Your Old Droog - TIME ALBUM REVIEW
Honestly, I’m so glad I finally have an excuse to talk about this guy now.
The concept of time is a very heavy topic to tackle in every form of medium. It’s not often we get a concept album about time, especially in hip-hop, so I might as well get into that. Your Old Droog is a rapper that caught my eye earlier this year with Tha Wolf on Wall St., his joint project with Tha God Fahim. It was a pretty good jazz-rap project that was a bit of a left turn from Droog’s usual sound, and it was a bit of fresh air. I just didn’t expect him to follow it up so early with TIME, his seventh studio album. There are also some pretty heavy-hitting guests here like Aesop Rock, Elzhi, Blu, Mick Jenkins, Wiki, and the late MF DOOM. How does this hold up? Let’s take a trip through TIME to see.
Let me just say that the first five tracks are the perfect set-up for this project. After a little intro, we have “The Magic Watch,” which is about an eccentric inventor who holds the key to time travel through a wristwatch. He finds people and sends them to their past lives, showing them what went wrong and on the opposite side, he sends people to moments of pure bliss, showing them what true happiness is. From a songwriting standpoint, “The Magic Watch” is my favorite song of this year so far. The track after this, “Please Listen to My Jew Tape,” is almost an origin story for The Watch Holder and Droog himself, which I assume are two separate characters? It’s never said distinctly if they’re the same person, but I’m personally gonna go with them being two separate characters. Nearly every track after this isn't exactly a concept, though, but each song could be seen as Droog’s memories, shown by The Watch Holder.
Now, I don’t know if anyone has talked about this, but I’ve heard a couple of Droog’s projects before this, and on all of these projects, he sounds exactly like Nas. This is by no means a bad thing, and since I personally adore Nas, this is a major plus for me. His delivery, flow, and writing on most of this project is top-notch and really deserves so much more attention. Maybe except for “You're So Sick” because of its TMI lyrics, but it has a good groove to make up for it. The features are all pretty stellar too, my personal favorites being Aesop Rock’s verse on “Field of Dreams” and MF DOOM on “Dropout Boogie.” The production here is so smooth and dreamy, it feels like you’re gliding down Droog’s sacred timeline (shoutout to Loki) to see the highs and lows of his life.
This was absolutely unexpected for me. While I still wanted more of a concrete concept from this, TIME is an absolute knockout. I really hope Your Old Droog expands on this ‘Watch Holder’ persona because this is definitely one of the more interesting concepts in rap right now. The music itself, though, is some of the best that hip-hop has to offer this year so far. I’m so glad I tapped in on this. Oh, and Droog, because I’m pretty sure you’re reading this, trolling Hip-Hop Twitter for an entire month and going viral just to promote this is genius. I don’t think I would’ve found this masterpiece without it.
9/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
TIME is a Nature Sounds release.
The concept of time is a very heavy topic to tackle in every form of medium. It’s not often we get a concept album about time, especially in hip-hop, so I might as well get into that. Your Old Droog is a rapper that caught my eye earlier this year with Tha Wolf on Wall St., his joint project with Tha God Fahim. It was a pretty good jazz-rap project that was a bit of a left turn from Droog’s usual sound, and it was a bit of fresh air. I just didn’t expect him to follow it up so early with TIME, his seventh studio album. There are also some pretty heavy-hitting guests here like Aesop Rock, Elzhi, Blu, Mick Jenkins, Wiki, and the late MF DOOM. How does this hold up? Let’s take a trip through TIME to see.
Let me just say that the first five tracks are the perfect set-up for this project. After a little intro, we have “The Magic Watch,” which is about an eccentric inventor who holds the key to time travel through a wristwatch. He finds people and sends them to their past lives, showing them what went wrong and on the opposite side, he sends people to moments of pure bliss, showing them what true happiness is. From a songwriting standpoint, “The Magic Watch” is my favorite song of this year so far. The track after this, “Please Listen to My Jew Tape,” is almost an origin story for The Watch Holder and Droog himself, which I assume are two separate characters? It’s never said distinctly if they’re the same person, but I’m personally gonna go with them being two separate characters. Nearly every track after this isn't exactly a concept, though, but each song could be seen as Droog’s memories, shown by The Watch Holder.
Now, I don’t know if anyone has talked about this, but I’ve heard a couple of Droog’s projects before this, and on all of these projects, he sounds exactly like Nas. This is by no means a bad thing, and since I personally adore Nas, this is a major plus for me. His delivery, flow, and writing on most of this project is top-notch and really deserves so much more attention. Maybe except for “You're So Sick” because of its TMI lyrics, but it has a good groove to make up for it. The features are all pretty stellar too, my personal favorites being Aesop Rock’s verse on “Field of Dreams” and MF DOOM on “Dropout Boogie.” The production here is so smooth and dreamy, it feels like you’re gliding down Droog’s sacred timeline (shoutout to Loki) to see the highs and lows of his life.
This was absolutely unexpected for me. While I still wanted more of a concrete concept from this, TIME is an absolute knockout. I really hope Your Old Droog expands on this ‘Watch Holder’ persona because this is definitely one of the more interesting concepts in rap right now. The music itself, though, is some of the best that hip-hop has to offer this year so far. I’m so glad I tapped in on this. Oh, and Droog, because I’m pretty sure you’re reading this, trolling Hip-Hop Twitter for an entire month and going viral just to promote this is genius. I don’t think I would’ve found this masterpiece without it.
9/10
Listen here
YouTube Music
TIME is a Nature Sounds release.
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