NEXT Album Review
ARMAND HAMMER - HARAM
With these reviews, I can’t skip, rewind, replay, or stop the music once I start. I got to play the entire album, straight through, and give my immediate reactions. At the end of each song I’ll decide if I’d replay it or if I’m ready for the NEXT track.
1) “Sir Benni Miles” (prod. The Alchemist)
I won’t say the name but there’s another rapper that named their unreleased album Haram that put me on to the word last year. It’s Arabic term that means forbidden. I’m not familiar with this audio clip. It suddenly ended. The beat came in slow and grew with moxie. Billy Woods is here and he is wielding the pen like a sword.
“Ain't no slaving us, you gon' need a bigger boat, You gon' need a smaller ocean but here's some more rope,” yep, a master at work. A strong start. I like the beat. Feels like walking through a musty dungeon where they would hide wack rapper bodies.
E L U C I D bats second. These two are a good balance. Did he just say he’s going to slap box Judge Mathis? Ha, some good lines here. This is good rap. I like the “Thick fog in the channel, rando pseudo Rambo, bad camo, armed to a T as in tango,” run.
Keeper.
2) “Roaches Don’t Fly” (prod. The Alchemist)
“Roaches Don’t Fly” is a livelier beat. E L U C I D starts. “Knew the song but couldn't sing the words,” is how I feel at DaBaby concerts. “My new name colonizers can't pronounce” will stick with me all year. His raps make me want a lyric sheet. A spontaneous electric guitar riff just sliced through the beat like it was sent by Zeus. I hear the chirp of crickets and the buzz of flies. Cool textures. A short song, no billy woods, but a strong second record.
3) “Black Sunlight” ft. Kayana (prod. The Alchemist)
Here’s a soulful beat. A nice change. billy sounds beneath the beat. He doesn’t cut through, but he still conveys each line like a giant. I love a great, “Are we talkin' bout practice?” reference. I like this. Just wish the rapping sounded as big as the production. “Black bastards, negro humor, laugh in the casket.”
E L U C I D also sounds beneath. Buried underneath the soul. If I didn’t like the beat this one would be a NEXT. The lyricism is there, but their style of wordy wordplay don’t land with the same punch if they don’t hit the beat like a haymaker. Nice outro beat.
4) “Indian Summer” (prod. The Alchemist)
Spooky build up. Feels like someone is going to lunge out the shadows and snatch me from this seat. billy woods opening line, “I swore vengeance in the seventh grade, not on one man, the whole human race” is what I’m here for. The man sounds like he keeps a machete on his night stand. His writing is good. The best of the album thus far. A rapper’s rapper. If he wrote a book of prose I’d buy it.
I believe it’s Barry White speaking in the intro and the interlude. “Conditions and stipulation, past the need for affirmation,” tell me how you really feel E L U C I D. This is an underground rap album that feels completely removed from the mainstream. No melodies. No Autotune. Reminds me of being in high school and discovering Immortal Technique, but Armand Hammer doesn’t have anything that will scar you like “Dancing with the Devil.”
Keeper and my favorite thus far.
5) “Aubergine” ft. Fielded (prod. The Alchemist)
I need a guide for all the audio clips that play at the beginning of all these tracks. Dirty production. The drums are hammering. E L U C I D voice fits the atmosphere. He’s going off. “'Cause I wander don't mean that I'm lost” is a good one liner. “I've been hunted, I've been shielded, I feel love here,” is how I feel about America.
Another interlude. The Alchemist makes each beat a mini movie. billy is the kind of rapper that is never short on words. You never know what he’ll say to string a verse together. “Negroes shoot for the top, I always had poor posture.” I need to buy a new backpack after this review. This one is good.
6) “God’s Feet” (prod. The Alchemist)
Nice title. I wonder what shoes God wears? I would love for people to send me what they think. Some singing from billy. Reminds me of Yasiin Bey a bit. Mach-Hommy also comes to mind. “Blow that horn fast, we been ready to go, When that horn blast, the dead is comin' home,” poetry.
Interlude. E L U C I D singing the same chorus as billy. We might have our first NEXT. This one is poetic, but not gripping. More of an interlude than song. Won’t come back.
NEXT.
7) “Peppertree” (prod. The Alchemist)
The beat is warping. It’s the busiest beat thus far. I like the horn, but there’s way too much happening. billy woods is somehow rapping in the center of all this. Leaning toward skip. I like a song that challenges the listener, but I’m not passing this test. I wish he would’ve rapped over the outro beat.
NEXT.
8) “Scaffolds’ (prod. The Alchemist)
“Scaffolds” sounds more like it. “Always late with the epiphanies,” is how I feel at least once a week. billy wood sounds better when the beat is stripped to the white meat. His voice is strongest when there’s less layers to break through.
