Mickey Diamond & Camoflauge Monk Are Out to Get the “Capital Gains” (Album Review)
Detroit, Michigan emcee Mickey Diamond linking up with Camoflauge Monk for his 9th studio LP. A member of the Umbrella collective, he emerged at the beginning of 2020 off the strength of his debut EP Bangkok Dangerous & has since gone on to turn quite a few heads in the underground by building up the impressive discography for himself with his previous 8 albums alongside 7 EPs & a mixtape. Gucci Ghost & its sequel produced by Big Ghost Ltd. on top of Ral Duke producing Oroku Saki in its entirety all became his strongest bodies of work to date. Couple months after the Sadhugold-produced Death Threat$, he’s looking to make Capital Gains.
“Nobody Moves” sets it off with this boom bap intro talking about nothing moving around his parts other than the money while the title track samples the remix of “Sleep for Dinner” by the Lords of the Underground boasting everyone knowing their names now. “Current Events” featuring Jamil Honesty finds the pair flippin’ through scriptures to get their minds right whereas “Nike Checks & New Balances” featuring Cise Greeny breaks down everything that makes their cypher complete referencing WWE Hall of Famer, former 6-time WWE world champion & WWE Intercontinental Champion Randy Savage.
Big Trip gets his own solo cut with “Carbones” encouraging y’all to walk with him to new horizons on top of his time & heart both being cold for no reason at all just before “Army Jacker Lining” featuring Substance810 discusses their game being amazingly skilled including a reference to former WWE writer, WCW booker, TNA Wrestling booker & WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vince Russo. “Anything to Get to the Doe” talks doing anything he can in order for him to make some paper, but then “Cross the Line” featuring The Steiner Brothers finds the trio dismantling their competition.
“Tats on My Belly” by Mvck Nyce is a lot like “Carbones” in that Mickey Diamond doesn’t appear on the track at all making way for another member of the Umbrella collective to show off his lyrical abilities talking about the recklessness of his whole entire style & the closing track “Stocks x Bonds” finishes Capital Gains by talking about now being his time to shine when he’s actually been doing so ever since last winter along with a bar on top of hitting heavier than Tyson Fury.
Capital Gains has now joined it’s predecessor from a couple months ago Death Threat$ in addition to Oroku Saki & both Gucci Ghost albums in continuing Mickey’s dominance of the underground by dropping off his 5th classic over a week after the fall season began. Camoflauge Monk’s production maintains the boom bap edge of Death Threat$ except he swaps out the drumless undertones of the latter in favor of jazz rap & Diamond enlists his Umbrella brethren to lay out commanding gangsta-themed lyrics rather than not having any guests last time.
Score: 9/10
