This is the 15th EP from New York emcee & revered battle rapper RJ Payne formerly known as Reign Man. Building up an extensive solo catalogue for himself with 23 mixtapes as well as well as his last dozen EPs & 4 full-length albums, Benny the Butcher even signed RJ to Black Soprano Family Records for a brief period of time & putting out some of best material like Leatherface & Square Root of a Kilo under Benny’s ever-growing indie label of his own. My Life’z a Movie produced by Stu Bangas quickly became my favorite LP in RJ’s discography & Enemy Soil Entertainment in-house producer C-Lance went on a trip with him to The Barbershop, coming off Erick Sermon producing a 3-Piece to have Drega33 fully produce Triangle D’or.
“Quinconces” is this soulfully drumless intro talking about being in the top 10 conversations when it comes to checking off all the boxes whereas “Paris Attack” keeps the drums out of the equation asking not to anger the Lord since he’s giving everybody heavenly music. “Brings to Me” maintains a chipmunk soul vibe likening his flow to the strength of cocaine while “Coffee or Tea” talks about the world waking up recognizing the Payne.
The song “Elegant Payne” starts the 2nd & final half of Triangle D’or by aggressively making it known to these other rappers that they’re levels behind him lyrically while “Splendid” pulls from chipmunk soul once again talking about leaving the red carpet covered in DNA if anybody crosses him. “Final Boss” concludes Triangle D’or with 1 last drumless track boasting about his soul not being for sale & his appetite being elite compared to others.
Coming off the 4th installment of the Leatherface saga a couple weeks ago, Drega33 comes fresh off producing both entries of the Lethal Weapon series of EPs by making Triangle D’or the most I’ve enjoyed a body of work from RJ Payne in a couple months. The production heavily draws upon the sounds of drumless chipmunk soul lyrically spitting some of that international Payne ahead of his upcoming collab effort with Method Man.
Score: 8/10
