This album was released on July 21st this year. Lt. Headtrip is an artist who I’ve been a big fan of ever since I first heard his 2020 album, Dreamery. That project honestly blew me away, so I’ve had my eye on him ever since then. I went on to enjoy his album from last year, Steinway, as well as the singles he was releasing around that year including So in My Head & I Want It All. We also went to the same college, so when I found that out it just made me even more of a fan. On the other hand, I’ve enjoyed the beats I’ve heard from DOS4GW on songs by artists like billy woods & Wrecking Crew. However, it hasn’t been enough material for me to really get a good idea of what a full project from them would sound like. I had no idea what to expect from this album sonically. I just had a feeling that it would be very weird.

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The opening song is entitled Pica. Honestly, I don’t really care for the dark, heavy, Electronic, yet unmelodic production on this track. It’s very abrasive, and sounds kind of ugly to me. I have a feeling that the “ugliness” of this instrumental is intentional, which is cool. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. I just don’t really happen to enjoy this one in particular. I wouldn’t say it’s a bad beat at all, but I don’t get much enjoyment out of it. The rapping from Headtrip is really what makes this song worth listening to for me. Lately I’ve been thinking about the term “best rapper alive” a lot. Certain artists that make this term pop into my head when I listen to them are Cambatta, Qwel, Vega7 the Ronin, Eyedea, Nejma Nefertiti, etc. It’s not only a label that I think can be acquired through technical skill. I thought of it when listening to this song because I realized that there’s nobody who can rap the way Lt. Headtrip does—aside from maybe Vinny Vinny Video. His wordy flow is too intricate and too all over the place for someone to be able to emulate without an immense amount of practice.

My left Doc spit the toe out in the snow
Now I got a wet sock and a junk foot in my pocket next to the Marlboros
Copped back alley Hennessy after Obama’s inauguration
And sucked her little piggies 'til she drippy, the amenities left my heart exposed
Now all my cognac tastes of a pipe dream that I laid once over eight months
And gave up 'fore the cycle complete and main busted
It rained a bit regardless
A little water never hurt anything, a lot of water could cause some itsy bitsy carnage
Chest plate's the display model, break it for amusement
I guess I’ll take "played with often" over a placated human
Whose destiny waits for a sign, a nudge, allowance and a partner to make his move
But has a success rate as high the Suffolk County Police Department’s interrogation room

Dude’s flow is absolutely insane. I don’t really know how to explain it, other than that it makes me picture a balloon that’s being filled up until it’s on the brink of exploding. That probably means nothing to most people who will read this, but do with that imagery as you will. Anyway, if I had to compare Headtrip’s style to someone else, I’d say he’s kinda similar to a lot of those Project Blowed guys. His flow is a little Busdriver-esque. That’s not me saying he sounds like Busdriver though. His vocal delivery is nowhere near as inaccessible. Their music sounds nothing alike. It’s just the way he flows that’s kinda similar in my opinion. The rap performance here is mesmerizing. However, if I wasn’t as much of a lyrics-focused listener as I am, then I don’t know if I’d dig this song. Like I said, the instrumental isn’t that enjoyable to me, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t grow on me at least a little bit after multiple listens. I actually really fuck with the song despite not loving the production. I think it’s really cool. The following track is called Current Events.

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I think I like the instrumental on this one a little more than that of the preceding track. It still has that kind of cold, mechanical, robotic sound that I don’t love, but it’s kinda cool. Once again, the rapping is what really draws me in. It’s not only the lyricism, but also the flow and vocal delivery. He just sounds really aggressive and angry on this track, and he only gets more energetic with his delivery as the song progresses.

Fantasy polluted with a bad dream’s guilt nap exclusively in the casket, still
Latched and nailed, autobiography misconstrued as a fanfic film
Produced by a sensationalist
I just can’t mourn the expirations of the characters I don’t relate with

The way the beat switches up about halfway through the track adds a lot too. I think the opening song packs a bit more punch overall, but I like this track a lot too. It’s followed by Quiet Game, which was exciting for me because it features Collasoul Structure & SKECH185. However, this was the only song I didn’t really care for on my first listen of the album. It’s just the production, man. I really wanted to like this song because I’m a fan of all the MCs that spit over it, but the abrasive instrumental was just kind of grating to me. Thankfully, after repeat listens, the song definitely grew on me. I like it now, but it’s still far from a favorite of mine. With that said, the rapping here is too fantastic for me to not appreciate this song. Headtrip fucking shredded the first verse.

Curtain, call it, tab out, bad trip, good trip, mask down
You got questions? Ask now, speech is a weapon, and how?
Later ain’t promised, the sun’ll come out tomorrow or the sun’ll get demolished
In a sudden unforeseeable catastrophic impossible demonstration of violence
Like fuck your accomplishments, and fuck your Adonis
Your prophet ain’t call it and the God head’s lost his
You're a minor accomplice, wrong side, battling for tired misogynists
So if you all about talkin’ shit, on a blow your own horn colonics tip
Keep that jawline zipped and drop the key in those toxic lips

He honestly has my favorite verse on the song, but Collasoul Structure & SKECH185’s verses were fantastic as well.

