This album came out on July 17th this year. I still haven’t listened to Joell Ortiz’s last album House Slippers yet. I’ll hopefully do that someday. I really don’t know much about !llmind. I think he’s a pretty good producer. That’s pretty much all I can say about him. Joell Ortiz is a great rapper. I don’t think he’s… He’s not as good as he used to be, but if he tries he can definitely spit some amazing verses. His verse on the Shady CXVPHER was incredibly disappointing. It really didn’t seem like he was trying. I’m expecting this to be dope tho. The singles I heard from House Slippers were all pretty decent. I’ll be pretty disappointed if I don’t fuck with most of this album. Every song is obviously produced by !llmind.

Track 1: Human (Intro) [Co-Prod. CuBeatz]

This beat is pretty dope. This is really just an instrumental track. There’s a clip from what sounds like an interview that Joell was in. He’s basically just talkin’ about how Slaughterhouse is the greatest rap group of all time and that this is a solo Joell Ortiz album. That’s pretty much all he says. I’m not gonna give this a rating since it isn’t really a song, but it wasn’t bad. The beat was pretty smooth. It’s just not something that I would ever feel the need to listen to again.

Track 2: New Era

This beat is dope. It’s just someone dickin’ around on the piano and I can see how some people might find it annoying, but it sounds good to me especially when the drums come in. Joell’s flow is nothin’ special, but he sounds pretty good over this beat. He snuck in a nice diss towards Fox News. “I grew up on the opposite side, I’m not you / My niggas brought them choppers outside for Fox News.” This is honestly kinda… Gangsta. I can just imagine myself walkin’ through the streets of Brooklyn with this shit playin’. Then someone runs up on me and tries to take my wallet. I fight back and end up gettin’ shot in the left shoulder. I don’t die yet, but when the police arrive on the scene they assume that I’m the criminal and end up killing me. The hook isn’t anything special, but I kinda fuck with it. This song is pretty much just Joell Ortiz rappin’ about how HARD and REAL he is. I fuck with this. This is dope. 4/5

Track 3: I Just Might

This beat is dope. !llmind’s production kinda sounds like a grimy Graduation era Kanye from New York to me. Joell Ortiz’s first verse is pretty dope. Nothing amazing. The hook is alright. Joell did his thing on both verses. Nothin’ really stood out, but it definitely wasn’t bad. The beat is dope. The hook does it’s job, but it really isn’t anything special. This is a good song, but don’t expect to be blown away if you choose to listen to this. It’s just a good song. Not great. Definitely not bad. Nothin’ out of the ordinary about this track. It’s just a standard Hip Hop track. I fuck with it. I coulda did without the drawn out ending tho. It’s like he realized the song was too short since he only had two verses and decided to just add thirty seconds of nothing. It’s not that big of a deal, but it kinda annoyed me. I still like the song tho. This is dope. 4/5

Track 4: My Niggas

Not feelin’ the title of this song. I hate it when rappers put the N word in song titles. Well, I hate it when rappers use the N word in general, but making white people say it just so that people know what song their referring to is pretty fucked up if you ask me. He probably wasn’t thinkin’ about that tho. This beat is dope. Joell’s flow is nothing special. It’s kind of annoying hearing him say the N word so much. The hook isn’t that good, but it’s pretty quick. It doesn’t take too much time. Oh man. He’s saying the N word so goddamn much. He says the N word forty four times in this song. This song is only two minutes and forty seconds long. After a few minutes all you hear is the N word. I’d be lying if I said I was feeling this. His flow is nothing special and he uses the N word way too damn much. Even if it wasn’t offensive it would just be annoying. The beat is cool, but nothing else stands out. I’m not feelin’ this. This is wack to me. 2/5

Track 5: Six Fo

This beat is dope. This song is just one long ass verse over a grimy beat. Joell does his thing, but most of his bars aren’t that crazy. He has some funny lines in there, but nothing incredible. “I don’t care if she faked it all day / Right after I nut, I said I came a long way.” It’s a dope ass verse, but it isn’t incredible. The beat’s cool, but it gets old quickly and some people might find it annoying. It’s not like Joell can’t rap, but nothing here is that incredible. It’s just a good song. Good bars over a good beat. The best bars come in the last few seconds of the song. “This pen is what kept me out the pens, but how you act depends/ If a life sentence pens for pennin’ your end / My wrist swings like a pendulum for perfect penmanship / Been there, oh my empire’s independent again.” It’s just a good song. His delivery and flow are nothing special. Good. That’s it. That’s all this is. The beat isn’t amazing and neither are the bars. It’s just a dope song. I fuck with it. It’s dope, but it’s far from dope af. 4/5

