Joey Cool – “Joey Cool” (Album Review)

After being affiliated with Strange Music for several years, Kansas City MC Joey Cool finally signed to the label in October of last year. Now, he’s releasing his first full-length album with them. The album opens perfectly with “The Rhythm Lounge”, where Joey gets hungry for success over a tuba-heavy lounge music-inspired instrumental from Info Gates. The next song “Hard” with JL & Tech N9ne sees the 3 getting braggadocious over a decent trap beat while the track “I’m the Plug” has a nice bass heavy instrumental & the concept isn’t bad either, but the hook is kinda annoying.

The song “Change Your Life” is basically Joey’s success story over an eerie Seven instrumental while the track “Under Pressure” is about how he’ll never fold over some horns. The song “Handle of Jack” is an ode to alcohol over a relaxing beat and the track “Fall” is about Joey staying up when people try to bring him down over an atmospheric trap beat from Seven with some rubbery bass. The song “Divine” is a smooth sex jam while the cleverly titled “Stranger Things” with Ubiquitous gets conscious over a somber beat.

The song “Life Lessons” talks about never taking Ls again and I love the synthesizers on here. The track “One, Two” with the CES Cru sees the 3 talking about they have things they need to do over a gritty instrumental and the song “Secure the Bag” intelligently touches down on the subject of money over an abrasive beat. The track “Bottom Bitch” with Breaking Bad News talks about grinding over a settle beat & the closer “Family” tells intriguing stories his relatives over a gloomy trap beat.

As expected, this is Joey Cool’s best work to date. He sounds more passionate, hungrier, his lyricism is sharper and the instrumentals are some of the best he’s ever been given. A truly exciting new member of the Strange family and I’ll definitely be looking forward to more of him in the future.

Score: 7/10