Big Les – “The King Shall Prosper” (Album Review)
Up and coming young Staten Island rapper, Big Les, released a full length album earlier this summer titled “The King Shall Prosper,” but does it live up to the name?
Rap is an art form. It can be appreciated in many ways, and generally speaking, there is no correct or incorrect way to create it. With that in mind, Leslie Sisodia deserves some props. At just 16, the kid is already showing a real talent for the craft, even if the project itself is… a little lack luster.
The biggest point of contention for myself when it comes to rap is how well someone can write lyrics. This covers the intricacy of their rhyme schemes, the cleanness of their flow, and the creativity in their bars. At one point or another, Big Les demonstrates his ability to do all of these things well, but it’s only on a rare occasion that he does so all at once. “1 A.M. in Paris” is a good example of this. It’s not perfect in its entirety, but a good 75%, maybe 90% of the track is brimming with good writing.
If he wants to improve his pen game some more, he needs to work on extending rhyme schemes past two lines. Les should rhyme at least four lines with the same syllable before moving onto the next one, and do that consistently.
Another thing he can work on his not ending the rhyme with the line, not extending the line by a few syllables after the rhyme is complete. This happened a lot throughout the entire project. It’s fine if done a few times, but when it happens two, maybe three times on a track, followed by another two times on the next track, it detracts too much from the songs.
Lastly, we have his flow. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it feels incredibly detached from the instrumental. If you have to stretch the syllables of a word to make it “fit” in the bar, it probably needs at least one more syllable in there. Flesh out the bars more, count the syllables, make them neater.
Big Les had some dope instrumentals to rap over in this album. They’re clean, hit hard, and go together nicely with each other. That being said, the mixing wasn’t so great. At times, his vocals were too loud over the beat, and often in these cases you could almost hear the price tag of his recording equipment. It wasn’t the worst, but it definitely wasn’t professional grade. I won’t take away a lot of points for this, because you can’t expect everyone to have a fully functioning studio with audio engineers manning the helm, but it’s still worth noting for the sake of constructive criticism.
Over all, I’m incredibly happy to see a youngster like Big Les taking influence from guys that aren’t mumble rap, and I think he’s got a spark of greatness in him. All he needs is practice, somebody to mix for him, and to never settle for mediocrity, and Big Les will be well on his way to becoming a great artist. The future is bright for this young king.
Rating: 6/10
Highlights: Lyricism, Instrumentals
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