Perhaps no other new artist in hip hop made more underground rap fans and hip hop vets turn heads quicker than Joey Bada$$ did. Last year when he dropped his debut mixtape 1999, many people were blown away. He's bringing back a sound of hip hop that hasn't been heard in a long, long time. The golden era boom bap style hip hop. The sound that was generated from the east coast during the 1990's. Everything from Joey's voice, his flow, lyrics and production just screams mid-90's New York. Most other rappers Joey's age are making poppy radio club songs. You would think someone as young as him would never be influenced by the kind of hip hop that was popular before he was even born. It's safe to say he and his group Pro Era stands out from the rest of the pack. After dropping that mixtape last year, everyone put Joey on their radar. Anticipating the next project. Well it's here. His third mixtape Summer Knights. I for one thought 1999 was one of the best projects of 2012 and would probably be a tough act to follow. Pro Era's mixtape PEEP: The Aprocalypse, which dropped in December of 2012 was good but wasn't quite as good as 1999. Well this time around it's the same thing. Though this wasn't as good as the last tape, I still did enjoy Summer Knights a lot. As usual Joey's throwback flow and lyricism mixed with the boom bap styled production are very well present. This tape to me seemed a bit more darker and more serious toned than the last tape. Especially on the first half of it. The first thing that caught my eye is the list of producers involved with this project. Everyone from DJ Premier, to Statik Selektah, The Alchemist, MF Doom, fellow Pro Era member Chuck Strangers and a few others. These are truly the type of producers that fit what Joey does and they totally made this tape shine brighter with their production. Now on to the notable tracks. My favorite track to me was the last track on the tape "Unorthodox". This was the lone track produced by DJ Premier and really for that alone I enjoyed this song a lot. Joey's old school flow meshes so perfectly with Premo's throwback record scratching beats. I would have loved for more songs on here to be produced by him because this was dope as hell. The track "Word Is Bond" is another super dope song acknowledging the popular New York slang term. The beat was well produced by Statik Selektah. The song "Long Live Steelo" is basically a eulogy to his friend and Pro Era member Capitol Steez who passed away late last year. It was a emotional song where he's just reminiscing on the good and bad times they had and wishing to kick it with him again, do another song with him again and all of that. Good song. "Amethyst Rockstar" was a cool song and was probably the most energetic song on the whole tape. Joey drops some very hard and aggressive lyrics in a very deeper and rougher voice. MF Doom provides a very uptempo, spacy and somewhat futuristic sounding beat. Another enjoyable track was "Sit N Prey". The highlight of the song was the guest verse from Dessy Hinds who sounds a lot different on here than he did on the Pro Era mixtape. On here his voice is deeper and he sounds a lot like Jay-Z circa 1996. "Sorry Bonita" is basically a posse cut that features various members of Pro Era where all of them was just spitting like a cipher. These were the type of songs that were present on Pro Era's mixtape and was also what made that mixtape enjoyable. On "Reign" he sits back and reflects on where his life was, where he is now and where he wants to be in the future. Already calling himself "the king" and he's just "fresh out of high school". Comparing himself to LeBron James in that sense. There were really only two songs I had a problem with. When I saw the track title "Death Of YOLO" I said to myself "finally someone did it!" I'm sick of the term "YOLO". Turns out he didn't really "kill" it. But more so overused it in the hook in an attempt to I guess mock the way rappers constantly use it. I felt he should have went the extra mile with this and really went hard on everybody that says it. Wasted opportunity. "My Youth" I really wasn't feeling and this was after multiple listens. He links up with Collie Buddz for a reggae infused track that really sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of this tracks. Certainly one song I could have did without. Overall I thought this was a very enjoyable mixtape. I give it a final grade of a B. At such a young age, it's so refreshing to see Joey Bada$$ bring this style of rap back to relevance. This is truly what hip hop and especially the east coast needs right now. Hopefully the fame doesn't consume him and he changes because he just may push others to dive into this vintage style too. Hopefully this marks the official rebirth of true New York east coast hip hop. End.
Final Grade: B
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