Action Bronson & The Alchemist – “Lamb Over Rice” (EP Review)

This is the 3rd EP from New York rapper, writer, chef & television presenter Action Bronson. Who blew up with release of his first 2 studio albums Dr. Lecter & Well-Done in 2011. This resulted in a joint venture with VICE Music & Atlantic Records along with a couple EPs & mixtapes. The most notable being the Blue Chips duology, Saab Stories & my personal favorite: Rare Chandeliers. Then came Bronson’s major label debut Mr. Wonderful in 2015 which has some of his best songs on there, but the end result would be a more glitzy mixed bag. Bronson’s next effort Blue Chips 7000 would go back to his mixtape roots & it would be his final release on VICE/Atlantic, as he would go onto form the EMPIRE distributed Action Bronson Corporation last year & debuted the imprint with the solid yet somewhat rushed White Bronco. Other than that, Bronson has put out very little music throughout 2019. But with Thanksgiving next week, he has decided to get back with The Alchemist for Lamb Over Rice. Which is honestly the most excited I‘ve been for an ‪Action Bronson‬ project in a while given the quality of his past few projects along with the fact that Alchemist’s production seems to bring the best out of Bronson like on that Rare Chandeliers mixtape & or the Mr. Wonderful single “Terry”, which I can make the argument for being the best song Bronson has ever put out.

The opener “Dmtri” finds Bronson angrily rapping about about knockin’ it out of the box over a calming instrumental while the song “Sven” saying his competition ain’t shit over an almost futuristic sounding beat. The track “Tear Away Shorts” flexes over a boom bap beat with rich keyboards while the song “Accoutrements” gets confrontational over a funky bass-line. The track “Descendant of the Stars” is a hard hitting theme song for Bronson’s show Traveling the Stars while the song “Just the Way It Is” details his love life over a boom bap beat with a continuous piano note. The EP then finishes off with “Arnold & Danny”, where Bronson & Uncle Al both rap about success over an instrumental that sounds like something out of a 70’s flick.

I was expecting this to be Action Bronson’s best project in a while & that’s definitely what I got. Bronson sounds a lot more focused than he did on White Bronco & much like Rare Chandeliers, the instrumentals that Alchemist bring to the table fits Bronson’s personality like a glove.

Score: 9/10