Welcome to The Rotation! Every week we drop a few albums that our writers have been bumping the most so that we can share our thoughts on stuff we might not get to review otherwise – Whether it be fresh drops, throwbacks, or underground gems.
Vonte* – Fallen Angel
Vonte*’s catalogue has been steadily growing, and this is another solid entry. While some of his contemporaries in the Plugg genre are creating some of their more ambitious works to date (Caal Vo’s For What It Was comes to mind), Vonte* continues to master his current sound. Still as reverb-drenched as ever, he deals with personal relationships against a vibrant backdrop of beats. Considering the rest of the way the scene has progressed, it is interesting to see where his sound might end up.
SiyahXO! – JUGGERNAUT!
At the time of writing, SiyahXO! had just released Hit List Vol. 2 which turned out to a fun release despite its short runtime of just sixteen minutes. JUGGERNAUT! did not seem to deliver the same level of quality, despite only being released a couple months apart. Doubling down on the military marine “OORAH” chant as a DJ tag of sorts, it doesn’t add to the aesthetic like Hit List Vol. 2 did becoming more of a nuisance than anything else. That being said it is nice to see that within just a few months there’s been improvement, so his future work will be something to look forward to.
UnoTheActivist (The Act) & Bear1Boss – Act & Bear1Beezy [Scene 2]
Following their five track EP just released a week prior, UnoTheActivist & Bear1Boss team up for a full release. While the initial EP was fun, it was more intriguing to see what they could do together for a full release. Considering Uno was already an active creative force in the early days of Soundcloud rap, and Bear1Boss is currently pushing raps limits and pulling from older tropes such as DJ tags, the match seemed like a dream for something truly new.
Unfortunately, Uno takes a backseat and lets Bear1Boss take the wheel. It acts more as a pass of the torch rather than pushing each other’s creative abilities out of each other. The end result is still an entertaining release, but not one that’s the game-changer it should be.