I’m not absolved of this
I’ll take another one of those callers 'til I call it quits and I find a hole to crawl back in
Failing the stand up guy act everyday cause I need an audience
The award for super goofy is mine, even if it’s posthumous

Again, the song had to grow on me, and it’s still not one of my favorites, but I definitely like it to some extent. Track 4 is called Sheep Dog, and it features Teddy Faley & Samurai Banana. This is the first instrumental on the album that I actually really liked. It’s not nearly as Electronic-sounding as some of the preceding instrumentals, but it’s still just as dark and menacing. I really love the dusty drums on this track too. This is kinda random, but I feel like Pusha T would sound amazing over this instrumental. I doubt he could’ve outperformed Headtrip though because he slaughtered this shit.

Blaze the floral, stage a porno with your holy choral members
‘Cause they give amazing oral and have bated hormones
Never in my life, maybe in my next pleasure has a price
Pay me in regrets, set the table right, pray before you’re fed
Don’t question what the chef made, take it to the head
Blind faith is a two way one lane path
You playin’ chicken with your savior wearin’ black out masks

I feel like Lt. Headtrip is really great at loading his personality into his verses. I can’t express how much I fuck with the rapping on this song. The Teddy Faley verse is arguably the best part of the whole track. Moments like this make me wish I recorded my first reactions to albums because I exclaimed “THAT’S FIRE” when I heard the closing line in his verse. I also love that line about not watching porn because he’s famous and he gets women. That was fire. The religion theme of this song is definitely something I appreciated. This is another song that grew on me heavily. I think it’s dope as hell. It’s followed by Corporate Voyeurs, which was my favorite song on my first listen of the album. I actually love this instrumental. I think it sounds amazing. It’s definitely my favorite beat on the album I think. Headtrip sounds superb over it too.

I’m Jack Torrance of Rap, I’m that horrid
When Jules Bax' pass me the axe I hack doors in
The hair of the dog you toss back on a bad mornin’
The poison you picked, can’t avoid and don’t enjoy
If a scornful view from the global zoo’s what you came for then
Dig no deeper, my seekers the same coordinates
Just pay it forward, share the word of the abnormal with this
World of tourists who scorn their self importance, shit
Maybe she's born with it
Maybe she modified her body ‘cause the Gods of her fathers called her an ornament
Maybe she’s more than this and won’t admit her glory
‘Cause your deplorable ass is ignoring her enormous hints
Who let the bastard out the orphanage? 
This incorrigible force cursed with resourcefulness
That came in like a wrecking ball
And went out like a four week bender on amphetamines and ethanol

Even though this is one of my favorite songs on the album, it’s also probably the one I have the least to say about. It’s just a fantastic, dark, kind of ghostly instrumental with an amazing verse from Headtrip. The song’s fire. Track 6 is called Hands Off, and it’s another one of the more exciting songs in the tracklist because it features Elucid. The production is very tribal-sounding. The high-pitched noise in the background sounds like a malfunctioning machine. I don’t really like it that much, but it’s kinda cool. The way it kinda evolves during the hook is nice. The opening verse from Elucid is really good. The song really gets entertaining to me once the hook starts though. Headtrip’s shouty performance here sounds kinda fire. The actual verse is absolutely stellar as well.

You choose your level of involvement at gunpoint
New recruits for the punch toy, power tools on the pork loin
People do wild shit under a blue moon’s omen
And promptly start giving a fuck when it’s too cool to act stoic
Emulate the pornstars, measure areolas
Look your genital blemishes up on Internet Explorer
Scream, screen shots fired at compulsive data hoarders
You only live once you’ve become one with your destroyer

It’s a pretty good song. I fuck with it. It’s followed by a highlight entitled In Somnis Praestigiae, which features Christina Pecce. I really like the way this track starts. The way it fades in is one of the quieter, more subtle moments on the album. The beat in general is just way less abrasive than a lot of the preceding instrumentals. It feels far more ethereal, yet it still kinda retains that cold, mechanical aesthetic that permeates the record. It’s one of the more melodic beats on the project too. The lyricism from Lt. Headtrip is amazing here. This motherfucker said “stigmata glory holes.” That’s crazy.

I faced the prospect that I was hostage in someone’s mirage
And weighed the odds against the consequences of cognizance, a lofty risk
They say bated breath control play is the cornerstone of every crumbling home
Had a pleasant childhood, but still a tortured soul, check the portfolio
What’s life other than a timeless story to tell? Act durable

Headtrip has a kind of unconventional approach to rhyming. There’s a lot more focus on internal rhymes than end rhymes here, which is cool. Anyway, the vocals from Christina Pecce that eventually come in are absolutely outstanding. That’s what really pushed this one to the next level for me. It just wouldn’t be right without those operatic guest vocals. I mean, don’t get me wrong; the song would still be dope without them. I just think they were the perfect touch. The closing verse on this track is even better than the first in my opinion.

