetry by one of Detroit’s greatest MCs.
Loading ...