Rapper Big Pooh & Young RJ – “What Was Lost” (EP Review)

Rapper Big Pooh is a 41 year old rapper from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina who came up as a member of the seminal Little Brother alongside rapper/singer Phonte & producer 9th Wonder. However, he’s been building up quite a discography of his own since the man’s 2005 solo debut Sleepers. Last time we got a project from Big Pooh was in 2018 with the Focus…-produced RPM album but after taking a couple years off & to celebrate his birthday, he & Young RJ of Slum Village are unearthing an EP’s worth of joints they recorded together in the late 2000s.

“The Recipe” that starts the EP off spits about how he came to do rather than talk over a triumphant beat whereas the next song “Get It In” talks about going hard over a more rugged instrumental. The track “Money” with O-Dash & Frank Nitt finds the trio showing listeners how it is over a boom bap beat with some twinkling keyboard melodies while the song “Hello” gets on the lovey dovey side of things over a slow, enticing instrumental. The closer “Smile” pays tribute to his mother over a joyous beat.

Even though these joints were recorded a little over a decade ago, it sounds like they were all made recently. Rapper Big Pooh’s pen-game hasn’t changed a bit & Young RJ shows himself as one of the most underrated producers that the 313 has to offer.

Score: 7/10