Sonnyjim’s 6th Album “Ortolan & Armagnac” Prod. by Lee Scott Comes Off the “White Girl Wasted” EP Going Back-to-Back (Album Review)

This is the 6th studio LP from Birmingham, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom emcee/producer Sonnyjim. Making his debut in the summer of 2011 with The Psychonaut, he would go on to drop 4 more albums as well as 14 EPs & a mixtape, most notably the No Vi$ible Means of Income duology produced by Giallo Point or the Buckwild-produced Coke Le Roc & the Illinformed-produced The Chemistry Must Be Respected. However, he’s signing to Blah Records & having it’s founder Lee Scott entirely producing Ortolan & Armagnac.

“Sakuraba” depicts himself as a former 10 pound drug dealer’s been trying to recover over a calmingly eerie beat whereas “Tommy Lee Scott” featuring Crimeapple finds the 2 kickin’ full-fledged facts together. “Lo Mein” featuring Heems & Your Old Droog strips the drums so all 3 of them can drop hardcore verses without the need of a hook leading into “Dude, Where’s My Car?” talking about building a house using his bare hands & fearing nobody.

Reaching the halfway point, we have Sonnyjim telling everyone to “Pay Attention” over a boom bap instrumental with some jazz influences leading into “Herb McGruff” featuring Beni Laylo & King Grubb bringing the trio together so they can talk about the mafioso lifestyle. “Barry McGuigan” goes off-the-top for 84 seconds over a piano-woven beat speaking of his specialization in enterprising while “Fetch My Mink” talks about doing what he wants whenever he pleases.

The title track featuring Lee Scott spends a couple minutes sharing the mic together dropping hardcore verses over a drumless loop explaining that you gotta defeat the man to become the man just before “Phonejacker” sends it all off with this psychedelically syrupy boom bap vibe instrumentally talking about people trying to call or text him for an entire week when his reasoning for not responding was because he shut his line off, eventually having to get a new number.

If you’re a fan of either of Sonnyjim’s previous output that I mentioned in the opening paragraph or the Camoflauge Monk-produced Money Green Leather Sofa & the Leaf Dog-produced How to Tame Lions to name a couple more extended plays from him that I like, you can add Ortolan & Armagnac to the same A/S tier rankings of the Birmingham artist’s discography. I wouldn’t put it above White Girl Wasted either, but an entire full-length with him over Lee Scott production wound up becoming as dope as I would’ve thought.

Score: 8/10