By Odeisel

There are a lot of cats rapping about living the fat life with pussy, blunts, champagne and all that stuff that dulls your senses (and skills). Torae has the lean and hungry look of Cassius (of Caesar not of Clay), and it’s evident on his debut solo album For The Record, a release full of dope beats, strong rhymes, connectivity and aggression.

Torae opens the album at graduation, with different students dreaming of their next lives. While others envision more school and jobs, Torae aspires to rock crowds. This frames the balance of the album which reminds you constantly that Hip-Hop is his dream made whole. Vocabulary and verbal dexterity power opening track, Khrysis-produced “Alive.” The dichotomy of an educated man with street sense is apparent both in his colloquialized diction and lines like, “You in a dorm don’t mean that you’re dormant, the Chairman of the Board don’t make you important.”

Marco Polo shows that familiarity breeds dope beats on “You Ready,” a war-torn rhyme that licks shots at weak rappers and fans who accept them. “Naughty and nice my Jesus piece got the gaudiest ice,” is an example of the ongoing connection Torae makes between the streets and the righteous

“What It Sound Like” features Pav Bundy on the hook and !llmind on a track packed with head banging bump and a surgically precise Torae slicing the track to ribbons with relentless fury. 9th Wonder raises the roof with brazen brass wind on the bombastic “Shakedown.” You would frown your face but Torae is slipping in so many lines that you’re caught up trying to catch every line. In a minute of bars, Torae connects the movie Clueless with Angela and Vanessa Simmons, Carolina Herrera, his first label release Double Barrel and scorching rappers with lines like, ” You constipated, my Damon you never do shit.” Pete Rock captures some of his youth on “That Raw.” Well-placed chimes and background horns are perfectly looped and Torae attempts to get “so far ahead of the wack at first glance you would think I’m in back.” “Do The Math” brings another 90s beat legend to the table as Large Professor delivers a rugged soundtrack for a game of “what if” played by Torae.

Diamond D takes Torae through “Changes” with his patented intermittent vocal samples buoyed with a chopped up vibraphone. Sally still got that one track mind, slutting on the streets while the hood is still stupidly stunting in the hard knock life of a broken economy.

Broken love is chronicled on the E. Jones-produced “Over You.” The underwhelming crooning and the slow pace of the been done before track is a lull in the album. Eric G creates a spare backdrop with ambient noise and a jazzy trumpet on “Imagine.” Torae notes that he never went to graduate school because he knew that his first love and only course was rapping. The 9th Wonder-produced “Only Way” is so dope you wished it would have been extended to full songhood.

That familiar hard drum with urgent strings and scratched-in Redman and Method Man vocals screams DJ Premier and Torae barks all over the title track, flaunting various flows, rhyme patterns and allegory to just crush the track.

Nottz injects some soul into “Thank You,” while Torae gives a nod to the fans across the world who have walked this journey with him. “Reflection” is possessed of an ethereal background as Torae talks of inheriting the debt of war, the betrayal of friends and growing out of the naivete of youth and the death of the American Dream.

The album closes with “Panorama.” Its muted urgency serves as Torae’s summation; featuring his inspirations and motivations for being an emcee, and thanking every single producer on the album. Mela Machinko delivers sultry bars on the hook, placing a nice delicate bow on one of the hardest albums of the year.

The title, For The Record is symbolic as a number of the producers ruled the golden era of Hip-Hop wax. Torae is intent to state his love for the music in an era where it’s cool to be a hustler, not a rapper. Mission accomplished.

Out of 5

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