Fat Ray – “Santa Barbara” (Album Review)
Fat Ray is a 39 year old MC from Detroit, Michigan who came up as 1/3 of the production trio B.R. Gunna alongside local veterans Black Milk & Young RJ. He would eventually go solo in 2008 by releasing the criminally slept-on The Set Up entirely produced by Black Milk, following it up until a full decade later with both The Lunch Room mixtape & the subsequent sophomore effort Perseus. However out of nowhere, the Bruiser Brigade member has seen fit to return by dropping his 3rd full-length album.
The title track that kicks the album off talks about being happy to be back on his shit over a jazzy boom bap beat from Raphy, who produced all 3 joints on the entire thing. The next song “Flight Risk / Plead the 5th” gets on the gangsta rap tip over an instrumental, that starts off jazzy, but later switches up into a bare soul sample. The track “Menacing” talks about going to war if you want it over a beat that sounds like something RZA would’ve made for Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)while the cleverly-titled “Ethan Hunt” makes references to the Mission: Impossible franchise over a more chilled out instrumental.
“Jordan vs. Bird” gets on his mob shit over a boom bap beat with a dark atmosphere to it while the song “Dopeman Heaven” featuring Danny Brown finds the 2 talking about slanging drugs over a Black Milk instrumental with some downcast keyboard melodies. The track “Old Faithful” featuring Bruiser Wolf sees the duo talking about being fresh to death over a sleek beat while the song “Top Ramen” talks about not having much coming up over a psychedelic instrumental.
The track “Bar Smithing / Off-Safety” shows off his lyricism & the beat once again has that vintage Wu-Tang feel at the start, but it switches up into something more apprehensive. “The One” talks about how everyone wants to be that guy over a Crisfantom instrumental that’s clearly inspired by the late J Dilla while the penultimate track “The Sword” talks about being the 2nd level of crazy over an otherworldly beat. The album ends with “Mental Case”, where Ray talks about his homie Kutty over some harmonious vocal melodies.
Perseus might be the weakest of the 3 studio LPs we’ve gotten from Fat Ray so far even if there are a few songs I still go back to, but I’d put Santa Barbara right behind his debut & have no doubts that he can top it if he decides to put out more music a few years from now. The production’s more boom bap oriented than its predecessor & he brings a couple of his Bruiser Brigade brethren to spit hardcore gangsta lyricism for almost a half hour.
Score: 8/10
