It’s been a long time coming, but OMB Peezy’s sophomore album is here. Loyalty Over Love continues to bring the authenticity that makes his music so alluring. His lighthearted voice makes his heavy-handed street rap feel that much more alluring with their uniqueness. There’s a lot to love about it that manifests as it goes on. It may be too soon to say, but Loyalty Over Love looks to be a classic, and surely one of the best projects of 2018.

One of the album’s enduring themes is that loyalty matters over relationships. This manifests itself within the twelve track run time in a multitude of styles and influences, with the commonality being Peezy’s flow that carries the proceedings with gripping intent. Many of the beats managed to effectively mix somber with energetic in ways that only the Bay Area’s best can accomplish. Peezy delivers on multiple occasions throughout and makes for a thoroughly entertaining listen.

With twelve tracks of run time and features from Mozzy, TK Kravitz, and OMB Iceberg, it looks to be sparse on features and heavy with the intent of impressing by himself. This shows the kind of hunger and tenacity that escapes many of his peers who go for star-studded affairs.

Listen to Loyalty Over Love below.

There’s nothing like a hungry emcee. Prior to rapping, when he was just a producer working with many of the greats of the early aughts, Kanye was eager to prove himself as a capable artist. Many labels were unlucky to sign him, including Rocafella, the label he was producing for at the time. In a recently unearthed video, Kanye lets loose a ferocious freestyle that sounds unlike anything we’ve heard from him in damn near ten years. It’s tenacious, thrilling, and, at the same time heartbreaking.

Kanye looked much younger here, but also hungrier. You can see the murderous gleam in his eyes; he’s out to prove himself. When he gets the mic, he goes off. His profanity-laced sermon reeks of the vistas of talent stored within his bow. After only a minute, the freestyle cuts, but the effect stays with you. This Kanye West endured throughout the early 2000s and until around 2010 before he became much too full of himself.

In recent years, Kanye has become a parody of everything he used to hold dear. From endorsing President Trump to saying that slavery was a choice, he’s nowhere near the iconoclast that he used to be. Even his raps are filled with corny punchlines and lazily-structured songs. It seems like the final curtain has been cast on Kanye the creative. From here, it looks like it’s only going to go downhill.

Let’s admire the once hungry Kanye one last time with this clip below.

UNRELEASED Kanye West Freestyle

September 22nd, 2000. 10:45pm. Live from Kanye's home studio on 95th and Longwood. Beverly. Konman Productions HQ.

via ChannelZeroTV pic.twitter.com/h1LN8O5Ts5

— Andrew Barber (@fakeshoredrive) August 10, 2018

DJ Clark Kent surprised the world early yesterday morning with the release of “XTCSY.” The track appeared on a tracklist for ye released in mid-May, ahead of the June release date, so the song must have been finished for some time. It just didn’t make the final cut. And, to be honest, after listening to it, we kind of see why.

The production is pretty lackluster. A push for soulful sounds doesn’t work nearly as much as some of Kanye’s older work; in fact, it takes so long to get into that you’ll be left wishing for a grander build-up that ultimately doesn’t pay off. Kanye’s bars, ultimately, don’t pan out either. He raps and raps bar after bar of empty filler. When it ends, you don’t really wish to run it back.

As lackluster as ye was, it’s not even up to par with the weaker cuts from the album such as “Violent Crimes” or “Wouldn’t Leave.” A sense of earnestness permeates these cuts, that luxury doesn’t extend to “XCTSY.” For that, it deserves all of the criticism that it can get.

Listen to “XCTSY” below.