A few years ago I thought Rhymefest was, and possibly still is, the best of the growing horde of post-Kanye friends, trend-chasers and people who generally only have any kind of a career in rap because of him, and it bummed me out that his career prospects were sold short by a so-so debut album full of Mark Ronson's bad ideas (Wale, pay attention, this is your future). And really, this whole thing last year just confirmed for me that he's a rare example of someone who really understands the politics and issues he raps about, and that Lupe is just kind of a dullard with a big vocabulary who happened to make a better album and have a more successful career. So I've been glad that as Rhymefest waits for years and years for a possible second chance at major label glory, he's kept up with some good mixtape releases, like the recent The Manual with Scram Jones.

The objective of The Manual is ostensibly paying homage to and getting on the mic with some legends of yesteryear, but he also spends a lot of the tape just further proving that he's one of the funniest rappers out these days and entertainingly pointing out how wack Charles Hamilton is. Scram Jones throws in some nice original beats, but mostly just strings together classic beats, and the 3-part Native Tongues medley is especially dope. And at the end, Rhymefest gets a little serious and touches on some issues with "RNQ," possibly my favorite Primo track in yeeears. I won't be holding my breath for El Che to see the light of day, and if it ever does it'll probably be because he has to embarrass a couple more inferior rappers to drum up publicity, but in the meantime I'm fine with him making good music under the radar.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 11:02 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.