Don’t sleep on this new album from Steel Tipped Dove. It was released on October 8th this year, and it’s fucking fire. His production on this album is absolutely fantastic. These beats are super detailed; even if there was nobody rapping over them I’d be hooked. Thankfully, there are quite a few amazing features on this album. billy woods, Elucid, Pink Siifu, The Koreatown Oddity, SKECH185, and Fatboi Sharif are just a handful of the artists involved, and they all came through with stellar performances. billy woods actually delivers verses on four separate songs, so if you’re a fan of him you definitely don’t wanna sleep on this project.

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I’m just gonna talk about a few of the highlights for me. Warner Wolf features Elucid, and it has an amazing instrumental. It’s a really pretty, yet dark sounding beat. There’s a lot going on here; the production is very detailed. It’s not just a boring loop. Elucid fits over it perfectly too. I wish I had the lyrics for this song because I don’t feel confident enough to try to transcribe them on my own. Elucid sounds awesome here though. There’s really not a single aspect of the song that didn’t impress me. This is definitely one of the best songs on the album in my opinion. It’s dope as hell. The following track is called Don’t Move, and it’s even better in my opinion. I’m not really that familiar with Fat Tony’s work, but I think he sounds amazing on this track. His flow is fantastic, and his voice just sounds really great over the beat. The instrumental itself is really pretty, and slightly cloudy. The vocals from Fielded that eventually come in sound fucking phenomenal too. Pink Siifu of course sounded awesome on the second verse as well. Honestly, pretty much every single aspect of this song impressed me. I think it’s one of the best songs of the year. The production is top notch, the verses are great, the hook is catchy, and the vocals from Fielded are awesome. The song is dope af. The following track is called NFT, and it features The Koreatown Oddity & billy woods. In my opinion, The Koreatown Oddity sounds a lot like Open Mike Eagle here. His verse is really well written.

Tell me, what's the most precious?
It gotta be the one thing everybody be obsessed with
The grains of sand in an hourglass
Where don't nobody know if the tempo goin' slow or fast
Watchin' the lower half, you know just what you left with
Where can I buy an NFT of an extra sixty seconds?
So I can take this moment and extend it
While dancing to the rhythm of my genuine perspective
You can tell by the charisma in my methods
That I don't take the steps, the steps take me where I'm destined

I really dig the spacey, kind of ambient-sounding production here, and billy woods did a great job on the second verse as well. Track 6 is called Buddy Ryan, and it has my favorite verse from billy woods on the whole album. That line about turning loops to pretzels was fire. I also loved that line about how he cries to keep from laughing. I really like the bizarre, kind of discordant production on this track too. This track has what’s possibly the weirdest beat on the album. SKECH185 fits over it perfectly too. The song is dope as hell. The penultimate track is called Black Spiderman, and it features Fatboi Sharif. This track has a really nice electric guitar driven-beat, and Sharif sounds great over it. The way the beat switches up about halfway through the track is really cool too. I think Sharif did a great job of matching the tone of the production. It almost sounds like him & Steel Tipped Dove are competing to be as weird as possible. The song is really dope. The closing track is entitled Simple Machines, and it has one of the prettiest, softest beats on the album. It also features one more fantastic performance from billy woods. My only complaint is that the song ends a bit earlier than I was expecting it too, but I still love the track since it has a great verse and one of my favorite beats on the album. I think it’s dope as hell.

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^{This is one of the better albums I’ve heard in 2021. There’s not a single track here that didn’t impress me. Like I said earlier, even if there were no features here I would still be hooked by the production. The artists that contributed to this release all did a fantastic job though. I really don’t have any consistent gripes with the album. I hope Steel Tipped Dove does something like this again in the future because this album was a massive success in my opinion. Fans of Abstract Hip Hop are seriously fucking up if they decide to skip over this release. Do not sleep on this shit. It’s dope as hell.}

Favorite SOng: Don’t Move
Least Favorite Song: Kingston

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