BADBADNOTGOOD x Ghostface Killah ‘Sour Soul’ Review: album is GOODGOODNOTBAD

The Wu-Tang Clan as a collective has been very busy as of late. With their most recent album, A Better Tomorrow, released in December 2014, and their upcoming, highly anticipated album, The Wu – Once Upon A Time In Shaolin, which will only have one copy released, it’s hard to imagine any members of “the Wu” doing anything else in terms of music. But, it seems like quite a few are set to release albums this year. The first to release an album was Ghostface Killah, who released an album days after A Better Tomorrow, and a second project, which is a collaboration with jazz hip hop group BADBADNOTGOOD, entitled Sour Soul.

Listening to the album, the one thing that is instantly noticeable, before any rapping actually goes on, is the production. The instrumentals provided by BBNG are some of the best I’ve heard all year. With a very smooth, yet trippy feel to a lot of the tracks, BBNG’s sound is clearly apparent, and they utilize a variety of sounds and instruments to produce some of their best work. There are a few strictly instrumental tracks such as “Mono” (which is the intro), and “Stark’s Reality”, shine better than some of the tracks Ghost raps on.

However, Ghost does not just let instrumentals steal his album away, and comes with a sharp flow in tracks such as “Tone’s Rap”, which is very much a grime rap track, “Nuggets of Wisdom”, and “Food”, which both feature a very soulful track coupled with knowledge-driven lyrics. The problem with a lot of the other tracks though, is that on the beats provided by BBNG, a lot of Ghost’s raps do not stand out and simply are what we expect from him. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it shows his consistency, but the album is constantly searching for something more.

The singles are where the album meshes well and the instrumentals play off the rhymes and not vice-versa. “Gunshowers,” which features former Slum Village rapper Elzhi and a sample that can only be described as what feels like a hot summer day, features a decent first verse, but after bringing out Elzhi, Ghost’s second verse steps up his game with varying, over the head lines ranging from bathsalts to Terry Crews.

“Ray Gun,” which features rapper MF Doom, has a ‘70s soundtrack feel with it’s groovy upbeat instrumental. A solid track from Ghost under his Tony Stark persona, but MF Doom’s unorthodox flow is what works best on the track, which Ghost slightly employs in his first verse.

“Six Degrees” is possibly the best track, not because of Ghost, or even BBNG. On this track, rapper Danny Brown provides a chaotic rhyme flow reminiscent of Ol’ Dirty Bastard that rides the beat incredibly. It almost seems that the beat was made after Danny raps instead of vice versa.

Overall, the album is solid, with exceptional production. However, the album is relatively short in terms of actual raps. Aside from ”Gunshowers,” not a single track clocks in at over three minutes. What we do get in tracks over the three-minute plateau is more great instrumentals. In my opinion the changing instrumentals add more to the album than actual raps do. What I truly appreciate about this album is that BBNG realized the task they had in producing an album for a member of Wu-Tang, and they stepped up to the challenge, far exceeding expectations.