Track 6: Light A L

This beat is dope af. Joell does his thing on the first. This is by far the best beat so far. It sounds like it had a lot more effort put into it than the others. This whole song just feels more complete than everything else so far. The hook is pretty dope. This beat is great. Joell did his thing on both verses. He’s pretty much just talkin’ about how he used to smoke and freestyle with his homies when he was littler and didn’t have anything else to do. This is definitely the best song on the album so far. I fuck with this. This is dope af. 5/5

Track 7: Lil Piggies

Goddamn… This beat is dope af. Aw shit. Joell’s goin’ the fuck in. His flow is dope af and he has a monsterous delivery. Goddamn. This is so fuckin’ dope. “Fuck you and your selfies, why you smilin’ in pictures? / What you think this is a game, nigga? / Ooooh man y’all lucky I don’t name niggas, lame niggas / Call me Dhalsim, I’m finna flame niggas, shut up.” This is awesome. He’s actually rappin’ for real now. He was spittin’ before, but now he’s really goin’ in. This is so fuckin’ hard. The way he’s goin’ is just… Yooooo. He sounds fuckin’… BADACE! I love how aggressive his delivery is on this. He’s slaughterin’ wack rappers on this one. Goddamn. I fuckin’ love this shit. “Don’t nobody say it how I say it / Get on stage and display it, how I display it / Convey it in such a way that it stays with you, man it’s crazy.” He also uses this song to shit on people who act extra hard on social media and then turn into bitches when you see them in person. Man this song is fucking great. I definitely fuck with this song. This shit is so hard. This is dope af. 5/5

Track 8: Latino, Pt. 2 Feat. Emilio Rojas, Bodega Bamz & Chris Rivers

This is the first full Joell Ortiz album that I’ve ever listened to, so I never heard the first Latino song. The only shit I’ve ever heard from Emilio Rojas was a terrible song called Pussy & Cologne. That shit was wack. I know Bodega Bamz is dope because he worked with Flatbush Zombies and the A$AP Mob. I don’t know shit about Chris Rivers other than the fact that he’s the son of Big Pun. I’ve never heard him rap before. I’m sure he’s dope tho. This beat is dope af. Damn. Emilio Rojas is actually kinda goin’ in right now. “Television was on, we never had dads and the city was flooded with mad crack ’cause they experiment on minorities like we lab rats.” His flow is dope. Of course the Caitlyn Jenner punchlines have already started. I don’t really mind it. “I’m sick of y’all, dudes switchin’ and gettin’ hot like Bruce Jenner and menopause.” Emilio Rojas’ verse was actually pretty goddamn good. That was dope. Bodega Bamz is goin’ in now. This is great. I love how it’s just a bunch of dope rappers spittin’ over a dope beat with no hook. This is great. Bodega’s verse is pretty dope so far. “I’m low like Fetty Wap’s left eye / I coulda sworn I saw Left Eye in Best Buy.” Damn. He says some real ass shit towards the end of his verse too. “Fuck the cops, we gotta triumph / Fight for Freddie right now, it’s about to be more riots / They wanna kill the youth when they need more guidance / With more violence you can only expect more defiance / It’s hard to be vocal when they shoot you up and choke you / Die unexpected if the wrong one approach you.” Man I fuck with his verse. That was dope af. Woah. Goddamn. Chris Rivers is goin’ the fuck in. Yo, this motherfucker’s spittin’ like a motherfucker! Goddamn! YOOOO! I don’t believe this shit! This motherfucker’s flow is insane and the shit he’s spittin’ is so motherfuckin’ dope. “The pragmatical mathematical rappin’ cannibal / Who ramp with animals, Bronx nigga that has an attitude / You see my avenue is compatible with a battle room / I never sold crack, just wrote dope lines to hand to you.” Holy fuckin’ shit. This motherfucker is insane. I knew he would be dope, but I wasn’t expecting that shit. Damn. I don’t know if Joell can beat that. Chris Rivers just stole the fuckin’ show. Wow. That was crazy. Joell’s verse was dope af too, but he ain’t fuckin’ with Chris Rivers. Nah. Chris Rivers fuckin’ slaughtered this shit. I can’t really relate to this topic, but this shit is still dope af. I am mixed with Latino, but I really don’t know anything about Latino culture. All of my relatives identify as black so I’m really only familiar with black and Trinidadian culture. I still fuck with this song tho. This is dope af. Chris Rivers fuckin’ killed this shit too. I don’t believe it. That verse was insane. 5/5

