Anyone who has followed my channel has heard about the recent collaboration between Substantial and Marcus D under the name Bop Alloy. It was a project I have been really looking forward to since I first heard ‘Still Think Differant‘ and after receiving the album in the post yesterday – its safe to say I was not disappointed at all!
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The duo consist of Baltimore MC Substantial, who gained huge popularity out in Japan with his debut release alongside the late great Nujabes on, To This Union A Sun Was Born,and Seattle producer Marcus D who dropped his debut album Revival of The Fittest back in 2008. Substantial’s conscious lyrics partnered by Marcus D’s Jazzy beats are a match made in heaven. After listening to this album just once you would think these two have been making albums together for years. This is the kind of album that has been missing from everyone’s collection for a long time!
The album kicks off with the recently released Jazzmatic a smooth mellow tune featuring the great Steph the Sapphic Songstress. I won’t say anymore on this song as you can listen to it below:
After that comes Another Day in the Life feat. Mr. SOS & Cise Star of CYNE, the beat to the original version of the song on Revival of The Fittest is just amazing and what better artists to jump on a remix then Mr. SOS and the great Cise Star! Anyone who has listened to Substantial over the years has been waiting to hear a track with Cise Star for a long time! And you won’t be disappointed.
Just when you think you’ve been spoiled by greatness the track Chillaxation comes on, man this song is great! The beat is just too dope. An upbeat smooth track, Substantial really shines on this joint. I would say that this track is a standout track though that would be hard to do because in all honesty there are 9-10 standout tracks!
[wpaudio url=”https://public.me.com/ix/joselopes/Music/Chillaxation.mp3″ text=”Bop Alloy – Chillaxation” dl=”0″]
Songs like Save The Day, The Boy with No Name, Lead the Followers and Why the World Weeps really show how versatile Marcus D’s sound is, with each beat filled with Soul, Jazz and grit! He is clearly a young talented producer who is destined for great things.
Anyone who has followed Substantial from his debut release will have seen how he has developed in to a great MC and after listening to this album you too will realise just how underrated he is. A good example of how his talent’s have grown is the track ‘Still Think Different‘ which is a follow up to the track ‘Think Different‘ with Nujabes. This is my favourite track off the album; the lyrics, beat, flow and everything else is spot on.
I could talk about each track in detail but I’ll simply wrap up this review by saying:
This is one of the best debut albums I have heard. In fact this is one of the best albums I have heard in years, with so many standout songs the only problem is that its gonna take one hell of a follow up album to top this!
If you love Jazzy Hip Hop with that little bit extra in it then do yourself a favour go over to CDBaby and Buy this album.
For fans of: Nujabes – Metaphorical Music, Hus – Love Movement, Jazz Liberatorz – Clin d’Oeil and CYNE – Evolution Fight.
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