Tha God Fahim & Nicholas Craven Surprise Drop 4th Installment of the “Dump Gawd: Shot Clock King” Saga (EP Review)
This is the 41st EP from Atlanta emcee/producer Tha God Fahim. Coming up as an affiliate of Griselda Records alongside Mach-Hommy & Your Old Droog, he’s also built up an incredibly vast discography with a couple of standouts being Breaking Through tha Van Allen Belts & Dump Assassins. Now the last time I covered Fahim’s work was when he dropped his 19th full-length album 6 Ring Champ & the final installment of the Shot Clock King trilogy of EPs produced by Nicholas Craven shortly after last spring. But coming off of 3 EPs since 2023 started with Dark Shogunn Assassin & Iron Bull being my favorites so far, Fahim & Craven are back together for a 4th installment in the Shot Clock King saga.
Jay NiCE’s appearance on the opener “Area of Effect” is the only feature on the EP as he & Fahim jump on top of a soulful boom bap instrumental referring to themselves as heavy dumpers boasting how terrific they are prior to “Nice to Know” going into drumless turf as he puts up points as much as Carmelo Anthony does. The sample on “Damage Over Time” is fascinatingly delicate with Fahim going out for revenge while the song “Defense” has a bit of a psychedelic rock route talking about being unable to give or let up. The penultimate track “Mentally Prepared” has a catchy vocal loop touching on nonstop dominance & “Work Hard Play Hard” is a crooning boom bap closer paying tribute to those who came before him & continuing the glory.
I still enjoy Dark Shogunn Assassin & Iron Bull as much as I do when both of those EPs dropped not too long ago, but the Shot Clock King series is amongst Fahim’s strongest work & the latest installment here sure enough has quickly become my favorite project that he’s given us this year as of me reviewing this. Nicholas Craven’s production is more prominently drumless much like the first installment & the way the Dump Gawd lyrically continues to float on top of these bare sample flips is as fresh as always.
Score: 9/10
