This album was released on July 5th this year. I first covered T H R O N E last year when I wrote about their Toxic Jungle album, but I’ve been aware of them as artists since 2022 I think. After hearing that project, I went on to enjoy the Strange Meat record that dropped towards the end of that year. The track Terminal Danger! instantly became my favorite song by them when I first heard it. This past May they released another album called ROYAL JELLY. It’s definitely the most experimental album they’ve done, and it went over really well. I think it’s the first album they’ve released that I would say is truly great. I would’ve been satisfied with that album alone, but here they are with a follow up just a couple months later. What’s crazy is that this one is even better.

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Based on the album title, my presumption was that this album was inspired in some way by William Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I have never read that play in my life, but it was one of the first works by Shakespeare that I had ever heard of because we had the book in my house when I was a small child. I also just think the cover art looks like something an artist would’ve made in the 16th century, which is when Shakespeare lived most of his life. Anyway, I read the top of the Wikipedia page for the play, and the following couple of sentences stood out to me.

The play contains music and songs that evoke the spirit of enchantment on the island. It explores many themes, including magic, betrayal, revenge, and family.

This context kind of framed my listening experience for the album. Anyway, the record begins with Warpath, which is produced by Wulf Morpheus. I really dig the jazzy, piano-driven instrumental here, and YVHIKV’s vocals in the background really enhance things while Hayatheus is rapping. The combination of background vocals along with the piano loop really delivers on The Tempest’s promises of “enchantment.” H has a nice, oftentimes freeform flow and approach to writing rhymes, and I just really dig the attitude and perspective he tends to express in all his verses. I really like the hook on this track too. The “cross the moat, lower the gate, and let my people through” line is very cool. It’s a really dope song. I was kind of surprised the first time I heard it because it sounds completely different from the type of stuff they were doing on ROYAL JELLY. I thought that was the sound they were gonna be sticking with in general, but they’re clearly not boxing themselves into one sound. Anyway, track 2 is called None like I. This one has a really awesome beat from In2une. To me it sounds like something Navy Blue or Mavi and other adjacent artists would rap over, at least at some point in their careers. This song has a very straightforward structure—the whole thing is pretty much just one verse. It’s tied with track 7 as the shortest song on the album. I think you could really take any few lines from this song and be able to understand what I meant when I said H often has a “freeform flow and approach to writing rhymes.”

Not finna stop 'til I lord over the empire's games like a dolomite
Not gonna stop rockin' 'til I find my pockets so well that I make a dinner in a bag outta every collab, blow like dynamite
Been pent up, but now locked on
Release the rocket barrage and block the sky
Not rainin' 'til I flood the stations, catchin' up on hesitations, gettin' solidified
I've stopped waitin' for them to give notice, my fire wakin' even if you pay no mind
I'ma get paid no matter Hip Hop's age, 'cause my place never been taken, there's none like I

Just look at the way those lines are written. Don’t even pay attention to the words themselves; just look how they words are arranged on the screen. Most rappers have a more uniform writing style, but H’s rhymes feel unrestrained in comparison here. Another MC who’s kinda similar in that regard is Josiah the Gift, but he still sounds completely different. Anyway, this song does feel a tad bit scant, so I think it could’ve been fleshed out a bit more, but what’s here is so well done that I still think it’s a dope track. I fuck with it. The following song is called Prometheus, and it’s produced by In2une & DEADPAN. This is definitely one of my favorite songs on the album. Once again, a lot of it has to do with the aforementioned flow. I just really dig this style. The beat here is pretty awesome too. I love how H raps with basically no percussion at all until a minute into the track. The way he was flowing, especially at the very beginning of the verse, is really awesome. I feel like H is the type of rapper who could make a verse with zero rhymes flow so well that you wouldn’t even notice. That’s not to say that he doesn’t rhyme. He just has very unpredictable patterns to me.

When you hearin' this project I'm probably three ahead
Got so many albums I'll probably be droppin' long after I'm dead
My peers and they obelisk to worship don't get stuck in my head
I had to cross to the other side to walk back from whence I tread
I'm reincarnated
In my past life I parted, unsatisfied with what I had accomplished
Then I did, explains the relentless sense of purpose and self pressure I always had
I'm not catchin' up, I had a head-start, now I'm gettin' ahead
Pickin' up where I left off after my dad
Is this your first or last visit? I'ma work my ass off so my spirit can get it

