Here we have the 7th EP from Buffalo, New York emcee, songwriter, entrepreneur, curator & now professional wrestling promoter after forming the 4th Rope independent circuit promotion Westside Gunn. Proving his legend status & that he’s to be a force to be reckoned with all in nearly a decade whether it be running one of the hottest hip hop labels in recent memory to his first 2 full-lengths FLYGOD & Supreme Blientele. Last we heard from West was And Then You Pray for Me which as a trap-heavy sequel to Pray for Paris, dropping Hitler Wears Hermes XI on Halloween & in 24 hours’ notice of Still Praying. A joint pay-per-view between 4th Rope & Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) called For the Culture will be taking place in Las Vegas tonight ahead of WrestleMania XLI live on the Comcast Corporation & NBCUniversal-owned streaming service peacock, surprise-releasing Heels Have Eyes to coincide with it.
After the “Fishscale Friday” intro, the first song “Einstein Kitchen” produced by Cee Gee is this piano-based boom bap opener taking y’all to the spot where the rhymes are cooked leading into the drumless “Goro” that Harry Fraud laced asking Allah to free his homies. “Davey Boy Smith” returns to the boom bap thanks to Denny LaFlare homaging the late WWE Hall of Famer, former WWE Intercontinental Champion & 2-time WWE Tag Team Champion of the same name & the closer “Egypt” soulfully references former ROH World Television Champion, NXT Champion & 3-time WWE tag team champion Tommaso Ciampa.
In what’s already been a huge week for professional wrestling with WrestleMania along with AEW Dynamite outliving WCW’s Monday Nitro as the longest running wrestling show on the sports broadcasting division of Warner Bros. Discovery in spite of WWE Hall of Famer Eric Bischoff’s pettiness, West drops off a quick 10-minute EP to warm everyone up ahead of 4th Rope’s biggest event yet with the east coast hip hop styles that’ve made GxFR so beloved in the past decade & one that I might like more than the EP he put out 5 months ago. The production balances boom bap, drumless, a hint of jazz rap & chipmunk soul fluidly on top of the iconic curator handling the vocal performances solely by himself in contrast to having a bunch of guests on it.
Score: 9/10
