This is definitely my vibe at the moment! Outside the abysmal Eminem verse on Caterpillar and the abysmal Logic verse on Caterpillar, Book of Ryan was an extremely solid album, an introspective look back at his experiences as a child, his relationship to his family and his struggle with addiction, I’m still taking it in but one song in particular stands out, Cocaine.
That haunting beat, that tempo, the emotional whine sound effect, whatever it is, in the background, Nikki Grier’s eerie vocals opening and closing the song and Royce’s perfect flow and beautifully emotional delivery, of the word cocaine in particular, are all reasons I love it, it might be my favourite Royce Da 5’9’ song period, it’s been on repeat since I heard it!
Royce talks about his father’s struggle being addicted to cocaine and how he overcame it for his family and how Royce inherited his father’s pain with his own addiction. Beauty in sadness, that’s my favourite kind of art and this is a fucking masterpiece! ‘’Pop, I love you unconditional and thanks for loving me more than, cocaine’’, he definitely captured something special here.
My only complaint would be that it’s too fucking short! Well, I literally just went and checked the exact length and it’s 3 and a half minutes which doesn’t sound too short but it feels fucking short, another verse from Royce would have definitely been warmly welcomed but I suppose he felt he’d said everything here he needed to, and it’s hard to argue with that.
All in all Book of Ryan is a great album, Power is another favourite ‘It's Christmas time in the Montgomery home’’, and Cocaine is just a masterpiece, I haven’t felt this way about a full Royce project since Death is Certain! If you haven’t heard Book of Ryan I definitely recommend it, maybe just skip Eminem and Logic’s verse on Caterpillar, they’re shit stains on this work of art.
What’s your favourite song from Book of Ryan?