November 7th, 2008
Byron Crawford Reviews Reef The Lost Cauze’s Latest
Famed hip-hop blogger Byron Crawford often lives up to his reputation as “your favorite rapper’s least favorite blogger.” Fact is, he often doesn’t have very nice things to say about artists. And his shitting all over your new album is almost a right of passage at this point. Still, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t smart. Hell, frequent Roots collaborator Dice Raw even wrote a verse threatening to kill him. That said, Reef The Lost Cauze’s new joint A Vicious Cycle got touched up by Crawford today, but not too badly when you consider how savagely he’s torn through albums in the past.
His conclusion:
What a clusterfuck of an album. Don’t get me wrong. Reef continues to make a case for his being one of the very best MCs in the game right now, for what it’s worth. The best tracks here reflect a maturity even beyond Feast or Famine. But some of the production choices on this album just plain don’t make any sense. Does he really think he’s got any chance of his shit being played in a club? Or is he just really into that kind of music? At any rate, Fuck You Pay Me Records might want to invest in a good A&R.
Not so bad. Congrats, Reef. Also, yes, you read that correctly. I did call A Vicious Cycle Reef’s new “joint.” And I am that bad at Photoshop.
Read Byron’s track by track review here.