Track 9: Who Woulda Knew Feat. Father Dude (Co-Prod. G. Koop)

This beat is dope af. This song is pretty much about some girl that Joell is in a struggling relationship with. Songs about this shit usually don’t really interest me, but luckily Joell Ortiz does a well enough job. The beat actually fits the topic too. I’m not sure who Father Dude is, but he’s singin’ on the hook. He’s not amazin’ or anything, but he doesn’t ruin this shit. I’m glad that Joell’s ass didn’t try to sing this shit himself. That would’ve been disasterous. I fuck with this song. This topic doesn’t usually interest me, but Joell did a good job with it. It’s a little too long, but it’s not that big of a deal. This song is dope. I fuck with this. 4/5

Track 10: Bad Santa Feat. Jared Evan

Oh shit. This song is about to be sad. I can tell from this dope ass beat. Damn. This song is about his son. “He says ‘I love you’ when he hangin’ up the phone, but it’s muffled like he’s uncomfortable sayin’ it, so his voice has trouble gettin’ the words out.” …Uh… It’s kinda weird how much detail he put into that line, but it’s not really a problem. Jared Evan’s singin’ on the second verse. They’re talkin’ about Christmas and shit. It’s kinda weird. “Sometimes a fuckin’ curse comes wrapped as a gift.” He kinda talks about the same shit that Tech N9ne talks about sometimes. He’s talkin’ about how he doesn’t get to see his son enough since he’s on tour. I definitely fuck with this song. This song is REAL. The Christmas thing is a little weird, but I would probably understand more if I had a son. Maybe not. I don’t fuckin’ know. I fuck with this song tho. This song is dope af. 5/5

Track 11: Human (Outro)

This beat is dope af. This shit is real af. Joell’s rappin’ about his life growin’ up. He mentions not havin’ a father, gang violence and just… just real shit. “Them drug dealers at my door again / My mom’s meetin’ ’em in the hall again / I swear when I grow up I’m killin’ all of them / Man that shouldn’t be your thoughts after 10 / But that’s the life that I was brought up in.” This shit is REAL! He talked about shit like this in the other songs, but he didn’t really paint the picture as vividly as he does on this. I definitely fuck with this. It’s just one dope ass verse over a great beat. This song is dope af. 5/5

Track +: Hallelujah

This song isn’t on Human, but it was made specifically as a promotional track for this album. It’s a HotNewHipHop exclusive track and according to them it was created on the spot. This beat is dope af. It’s just one dope ass verse from Joell over a great beat. “Stop telling me that real rap will be back in a bit ’cause this shit had never left, y’all just cross-dressing, acting a bitch / Y’all weaker than a THOT’s new flip flops, but I’m just sharing thoughts here on Hot New Hip Hop.” It’s nothing out of the ordinary. Just a great verse over a great beat. I fuck with this. This is dope af. 5/5

Final Thoughts:

That was dope. It started off a little rocky, but they got they shit together by the halfway point. This is just a collection of grimy ass beats and dope bars. Some songs are more memorable than others, but there’s really only one song on here that I wasn’t feelin’. I pretty much got exactly what I expected. This wasn’t amazing or wack at all. It’s just a solid album. The first few songs are kinda boring when you compare them to the other ones, but they definitely aren’t bad. It’s just good. That’s what this is. Good. It’s not amazing and it definitely isn’t as good as PRhyme, but it’s still good. This may even make it to some people’s top 10s for this year. It’ll just be lower on the list. I don’t know if I would put it on mine, but I haven’t really thought about it. It’s definitely a good album tho. I fuck with this. This is dope.

Favorite Song: Latino, Pt. 2

Least Favorite Song: My Niggas

Verdict:

86%

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