Black Josh – “Yung Sweg Lawd” (Album Review)
Manchester, England, United Kingdom emcee Black Josh of the Cult of the Damned & LEVELZ collectives as well as the duo B-Movie Millionaires returning for his 5th studio LP. Making his full-length debut Brick Flair’s Ape Mountain following an eponymous debut extended play, the sophomore effort albeit Blah Records debut #blahblahblahblackjosh alongside the Blosh & Pete Cannon-produced Smoking Kills EP would all succeed it. Coming off the Ape Tape & Brexit however, Joshi£’s clearing up why they call him the Yung Sweg Lawd.
“Round Ere” begins with a blaring boom bap instrumental suggesting not to spend all one’s time around his neck of the woods since people there aren’t really living their lives whereas “925” produced by Reklews references WWE chairman, CEO, self-booked WWE Champion & ECW World Heavyweight Champion Vince McMahon along with the company’s primary flagship program Monday Night RAW right out the gate basically making comparisons to that of dayjobs.
The title track has Josh talking about trust issues resulting in him no longer having a relationship with certain people over another boom bap beat leading into “Bad Omens” dustily discussing the idea of ghosting negative spirits in one’s life. “This is It” featuring Truthos Mufasa & Yussuf Maleem finds the trio coming together to discuss doing this shit for the Cult just before “Cult Sag 2” featuring the Mcabre Brothers funny enough hits us with a Lee Scott & Sly Moon-laced sequel to a #blahblahblahblackjosh highlight.
“Judge Judy” featuring Nah Eeto brings a psychedelic flare to the table talking about the only woman who can save them while “Dem Ways” wraps up the 1st leg of Yung Sweg Lawd instrumentally shooting for a mellower boom bap vibe explaining him hustling & achieving because his struggle was deep. “Thinkin’” hooks up some sampling so he tackle relationship struggles while “Own Tings” by the B-Movie Millionaires featuring Jesse James Solomon & Sniff talks about the independent grind all 4 of them uniquely possess.
Pitch 92 gets behind the boards during “1000 on Red” featuring Milkavelli getting fed up of being fed up while the mediocre trap cut “What I Need” talks about this woman being what he wants. “2 Fone Shawty” makes up for it from Reklews’ beat to the lyrics about female who has 2 cell phones while “R Kid” featuring Con M1 & Sangy shrugs off what people say regarding them. “Linguine Limbs” featuring Milkavelli reunites 1 last time for a passable cloud rap joint while the closer “Ciggaweed” includes a reference to WWE Hall of Famer Mr. T over a Skepta beat.
#blahblahblahblackjosh & the Ape Tape were both seen has significant improvements above Black Josh’s earlier output, but the Yung Sweg Lawd arrives 9 months following the Attack of the 50,000ft Sweg Lawds from Outer Space taking himself to a newer level artistically through some of his greatest material. His lyricism’s more abstract & the production has an experimentally illbient feeling to it than most of his previous output.
Score: 9/10