“The transcript read like Cam'ron skits,” is a bar. His second verse is short. E L U C I D makes me want to play R.A.P. Ferreira. Their voices and deliveries are similar in a good way. How he stuffs so many words into these verses is something. This is one of those verses I need to read.
Armand Hammer is hip-hop for people who love words as much as they love the art of rap. I’ll keep “Scaffolds.”
9) “Falling out the Sky” ft. Earl Sweatshirt (prod. The Alchemist)
Some warmth in the production here. Nice to hear a beat that doesn’t feel like it was covered in grime, dirt, and blood. Earl! A rare rapper has appeared. He sounds good. Another vivid lyricist. A mention of his father. I been meaning to read more of his poetry. I could use a new Earl album. When he raps like this you just have to sit back and soak it in. “Five on me like I'm Bob Horry.” Ended with a Mamba mentality reference.
I love the Little Richard interlude. This beat just feels good. Breezy. It feels like somewhere in California and not a cellar. Here’s billy wood. He knows how to tell a story. “I painted houses all summer, they paid by the shift.” My favorite rappers all worked odd minimal jobs. “MJG and 8Ball spittin' out the whip,” love the nod to southern legends.
Only E L U C I D will find a way to say calisthenics in a rap song. They all came correct. This beat deserved it. Curren$y would’ve killed this. I need the backstory behind the, “Learned to swim in a pool where a boy drowned last year” line. Keeper.
10) “Wishing Bad” ft. Curly Castro & Amani (prod. The Alchemist)
Four more songs. I thought Mavi was wordy but Armand Hammer is like reading long-form essays in the New Yorker. They’re more like an underground Paris Review. “Wishing Bad” brings us back to the dungeon. I was getting used to the sunlight. “Dirt in ya nostrils, worms all in ya thoughts,” billy with a nasty start.
Amani on the hook. Curly Castro comes in sounding grimey. Need to go back and hear that Biggie reference again. The man just said, “Fuck Puff, survivor's remorse should keep him fucked up.” Whew. I wasn’t hip to Curly but this verse is making me a fan. “Icarus melted his wings, he tried to carry sun.”
Don’t love the hook, not because of Amani, but I think the three verses back to back would hit harder without it. Feeling the fatigue, but I’m enjoying these raps. I have no idea what E L U C I D is talking about, lol. “Y'all play tough and pay for a thumb in the butt” got a laugh out of me but this verse wasn’t my favorite from him.
Curly Castro kept this one from a NEXT, but way too long.
11) “Chicharonnes” ft. Quelle Chris (prod. The Alchemist)
I forgot how easy it is to get hungry during these reviews. Don’t skip breakfast to sit in one spot and write, kids. Alchemist seems like a nice guy but his beats sound like they have felonies for violent crimes. One day I’m going to make a list of Al’s beats and what crimes they committed. “Chicharonnes” is a double homicide.
“Got caught with the pork but you gotta kill the cop in your thoughts,” billy woods is a character. This is good. Quelle Chris on the hook. He has a memorable voice. I need to spend more with his music.
“We let BLM be the new FUBU'' okay Quelle, you got my attention. That sheep callin’ sheep sheep was a good line. Good song. I’ll play it again.
12) “Squeegee” (prod. The Alchemist)
Going to need the liner notes for these E L U C I D verses. Even if I’m not always able to follow each line, how he puts it together keeps me compelled. His technical prowess makes up for when there’s a lack of clarity. A quick verse.
Storytelling billy. I like this. He could write movies. This is audio cinema. Love how this one was executed. Would have to go back and sink my teeth into it.
13) “Robert Moses” (prod. The Alchemist)
Note to self: Google Robert Moses. Love when Al brings the horns in. I like the drums. billy sounds good here. A towering rap giant. This is just good writing. A Rick Ross reference, but not the rapper. I would like a song with billy and Ross though. That would be Maybach music with a body in the trunk.
Short song, but I’d play it again.
14) “Stonefruit” (prod. The Alchemist)
Is that a heartbeat? Nice build up. I wish it was brighter. Singing E L U C I D to start. I prefer when he raps. He’s singing for the whole verse. I do like the line, “ I walk through doors, my name's on no list.” He’s feeling it. Leaning toward a NEXT here. It’s cool, but billy has to hit a homerun for me to come back.
billy said, “It's only so many ways you can say grace.” He sounds fueled with passion. Not a bad verse, but I wished the outro really knocked me out.
NEXT.
Armand Hammer’s Haram is a rhymefest of breathless verses from two underground heavyweights with plenty to say. They aren’t rapping to be easily accessible for a casual listener. Their music is loaded with obscure references, enigmatic stories, and cryptic samples.
Multiple listens are required to absorb all Haram offers, but one sitting is enough to appreciate how billy wood, E L U C I D, and The Alchemist crafted a rap album for hip-hop heads looking to dive deeper and be submerged in an underground world of mystifying lyrics and lowering beats.
Final Tally: 3 Skips (of 14)