
Today's review is on the debut studio album from The Underachievers, Cellar Door. The Underachievers are a Brooklyn duo consisting of rappers Issa Gold and AK. These guys are a big part of the "Beast Coast" movement with groups like Pro Era and Flatbush Zombies. Unfortunately though, The Underachievers are the only group out of the three that I have not loved. I wasn't a fan of their 2013 mixtape, Indigoism, and I don't know what it is, but for whatever reason none of their projects have really connected with me. I am really hoping that this new project changes my mind. Will The Underachievers finally make me a fan on their new album?
On Cellar Door, I found myself constantly loving the production. While I was a fan of the beats on Indigoism, the production on this project is a step up in every way. The instrumentals on this album could be described as old-school New York beats, but with a very modern, psychedelic twist. I don't think there were any beats on this that I didn't like, but some of them certainly stood out more than others. I think my favorite production came on the song Quiescent. This was the prime example of the boom bap-atmoshperic blend i talked about. The drums on this track were strong, and gave it a hard vibe, but there were many psychedelic sounds and jazz rhythms flowing in the song too. The song Radiance, which was produced by boom-bap maestro Statik Selektah, was another song that gave me a huge Brooklyn vibe. I loved when the drums would start hitting in the middle of each rappers verse, and the beat had some bright synthesizers in the background too. There were some instrumentals on Cellar Door that gave me a different vibe as well. The beat on the opening track Luminescence was very dark, menacing, and featured some minimalistic drums. I absolutely loved it. Two songs, Chrysalis and Incandescent, featured beats that could almost be described as trap. They were head-boppers with some serious trap influence, but I loved that these still featured the same trippy Underachievers sound. The last one to talk about is the last song, Amorphus. This track had the most abstract, odd beat on the project. The sample that was playing throughout this song made for a very composed, but also exciting beat, and I thought this one was one of the best on the album. This album featured stellar production all the way through.
Now, my main problem on last years project, Indigoism, was Issa Gold and AK's rapping. Not to say these guys are bad rappers, because they definitely aren't, but I wasn't feeling their flow. At times it sounded like they were trying to rap as fast as they could when it just didn't work for them. It would end up sounding sloppy and rushed. While that happens a bit here too, I think these two cleaned it up a lot for this album. The Underachievers sound more focused, their flows are tighter, their words are clearer, and their rapping is just so much better overall. This album also brought an interesting change: I think AK is a better MC than Issa Gold. On Indigoism I felt Issa was outshining AK on almost every track, but now its the other way around. AK sounds fantastic throughout this project. He sounds hungry, and his flow was exceptional. Don't get me wrong though, I still think Issa Gold is a strong MC, as he can rap fast, and has a unique inflection to his voice. The first track on this album, Luminescence, showed me right away how much these guys have improved. I loved the structure of this song, with the two MCs just trading off very short verses for the whole song. It sounded like the two had awesome chemistry and I loved all the bars on this track. These guys also rapped extremely well on tracks like Metropolis, where they took on a lyrical concept, Felicity, a very inspirational song, and Quiescent, where AK stole the show with an outstanding verse. While the rapping on this project was crazy, another part of the album that impressed me was the hooks. I didn't hear many hooks I liked on Indigoism, but here the Underachievers killed it on the tracks that had hooks. The song Caprice had a grimy, old-school chorus that you can just bang your head to. Incandescent featured a melodic, fun hook that I really loved too. My favorite though was definitely on the album closer, Amorphus. The sample on this song, which made up most of the beat, was fleshed out to become the whole chorus, and it sounded great. Issa Gold's ad-libs throughout the chorus gave it some grit, too. Overall I thought Cellar Door was a dramatic improvement on all fronts for The Underachievers. Both MCs sound great and the beats stayed very psychedelic and cool. I loved the length of the project at only 12 tracks, and their focus was just so evident on this album. Add Cellar Door to the growing list of great hip hop albums for 2014, which is becoming an excellent year for rap.
CELLAR DOOR WRAP UP
+Issa and AK's bars on this album were very strong all the way through
+AK's improvement is exceptional
+Fun, catchy hooks
+Clean, atmospheric production
-A few songs really paled in comparison to the others
Best: Luminescence, Incandescent, Amorphus
Worst: Chrysalis
The Underachievers- Cellar Door
9.1/10
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