“Nature Boy” Gives a Better Look at What Goosebytheway’s Capable of Than the “By the Way” Tape (Album Review)
Buffalo, New York rapper & singer/songwriter Goosebytheway making his full-length studio debut. Signing to Drumwork Music Group back in 2022, he would make a handful of guest appearances across several Conway the Machine projects preceding his debut mixtape By the Way the following year. But the time has come for him to drop his very own LP Nature Boynamed after 2-time WWE Hall of Famer, former 16-time WWE world champion, WWE Intercontinental Champion, 6-time WWE United States Champion, 6-time WWE tag team champion & 9-time NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair.
“203” featuring Conway the Machine finds the pair talking about where they come from over an opulent beat whereas “Rivi” takes the boom bap route instrumentally asking whether anyone’s hearing him or if they’ve heard of him yet. “Pesto Margarita” maintains the more kicks & snares keeping a gun on him in case anyone acts out leading into “Walk Ups” featuring Conway the Machine & Fuego Base seeing the trio ripping up a drumless loop.
K’mani & Spark Houston’s contributions to “Pedigree” weren’t that great despite the reference to 2-time WWE Hall of Famer, 14-time WWE world champion, 5-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, 3-time WWE tag team champion & the WME Group-owned TKO Group Holdings division’s CCO Triple H while “Nowhere to Be Found” featuring Jottibee after a skit continues the 2nd act of Nature Boy talking about being prepared for war since they’ve hit rock bottom.
“Selfish” featuring Jae Skeese makes up for the mediocre guest verses having both Drumwork labelmates getting stingy as fuck together while “Heisenberg” featuring Conway the Machine & SK da King includes a reference to the main character of my all-time favorite show: Breaking Bad. The closing track “I Ain’t Did Enough” spends the album’s final minutes with 1 last boom bap cut feeling like he should’ve done more since he has 2 kids to raise.
Regardless of former NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion as well as WWE Hall of Famer & the inaugural WWE Champion Buddy Rogers originally earning the Nature Boy nickname, I typically see people caring less for the features Goosebytheway has been doing for Conway in recent memory & I’ve been giving him the benefit of the doubt since he got his label deal because I felt there was room for him to grow. The production has improved since his last tape so have the performances from both Goose & the guests.
Score: 7/10