The song’s dope as hell. It’s followed by another highlight called Trust among enemies, which is produced by Wulf Morpheus & BBGLOS. Once again, I really love the production here. This beat is incredible honestly. The way it evolves throughout the run time of the track is so cool. H’s voice sounds really awesome over it as well. The line he had about the A.I. telling him that his regalia was dazzling was really cool to me. I like the hook on this track a lot too. On my first few listens I didn’t even separate it from the verses in my head because it kinda blends in sonically. The more time I took to digest the track, the more I was able to make sense of everything musically. I probably went back to this track the most as I was trying to study the album, although it immediately stood out as a highlight on my first listen. I think it’s dope as hell. Track 5 is called Enheretv, and it’s produced by Deep Fried Pocky. H is the most prominent voice on the album up to this point, so it’s cool to hear a track where YVHIKV is at the forefront. I love the vocal sample that was flipped for this track, and YVHIKV’s singing sounds great over it. I really liked the way the vocals were layered starting at the 0:43 mark. This leads to another moment of the aforementioned “enchantment.” It’s a great song. I really fuck with it. It’s followed by So I guess I’m alive, which is my favorite song on the album. It’s produced by Kamii & nishith. This beat is absolutely stunning. It’s so fire. I love it. I’m about to go on what may sound like a tangent, but just hear me out. At the end of 2018, I reviewed an album called After the Rain by The Underachievers. It was a very timely album for me personally—if you know you know—so to be honest it should’ve resonated with me way more than it does. I really appreciated the theme and what they were going for, but I have not listened to that album since I covered it. I just didn’t really enjoy the execution, but that’s beside the point. The title, After the Rain, refers to the period of relief after overcoming a depressive episode. Whenever I think about that feeling, the title “After the Rain” pops into my head. I say all this to say, “So I guess I’m alive” pretty much conveys the same emotions to me. Thankfully it’s via a song that I actually enjoy musically.

I found a rope in the darkness
I feel the soft glimmer of light in the distance
I cut my bare feet on the wet sharp stone
Kept climbing, just a garçon waiting for a rise
Looking for a light on my life, let the callers reveal my kind
What am I? You decide

I felt this song on a spiritual level. Once again, the aforementioned enchantment was strong here. This is probably where I sensed it the most on the album. One more thing I wanna say regarding the whole “After the Rain” concept is that this song basically makes me feel the way I felt the last time I was discharged from a psych ward. It’s like the realization that things are gonna be okay in the form of music. Something about H’s vocal tone seems a bit different here too. I can’t really put my finger on it. I don’t know how to describe the emotions that are conveyed just through his voice, but he sounds vulnerable I guess. I don’t know if that makes sense. This is random as hell, but to be completely honest his voice reminded me of XXXTENTACION here. I wasn’t really super into X when he was at his most popular, and I’m even less into him now, but the vulnerability in his music is the one thing I always respected about him. This song has all that vulnerability minus the overwhelming toxicity, which makes for something very special. The vocals from YVHIKV that eventually come in after 65 seconds elevate the song even further. Her outro is glorious too. Her singing sounds stellar. This is definitely one of my favorite tracks of the year. It might be my favorite song T H R O N E has ever made. It’s dope as fuck. Track 7 is called Orphalese, and it has another instrumental from In2une. The beat here is really chill and melodic. It definitely sounds like something andrew would fit over perfectly. Like I said earlier, this is tied with None like I as the shortest song on the album. It kinda feels like a really good interlude. It’s nowhere near as memorable as most of the other songs, but I do still like it. It’s a good track. The penultimate song is called Casting Rifles, and it’s produced by nishith & Deep Fried Pocky. This song has another fantastic beat. The oddly blown out, glitchy bass that comes in after about 15 seconds sounds cool as shit. The first verse from H is nice, and YVHIKV sounded great on the second half of the song. I’m not totally in love with the hook on this track, but overall I still really like it. It’s a good song. However, since it’s the longest track I do think it stands out a bit in that way. Anyway, the closing track is called I needed to speak, and it’s produced by Timur Yilmaz. The instrumental here is excellent. I absolutely adore the familiar sample here. It sounds amazing. It was cool how YVHIKV rapped more on these last couple of tracks. The transition between the verses from H & her on this song in particular is kind of bizarre, but in a really cool way. I also love the way this song ends. It’s super abrupt, but it just sounds really good. It’s one of those situations where the silence of the music being over hits you so unexpectedly that it almost becomes its own part of the experience. Needless to say, that ends up having a really awesome effect for me as the listener. I think this track is dope as hell.

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^{This album is great. Like I basically said in the preamble to this review, I think this is the best album T H R O N E has released so far in their careers. Again, I appreciate how this one sounds nothing like the LP that preceded it. The production here is superb, and both Hayatheus & YVHIKV complemented each other over it in a manner that leads to a sense of enchantment. I think they really know how to fit together and let each other shine. I may have mentioned this last time I covered them, but I think T H R O N E’s songwriting quality has vastly improved over the past couple years, especially in comparison to their first album. Even the songs that are really short and just one verse long don’t feel too skeletal to return to. Nothing here feels pointless. There’s no filler here. The songs range from 73 seconds to just under three minutes long. The entire thing is under 20 minutes. I dug every track. This record is dope. Check it out.}

Favorite Song: So I guess I’m alive
Least Favorite Song: Casting Rifles

83

Watch the video below for more thoughts on this album.