Scum & Smallz One Encourage You to “Blame Us” (Album Review)

This is the new collaborative album between Russian-American horrorcore veteran Scum & his New Mexico-based protégé Smallz One, who has been a longtime signee to Lyrikal Snuff Productionz for the last 15 years or so. Of course they’ve been working with one another for a long time & always killed it whenever they popped up together, so it was only a matter of time they dropped Blame Us a week after headline the first night of the Gathering of Dreams.

“Victim” kicks off the whole album with a symphonic boom bap beat attacking those with a victim’s mentality whereas the apocalyptic title track confessing to be the root of every issue. “Never” works in some rock undertones reminiscing on the times one had to lose it all just before the rebellious “March” talking about the Army of Beasts they have.

Meanwhile on “Blood”, we have Smallz & her mentor over some g-funk production detailing a bloodbath prior to “The Tab” embracing a funereal sound confessing to pay such in order for issues to be resolved. “That Kind of Shit” is a piano/string infused banger basically beeping the wicked shit leading into “Needful Things” asks about selling your soul over a glistening trap instrumental.

“Would That Be Alright?” shoots for a more deranging aesthetic expressing their desire to stab while “Rage” aggressively goes back & forth with one another stomping a motherfucker out. The song “What They Say” has a more jazzy, boom bap vibe talking about never giving a fuck about what others think of them while the penultimate track “Hate” is a livid diss towards all their enemies. “Off the Juice” however ends with a depressing tune about drinking & their inner demons.

I knew it was only a matter of time that they put this out on DSPs & if you love all the songs they’ve worked on since 2007, then I highly recommend listening to Blame Us. Scum & Smallz bring the best out of each other lyrically accompanied by some gruesome production.

Score: 8/10