This album was released on June 28th this year. Ol’ Burger Beats is a producer who I’m pretty sure I’ve been aware of for a long time, but I don’t think I’d actually heard any of his production until last year when he produced the song Tiptoe from milo’s last solo album. I don’t really know much about him aside from the fact that he’s from Norway, and he’s very talented. This particular album is the fourth installment in a series by Beat Jazz International. I guess they’re a label who just release release instrumental albums from producers who make Jazz Rap beats. The series is called Beats, Jazz & Vinyl. I haven’t heard any of the other projects in the series. I’m not familiar with the other producers that have participated in the series though. One thing I do really appreciate about the series is the consistent style of cover art. I have no idea who these women featured on all the covers are, and it’s possible that I’d appreciate them even more if I knew who these people were. I fuck with it either way though.

Anyway, I ended up enjoying almost every single track on this project. There’s only one track that I didn’t really care for at all, so I’ll just mention it real quick to get it out of the way, and then praise the rest of the tracklist. Track 14 is called True Ray, and I don’t really like it. It sounds like the background music of an old school porno. It’s not a terrible, unlistenable instrumental. I just don’t really find 80s porn music very enjoyable personally, so I won’t be returning to that one. The rest of the album is great though. It starts off with a really smooth intro. It’s a super relaxing, chill, comforting beat with radiant uncredited female vocals. I thought it was awesome. It’s followed by Enemies, which is one of my favorite tracks. The production on this one is actually amazing. I really don’t know what else to say about it honestly. It’s just a fantastic Jazz Rap instrumental. The vocal sample that eventually comes in sounds great. I will say that the song honestly overstays its welcome a little bit; it probably doesn’t need to be three minutes long, but it’s still very enjoyable to me. The next track is actually just the instrumental version of the milo song that I mentioned earlier. When I first heard this track, I started questioning whether the rest of these songs are original beats, or if this is just a compilation of instrumentals he had given to other rappers. I’m still not completely sure, but all the other beats were new to me. Anyway, the Tiptoe beat itself is pretty great; I would rather just listen to the original song by milo, but this is still a very enjoyable beat on its own. It transitions really well into Teach Me, which is labeled as an interlude. I really appreciate the brevity of this track because the preceding songs are honestly a bit too long in my opinion. Teach Me had a pretty cool beat, but it’s not nearly as entertaining to me as the previous one, even though I like the short length. I see why he left it as an interlude instead of extending its length. The next track, So They Say, is a very smooth, jazzy, slightly gritty, old school underground Hip Hop beat. To me it kinda sounds like something that Slug would’ve murdered back in the pre-Lemons days. I also think Ghostface Killah would sound great over this one. I really love the beat. It’s one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s just begging to be shredded by a super lyrical underground MC. It’s dope af. The next track, Come Sunday, has another fantastic, jazzy, murky instrumental. It’s slightly more downtempo than the preceding track. I really wish I could hear an old school Earl Sweatshirt verse over this beat. It’s another awesome instrumental, but it probably doesn’t need to be three minutes long. It’s followed by There It Is, which I think is my favorite track on the album. I don’t know. I’m still trying to figure out what my favorite track is as of September 27th. Anyway, the uncredited vocals on this track sound fucking heavenly. It sounds spectacular. It’s the soundtrack to me frolicking through a field of flowers while stoned out of my mind. I love it. The next track is another interlude. This one is called Wired, and it’s ironically very chill. I like it much more than the first interlude. It’s dope. The beat on Tristeza didn’t blow me away like a lot of the other non-interludes did, but it’s still quite good. The beat makes me think of Times Square at night. It sounds like rich businessmen in the form of an instrumental. It’s dope though. One for Ghost is another great beat. The vocal sample is fantastic. I’m assuming the beat was meant for Styles P because of the title, but I might be wrong about that. I really love this instrumental, but, again, it probably doesn’t need to be over three minutes. The following track, Touch You, sounded more like something that Jansport J would produce, but a bit more polished and less lo-fi. I don’t find it as interesting as most of the other tracks, but I still like it. Track 12 is called Immaculate, and the beat is… Immaculate 😎. Nah, but seriously, it’s one of my favorite tracks on the album. It’s a super comforting, smooth, chill, jazzy, warm sounding beat. Listening to it makes me feel like sitting at a fireplace with my mom eating chicken noodle soup. That’s how comforting it sounds. I love the scratches from DJ Chali that come in about halfway through the track too. The beat is so good that I don’t even mind the long length. DJ Chali definitely helps to keep things from getting stale. It’s a fantastic track. Enough for You has another really gorgeous beat. The bells sound really pretty. It’s another smooth, warm sounding instrumental. The saxophone that eventually comes in around the one minute mark is glorious. Again, this is another fantastic track. I think it’s the last real standout song on the album. Courtesy has a pretty nice beat, but it doesn’t really impress me as much as most of the others. It’s very chill and relaxing though. I definitely like it; it just didn’t capture my attention right away. When Genes came on, I got that same feeling that I was sitting by a fireplace. It’s another interlude, but it sounds like it could’ve just been tacked onto the end of Courtesy as an outro. I feel pretty much the same way about this song that I felt about the previous interlude. The final track, Resurrection, is a pretty good outro. It’s just a chill, piano-driven, jazzy instrumental. It’s not amazing or anything, but it’s a step up from the couple of tracks that precede it. It’s a dope song. 🙂

Overall, I think this album is great. The last four tracks made for a relatively underwhelming end to the album, but as a whole I really enjoyed this one. I think it’s one of the better instrumental albums I’ve heard in 2019. There are a lot of awesome beats on this project that I think are fantastic. It’s not like every single track was blowing me away, but this thing got off to a really great start. There aren’t any beats here that I think are completely wack. Again, that 80s porno song wasn’t great, but I wouldn’t actually call it wack. I just won’t be returning to it in the future. But yeah, this thing is great. If you’re into jazzy Hip Hop production you definitely need to give this project a shot. It’s dope.

Favorite Song: There It Is
Least Favorite Song: True Ray

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