By Malik Giles/campus editor
It is impressive for rappers or musicians to produce an entire album, espec
ially for rappers like Royce da 5’9,” who’s been active for more than 20 years.
However, “The Allegory,” his eighth studio album, was impressive production-wise but too “lyrically miracle” to where the listeners can get lost.
The problem with this album was evident from the intro. The beat is great, but the lyrics resonate as too preachy.
In the intro “Mr. Grace,” there’s a skit that represents a father teaching his son how to survive as a black man in American.
The first question is,, “What is America built off of? Violence and entrepreneurship.” Royce quickly catches the listener’s ear with the father teaching the son, but loses it as soon as he transitions to the song.
Royce struggled to get his point across with too many rhymes in one bar and metaphors that are meaningless.
At some points in the song, his flow is on and off the beat so he can say what he wrote. As a rapper, that’s not acceptable.
Royce raps about how the government has corrupted black neighborhoods by selling drugs on the streets and placing black people in prisons for the government’s own product.
This is said and done before by other artists like J. Cole, but “Dope Man” stands out as a metaphor for the government being the original drug dealers.
One great track of this album was “I Play Forever.” It seems like a reminder that Royce was in the rap game for years, but it’s more than that.
He wants the listeners to know that he belongs in league with legends like Jay-Z, Eminem and many other MCs.
Of the 22 tracks, half of the songs are good or above average while the other half seems dragged on.
In “Overcomer,” he dissed Yelawolf, one of his labelmates, and did not give a reason why. In the interlude “Ice Cream,” he gave misleading information by giving only half the story on the origin of the song “Turkey In The Straw.”
But not all the skits were misleading. The “Perspective” featured by Eminem was poetic and profound.
The featured artists like rapper T.I., King Crooked and other artists are what held this album up.
Royce da 5’9” is an old school rapper that could fall in the category of the legends, but this album did not do him justice.
He has a message but failed to get it across with too much rhyming, and not nearly enough lyricism.
Misleading, informative interludes and dragged out, preachy songs show that this album is not a masterpiece.
