Hexxx Gets More Personal Throughout Aptly Titled Sophomore Effort “Tales of a Cursed G” (Album Review)
This is the sophomore full-length album from Los Angeles emcee Hexxx. First emerging in the underground back in the fall of 2016 off his debut EP Samhain, he would go on to follow it up 3 years later with his 2nd EP West Coast Wicked Shit prior to becoming the first act to sign to Ouija Macc’s very own Psychopathic Records imprint Chapter 17 Records other than Ouija himself last spring by dropping the classic debut Demon Season. However, he’s returning to tell the Tales of a Cursed G.
The title track is an eerie trap opener talking about being back up in the haughhh whereas “Blade to the Neck” has a more shimmery backdrop & the hi-hats remaining as he looks to cut a motherfucker’s throat up. The instrumental on “Another Day” featuring Shaggy 2 Dope of the Insane Clown Posse fresh off the first leg of his solo tour promoting his new EP Professor Shaggs & the Quest for the Ultimate Groove goes into g-funk territory with a Maezi666 instrumental reminiscent to “You Gots to Chill” by EPMD aptly detailing another day in the lives they life, but then “Darko” goes into psychedelic trap turf getting high in the street lights looking back on the dirt nights.
Meanwhile, the uncanny beat on “Shimmy Shimmy Yah” is pretty phat so HEXXX can talk about smoking that good kush & hitting pussies with the semi prior to “Black Crown” goes for a rowdier groove thanks to Devereaux referring to himself as a killer on the frontline. “Brick” works in a chopped & screwed sample of “Murder Go Round” off the wicked clowns’ sophomore effort Ringmaster over a mind-altering trap beat talking about continuing to hit ‘em with the titular object because it is what it is just before “Blueberry R3dbull” shoots for a more straight-forward west coast hip hop sound keeping the trouble poppin’.
“The Coast” featuring Trizz flips my favorite Necro joint “Your Fuckin’ Head Split” promising to make ghosts out of anyone who fucks around with them while the woozy “Season of the Sick” reminding that he’s a man with mob ties. The penultimate track “No Rest” draws near the end of HEXXX’s sophomore effort with an energizing ballad refusing to rest no matter what the circumstances & “Paradise” ends the album with a rubbery bass-line on top of some some strings talking about being a man of mistakes.
Demon Season quickly became a modern day classic for how it embodies the west coast wicked shit & over a year later, he’s done it again on Tales of a Cursed G only a month after Darby O’Trill dropped his Chapter 17 debut Creek because we’re witnessing the label going harder than they did last year. The subject matter comes from a more personal place in comparison to the debut & the production expands on the sounds of that previous album except they ditch the boom bap undertones.
Score: 9/10
