Who the fuck told V don to save all the good beats for himself? Sure he’s been handing out his signature sample heavy solemn sound to those with a worthy pen but with this releases he’s gather a few of them to create a cast for his audio vignettes.
V Don’s latest Ep is a collection of songs featuring his signature brand of cinematic samples and loops accented by a few handpick lyricist to rhyme there way through spine-chilling production. While Don is both director and star of the show the Emcees all show up as if it’s Hip Hop pole vaulting raising the bar with bars as the project gets progressively better after each track.
“The Bone Collector Ep” is a fitting title With V Don playing the role of Medical technician Richard Thompson using beats as his tool of choice toextract the rigidness of his vocal counterparts’. Don kidnapps Griselda’s Westside Gunn from the success of “Supreme Blientile” for the Ep’s opener “London Fog”. Don’s production here sounds like the opener for old film where you get that eerie feeling that although it’s the beginning somebody’s about to get fucked up. Westside breezes through the track paying homage to incarcerated comrades and boosting his own criminal annals “ I’ve been lock up for guns and drugs guns and drugs”; vicariously catching a felony never sound so good.
Retch appearance on “Back & Forth” is an act of intimidation with simple yet witty lyrics being spewed with passion. Be it “I’m at your neck just like a collar shirt” or “ For the love of diamonds did a pile of dirt” it all infers power and the threat of violence. The thunderous sound at the end of V Don’s loop accentuate Retch’s brash approach and make the song come alive.
Eto shows up twice on “family tree” and “all business respectively. The former is all about morals and a code of conduct, an honor amongst thieves even. A character built from strife Eto recites “ you don’t know because you wasn’t off the porch yet it all change when I left my doorstep” there’s a reluctant present in his words that make them more of a psa than a bragging point. V Don places Don Vito at closer of Family Tree to reinforce Eto’s message “because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a good man”.
“Stronger” features Kadeem and D Polo stringing together one liners with efficiency while Adonis and Crime Apple’s appearance on “Ain’t Safe” is just another example of V Don pairing emcees together over his somber production to frighten both fans and corny rappers alike. V Don extinguishes his phalanx of elite emcees after only 6 songs and offers up the instrumentals for the latter of the ep. Attempt to write to them if you’d like but this shit should came with instructions like Denzel lying in the guiding Angelina Jolie through the tunnel.
-Matthew Carroll
