OG Maco - The Lord Of Rage (Album Review)
Timing is key with underground music. You have to strike while the iron is hot or it's off and on to the next thing. I think Migos suffered terribly from releasing their album too late into 2015 after some of their 2014 hype had worn off. OG Maco is an even more interesting case. His 2014 EP saw the rapper reach the hype of the blogosphere with his hit "U Guessed It". His album was one of my heavily anticipated albums of 2015. Except it never came. He seemed to be in a worse position than Migos. Some kept throwing out the label one hit wonder throughout the year. Fans kept calling for an album. Maco continued to have large partnerships with companies, artists, and released mixtapes and mixtape style EPs but he never really delivered that large feeling project.
Well Maco hits 2016 right out the gate with what I feel like might be his biggest statement release yet. Artistically and stylistically, The Lord Of Rage is a big project for Maco. Maco proves that he's no one hit wonder and could possibly be more of an album artist if he can churn out more projects of this quality. There are hardly any guest features. The first half is produced by Phresh Produce while the latter half is produced by Dolan Beatz. Slade da Monsta produced one track on the album sandwiched near the middle, "Talk To Em". After a few listens I definitely find The Lord Of Rage to be cohesive and interesting. The only track to feature a guest is "Talk To Em" which features Losa and like I mentioned it's the sole track produced by Slade da Monsta. It honestly fits pretty nicely on the album. It's a pretty aggressive track that adds a lot of mood to the album.
The project is short at only nine tracks, but it just feels a little more thematic than anything he's done to this point. This might be some of the finest production he's had on a project. The beats work with his vocals really nicely. The overall project has kind of a dark, moody, grimey feel to it. It almost has an underground Future kind of vibe to it. "Champions" could be a fan favorite. It's like an underground rap anthem. The autotune on the song helps the vocals meld and merge with the track in a really interesting way. It's slightly repetitive, but it's really catchy. The beat is nice and builds a nice anticipation. The album feels catered to the underground, but songs like "Champions" could be for the masses a little more. This release sounds hungry and proves that he is ready to show listeners why he garnered the hype he was/is receiving. Closing track "Outta Here" features Lil Jon-esque screams in the background with a dark dreary beat; it's featuring Maco's low, dark at times, moody, muddy, and raspy sounding rap style. It closes the album really strongly and, to me, is one of the standout tracks on the release.
OG Maco finally delivers a project that fits more of what I've wanted to hear from him with The Lord Of Rage. It is a little on the short side. Some might say this really isn't long enough considering the wait for a big project from him. He released similar length projects in 2014. His OGZay EP was eight tracks long. To those detractors I'd say the difference with The Lord Of Rage, like I said above, is the statement it makes and the overall presentation. It just feels and sounds bigger to me. It's probably his most cohesive, well thought out project. I thought 2015 was a great year for music, and hip hop in general, but 2016 is already off to a solid start with this release. The Lord Of Rage could easily be my soundtrack to January 2016 as I 'm sure I'll return back to this release more than a few times. Check this one out!
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