ARTIST(S): Annex (@annexhiphop)ALBUM: The Snooze Button LP
OVERALL RATING:
The Snooze Button is definitely not an album to be taken lightly or slept on. It's properly titled and boasts a myriad of tracks that will make any fan of Hip Hop remember why they enjoyed emcees in the first place. There's a total of 12 tracks, including intro and outro; and the production ranges from hard drops and bass lines to smooth production with insightful lyrics.
The opening track, "Respect My Carpet" jumps off with an authoritative flow and anthemic production. Annex makes it clear he understands the limitations of lyrical emcees, while still demanding the respect for his craft as an artist.
He follows it up with "Over My Dead Body," that features hard hitting production along with the slightly dismissive tone we once knew emcees to thrive off of. In one of his verses, he has the following advice for the younger generation: "Smarten up young thug / they want you talking about the guns and the drugs / they love to hear you ni**as scream no love / it's fuel for the agenda before they pull the rug"
This album has a lot of gems for thought mixed within the wordplay, and it will take a few listens to catch all the lines. The good part about this project is that most tracks will actually make you want to listen again. The delivery and texture of his voice flows well with the production of the tracks; so, it makes for a good listen. His ability to transform his delivery is obvious in tracks like "On My J.O." and "Don't Remind Me."
The features on this project from Laws, Vayga, imagiin360, Knucklez, Mike Mass, Aja Lorraine, Laz, J. Scriptz, B. Worthy and Jae Luis bring their own style to the respective tracks they appear on. His ability to pick good features was one of the things that gave him a good rating. So many times, features take away from the album, and for the most part, his features didn't water down the project at all.
Nonetheless, the few weak points of the album were on tracks like "This World," where the mellow feel was definitely needed, but it lacked the impact it could have had with a hook was mixed with a bit more strength and the production had a few more buildups in the instrumental.
Some of the mixes on the instrumentals clashed a bit as in the track, "On My J.O." that should have probably had horns on a different octave so as not to take from the vocalist. Other than that, the only lacking element from the album was the fluidity between tracks. This could have been a good storyline album, but it lacked the cohesive interludes to phase in between tracks.
Overall, the project was solid and a must have for any Hip Hop enthusiast that loves raw indie rap with no filters. Annex not only found his voice, but stepped his character up a bit more through the years and it shows in every verse he drops on this album. Seeing the growth from the last project was indeed refreshing.
We'll finalize this review with the following Annex line from his outro track: "You're self-driven if you're doing what you love / but understand that even the best of us benefit from a shove."
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Artist(s): Melo Kan