Don’t Sleep | Blockhead – Free Sweatpants

Don’t sleep on this new album from Blockhead. It came out on January 18th, which was the same day Aesop Rock dropped his album. Speaking of Aesop Rock, he’s actually featured on the third track here, and it’s one of the best songs on the whole album. This thing is just under an hour, but it doesn’t feel too long. About half of the songs are instrumentals, and the other half have features from popular underground rappers, such as Armand Hammer & Homeboy Sandman. I generally enjoyed the songs with rappers more. I think every song on this project is great, but the instrumentals rarely excited me as much as the tracks with features. The beats are really dope though. Any time I thought a beat was getting a little repetitive or stale, he introduced another element that would keep things interesting. I think Blockhead is a really underrated producer. Honestly, in terms of production alone, this is probably the best album I’ve heard this year. Overall I enjoyed Malibu Ken better, but the beats on here are more diverse in my opinion. It was cool to hear Breeze Brewin’ on Slippery Slope. Open Mike Eagle had my favorite verse on that song though. Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Hop is definitely one of my least favorite instrumental tracks on the album, but I still think it’s really great. It just lasts a little too long. The song with Tree is honestly my favorite track. I’ve never heard a project from Tree, but I always like him on features. In my opinion he has a perfect voice for rap. He sounds amazing over the dark beat from Blockhead. The song’s fantastic. The song with Homeboy Sandman is pretty great too. However, it was honestly kinda hard for me to hear some of his vocals at times. I don’t know what it is about his voice. It’s just kinda hard to hear him over the beat sometimes. By Myself Meeting is probably my least favorite track on the album, but I still think it’s a really great beat. The Armand Hammer song is really dope. billy woods’ flow is great on that song. The song with Vic Spencer is another standout. I’m not super familiar with him as a rapper, but everything I’ve ever heard from him has been really dope. That line about how people are gonna be leaking blood and their albums was really cool. He sounds great over Blockhead’s production. The song is way shorter than any of the other tracks. I feel like Blockhead could’ve shortened some of the instrumental tracks and made that one longer. Tinder in the Time of Cholera is one of the better instrumental songs. The second half is fantastic, especially when the snares come in. I’d never heard of Marq Spekt before listening to this album, but his track was pretty nice. The song with Hemlock Ernst was really phenomenal. I’m familiar with Samuel T. Herring, and I’d heard of his rap alter ego before, but this was my first time actually hearing a song with him. I actually really like his voice. He sounds great rapping. He kinda sounds like a male version of Sa-Roc. He rapped about racial injustices in the US. I think it’s one of the best songs honestly. The final track is pretty great, but it probably didn’t need to be six and a half minutes long. Out of all the instrumental songs, the first one is probably my favorite. Anyway, overall I think this is a really great album. There’s not a single track that I didn’t like. It’s kind of a shame that I don’t really see anyone else talking about it because it’s dope. Don’t miss out on it.

Favorite Song: Frank
Least Favorite Song: By Myself Meeting

84

80-89
Grade: B+
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