I surrendered my prudence when I committed to tying blood knots with my would-be wife
I’m still nervous to fall asleep because my succubus is good with knives
Keep a bottle in the tool kit, this is a disguise
I’ve just forgotten how to remove it, "Hey, who you callin’ human?"
Keep it movin’, "Look, it thinks it’s lucid” as the sky begins to crack
From where they stand in judgment they’re blind to the writing on the back
If they’d only pry their eyes out they could almost hear the designers imbibe
And cackle while they commemorate the accomplishment of the proper signage for their trap

I love this dude’s writing. I loved this song the moment I heard it, but now I love it even more. It’s grown to become one of my favorite songs of the year honestly. It’s dope as fuck. The following track is called PDTOTG. The beat here is actually pretty cool. The drum loop that serves as the beat’s backbone sounds really good. The storytelling from Headtrip here is really well done. I never know whether to explain what’s happening in a story or leave it up to listeners to find out themselves whenever I cover a storytelling song. I think it’s best not to spoil it though, so I won’t be diving into the lyrical content of this track that much. There are two animal-related stories being told here, and they both had me hooked. The second one in particular had kind of a sad ending to me. It’s like the subject of the story was afraid of its own freedom. The stories here also kinda reminded me of Plato’s allegory of the cave. Any time a story can touch on that theme of discovery and liberation I’m here for it. I think this song is lyrically amazing honestly. The production isn’t my favorite, but I definitely enjoyed the instrumental overall. This is really great. The penultimate track is called God’s Lens. This is another really stellar storytelling track. I like it even more than the preceding song in all honesty. I think this track arguably has the best rap performance on the whole album. He killed this shit.

Let’s go where only the strong will prevail
Let’s go where a man’s no longer surveilled
Let’s go, all this solitude got him startin’ to feel
Like he kinda maybe wanna put a bomb in the mail
But he’s calmed by his sanctum, an altar far from the cell of his onlookers' stares
The laws of the feral are all that cares to acknowledge, solemn, he follows a trail
And there at the end of the path, he takes in the wind to relax
Still, the paranoia tears at the back of his skull, paralyzed, dead in his tracks
Looks to sky and he gasps, and can’t help but laugh
Written backwards on the vast expanse, “please don’t tap on the glass"

Once I heard this song, I really started to appreciate the way this album is sequenced more. This one makes a lot of sense coming after PDTOTG. The similar themes of being trapped, and even the use of the same “break the fuck out” phrase make it sound like a logical successor. The weird production on this song is pretty cool too. I feel like it takes a very specific skillset to be able to rap over this kind of beat and make it work. Headtrip sounds so comfortable over this instrumental that it’s almost weird. He killed this shit. This is another song that really grew on me. I think the song’s fantastic. The closing track is called Get Me Out. This one definitely has one of my favorite instrumentals on the album. I actually really love how hard-hitting the percussion sounds. Headtrip slaughtered this shit too.

Witness the death of a star, planetary nebula, celestial scars
Hidden in the crest and the core of a dwarf while it spins in the depths of bizarre
Intercepting an SOS emitted from a jettisoned vessel that’s in distress and outta armor
A humanoid fragment in a ripple in supernova remnant the rescue (Picard)

In terms of lyrical content, I’d be lying if I said I had this one fully deciphered. Headtrip’s flow and rhymes sound excellent here though. The kind of sleepy hook doesn’t really do much for me in terms of vocal delivery, but the lyrics are tight. I think this is a really good way to close the album. It’s a dope track.

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^{This album honestly grew on me a lot. I thought it was really good when I first heard it, but now I think it’s great. In fact, I like this one even more than Headtrip’s last album, which was also great. I’m really glad I gave this album so many listens because it’s very good, especially if you value abstract lyricism, wordy flows, and unorthodox instrumentals. The beats here are weird as fuck, and definitely not super accessible. I don’t think there are a lot of artists that could’ve made an album like this. Like I said in the body of this review, Lt. Headtrip sounds really comfortable over these weird, abrasive, Electronic beats. Speaking of the beats, I was kind of turned off by them at first. However, after multiple listens I was able to get into them and appreciate what Headtrip did with them. This is definitely one of the weirdest albums I’ve heard so far this year. It’s not just weird for weirdess’ sake though. It feels genuine to me. I wasn’t expecting a Lt. Headtrip album to sound like this at all because it’s completely different from the other two albums I’ve heard from him. I definitely think I enjoyed the second half more, but there aren’t any tracks that I didn’t like after repeated listens. I think it’s a really dope album. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments below.}

Favorite Song: In Somnis Praestigiae
Least Favorite Song: Quiet Game

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