Nine & Snowgoons – “King” (Album Review)

Nine is a 48 year old MC from the Bronx, New York who came through in 1995 with a highly slept-on debut Nine Livez. He then followed it up the following year with Cloud 9, but then he fell out of love with music shortly after However, he returned 13 years later with Quinine & it was almost completely ignored. But 9 years later fittingly, he’s delivering his 4th full length album & he has enlisted the Snowgoons to produce it in it’s entirety.

The album opens with “The Revenant”, where Nine talks about his return over a eerie boom bap beat. The next song “Pull Up” gets confrontational over a gloomy boom bap beat while the track “Killmongor” talks about his place in hip hop over a menacing beat with some horns. The song “Hilfiger” makes references to a number of hip hop artists over a boom bap beat with strings while the track “Tremendous” vividly talks about life in the streets over a sinister beat. The song “Belafonte” with Conway sees the 2 getting murderous over a gritty beat while the track “Medusa” sees Nine speaking facts to an unnamed person over an orchestral boom bap beat.

The song “Breathe” with Kool G Rap & Smoothe da Hustler sees the 3 getting romantic over an Alchemist-type beat while the track “I Am” is an ode to the culture over an uplifting beat. The song “Pita Roll” is filled with battle bars over punchy drums & a heavy guitar while the track “Jump ‘Em” with Ruste Juxx talks about running up on people over a haunting beat. The song “Champion” with Chris Rivers sees the 2 talking about winning over a boom bap beat with a triumphant horn & then the album finishes with the title track, where Nine refers to himself to just that over a celebratory beat.

To be honest, this may be Nine’s best work yet. There are a couple tracks that I wish were fully fleshed out but it’s mostly focused, he sounds hungrier than ever & the Snowgoons production enhances the hardcore vibe near perfectly.

Score: 9/10