This EP was originally released on February 17th this year. Last year Rich Jones put out an album with Iceberg Theory entitled Smoke Detector that I really enjoyed, so when I saw that he had a new project out, I knew that I had to give it a listen. I wasn’t familiar with goldenbeets before checking this project out, so I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the production. However, after giving this EP a listen, I knew that I had to tell y’all about it because I was thoroughly entertained.
The project begins with Good Luck, which features Milc. My introduction to Milc was his collaborative album with Televangel that came out last year. I didn’t really care for that project, and I wouldn’t consider myself a fan of Milc, but I don’t think he’s bad. He just doesn’t really make music that appeals to me personally. With that said, I didn’t mind his verse on this song at all. It was pretty good. I definitely preferred Rich’s performance on this song, but both of them did a nice job. The colorful production from goldenbeets is pretty fantastic. That’s definitely my favorite aspect of this song. I love this beat. There’s not really much of a hook. Rich just says the words “good luck” between the verses, which is cool. It sounds pretty great. This isn’t a super nerdy lyrical miracle type of track. It’s a great song though. The production is fire, and the flows and rhymes from both MCs are nice. It’s a very mellow, chill track. I think it’s dope. The following track, Slurricane, is even better. Once again, I really love the production here. goldenbeets really impressed me on this project. The sample they flipped here is fire. Rich Jones’ light, melodic vocal delivery over it sounds really nice too. I love the sung hook on this track. This might be a weird ass thing to say, but I actually feel like Jay-Z would sound great over this beat. The first verse on this track is nice, and the second one is even better in my opinion.
Sour grape serenades attracting more of the same
No wonder I've been stuck in the same place
Glasses on to save face, know you're crying
Ok I'm cryin', it was from laughter, nervous armor, avert disaster
I really appreciate the detailed song structure here. The song is less than 2 minutes long, but it feels more fleshed out than a lot of the full songs I hear from underground artists. He manages to squeeze two short verses and a hook into the brief runtime of this track, which is impressive to me. I think this song is really dope. The penultimate track is called Hasheesh, and it features greenSLLIME.
Once again, I absolutely love the production. This beat is fantastic. This is a really fun, lighthearted song about how hash makes everything better. I agree. In fact, I even tweeted about it recently. I feel like my rhyme here was under appreciated.
Anyway, the first verse from Rich Jones is really nice.
I’ve been stuck in the depths, not sure what to grasp
‘Cause gasp, everything seems so ass, but thankfully
Everything is better with hash, exponentially
How do you cope with the obscenity?
The bad days have no melody
And the good ones, no one’s tellin’ me shit
I just sit, that’s it
The hook from greenSLLIME is pretty fun, and the audio clip of Kingpin saying “I still want that gas, yes” made me laugh out loud. greenSLLIME’s actual verse is pretty great too.
Fat bags of the haze at Bluebird
Every day I wake up tryna smoke a new herb
Green place to the gray area
In Amsterdam, but I'm smokin' on the Bay Area
I don't care who you is, I ain't scared of ya
This is just a really fun, lighthearted song about getting high. I love it. It also has one of the best music videos I’ve seen so far this year. Few things are more pleasing to me than the image of a hotdog smoking from a bong. That shit is awesome. I love it. The song’s dope as hell. The following track is called The Sting, and it’s arguably even better. I was frankly blown away by the production on this song. Lyrically, this track resonated with me a lot. I think the rapping is really good here.
In a temple of loneliness waiting for something to shine on me
A hand to pull me up, pull me out, beam me up, baby
I waited three decades and change to finally be ok with me
Both of the verses are dope. I think his flow and vocal delivery sound really good, and the hook on this track is nice too. The song was already dope as hell, but what pushes it to the next level is the saxophone on the outro from Eric Novak. He killed this shit. It sounds beautiful. This song honestly grew on me a lot. I loved it on my first listen, but now it’s one of my favorite songs of the year. I think it’s amazing.
This project is dope as hell. There’s not a single song that I don’t think is great, and it honestly just gets better and better as it progresses. I already knew Rich Jones was dope before hearing this, but this was my introduction to goldenbeets, and I think they knocked it outta the park with the instrumentals here. They’re really detailed and they have a lot of soul to them. I would love to hear more work from goldenbeets in the future. In fact, I wouldn’t mind hearing a whole album from both of these artists. Rich Jones fits over these instrumentals perfectly. The features also all came through with nice performances. This is a really fun listen. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments below. I think it’s fire.
Favorite Song: The Sting
Least Favorite Song: Good Luck
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What do you think?