Nekro G - Thought Crimes ALBUM REVIEW

Hey guys, J-Pegs here again, here with my first album review since I covered Kendrick Lamar's album To Pimp a Butterfly (which you can check out here), and my first review of someone I consider a colleague in making music.  Nekro G and I have worked together on numerous songs in the past, including "Calistoneya," "Fear the Reaper," "Crazy as Me" and others.  But that's not the topic here.  Today's topic is his latest project, "Thought Crimes."

Nekro G is a California-based underground rapper known for his hardcore underground brand of rap, as well as being extremely prolific in the mixtape/album/guest feature world. He is a member of the Grim Reality Entertainment collective/label, which specializes in making a style of hardcore, gritty rap music.  Sort of a mix between horrorcore and west coast G-funk, if you will.  Everyone in the collective is dope in their own right, but in my opinion, G has the most intricate rhyme patterns of the bunch and the most distinct voice and flow.  He's brought plenty of hard-hitting joints off of previous projects that I really enjoy, such as "Hustle Aggressive," "Take the Trash Out," "Beyond Beast," and others, so how does this compare?  Let's take a look.

1. Thought Crimes ft. JP tha Hustler

This intro sets off the theme of the album as a whole, as a more politically minded Nekro G than we're used to seeing on wax comes through hard as ever, speaking of government overstepping its boundaries to control the minds of the people. Despite a verse from GRE head JP tha Hustler that I wasn't really wowed by, this intro really shows where his mindset is headed with this project, whether one believes in conspiracy theories or not.

2. Follow Your Leader

The album's theme of authority brainwashing the people continues with this one. I think this song is catchier than the last song in my opinion. I particularly like how he dismisses the idea that since he is an "obnoxious pothead" he doesn't have any sense of what he's talking about, nor should those that critique him be put on any higher pedestal due to them potentially being brainwashed themselves. 

3. Change
The beat went in a different direction than I expected. Based off the piano I thought it was going to be a quieter beat but the drums kicked in and turned the song into something else entirely. As for G's performance, I like how consistent he is, but I think at this point the delivery starts to seem a bit monotonous and distracting from what he's really saying, particularly on the hook, since the song itself doesn't seem to be as angry as it is more contemplative.

4. I Bury 'Em

This sounds like a sequel of sorts to "Take the Trash Out," which is what a lot of Nekro G fans may have been expecting/wanting from him. Personally, and admittedly, I was one of those people going into this project. That said, I think it's a high point of the album, not just because of that vibe, but he's the most confident sounding here at this point, and the beat compliments his flow so well.

5. Let 'em Know

This is another track on the album that stands out to me. I like the bouncy beat and hook, and the verses work as well, though I could do without G trying to make his verse so high-pitched.

6. Theories

This has probably the most intriguing topic yet, speaking about the unknowns of the world, like aliens and the pyramids. It feels like the album snapped back into its original concept after the last two songs sort of derailed from it.

7. Bacon

First of all, I love this title. I remember he posted a status a while back saying if he got enough likes he'd make a song with this title. With that said, and the rest of the concept, I should have seen this song coming. Sort of a modern day edition of "Fuck the Police." Since Nekro's a Cali native, it sort of seems like this song is particularly necessary for the album with these topics to have.

8. Flow Your Mind ft. Twocees

As much credit as I give to G's flow and topics covered throughout the album, I have to admit that if listened to all the way through at once it gets tedious to listen to him for a whole album with him using the flow he does for the whole thing. That said, the fact that this is the first song since the intro to have a feature kind of makes this a breath of fresh air. Other than that, it's not as great of a song as "I Bury 'Em" and "Bacon."

9. Shake it Up ft. Cali G

This beat is the most interesting of the songs so far. It sounds like something Petey Pablo would have made back in like 2002, particularly the hook. Cali G shows up at the tail end of the song as well with a show-stealing verse. Definitely a highlight.

10. I'm from GRE ft. Cali G

This is the only song not produced by JP tha Hustler, and it definitely sounds more like a Cali G song than a Nekro G song. It's by far the most laid back so far, giving the album a little time to breathe. Cali G's verse and hook are smooth, and Nekro compliments it nicely as well.

11. Slam

This one sounds like something that would be played in a sports arena, like "Whoomp There It Is." The hook kind of disappointed me. It sounds like it should have been bigger and more anthemic. That would have made this song a standout to me.

12. Get Fucked Up ft. Dr. Edrum

This is the party song here. G's rhymes are as expected, as well as GRE's resident wild man Dr. Edrum, who sounds right in pocket with the hectic nature of this beat and topic.

13. I Will Kill Y'all (Remix) ft. JP tha Hustler & Playboy the Beast

Nekro remixes a previously released JP song for this. Not sure why he chose to put this on his album. It would have made more sense if G was on the song at all originally but he wasn't. Reasons aside, I feel like this collaboration really should have been better. No one really had a standout verse honestly, except maybe a couple lines from Playboy the Beast. For a song called "I Will Kill Y'all," I really didn't feel that any of them had the capability to do any such thing, which is what JP seemed to be going for, so I couldn't vibe out to the song like that.

14. All Seeing I ft. Slyzwicked

The outro here, as evident by the title, once again brings it back to the original concept of the album, which had seemed to take a backseat after #8 (if that). Anyway, it's not a bad song, but it feels more of a rehashing of what had been said on the first couple of songs than its own song. I also don't know how much I cared for Slyzwicked's verse, though it wasn't bad.

Final thoughts:

While I do like a lot of the songs on this album, and I think Nekro G is a more than capable rapper/lyricist, I think he kind of went into this album biting off a little more than he could chew. It sounded like basically what it was; a hardcore/horrorcore rapper trying to make a real political album with a message but the message began to get stale after the first couple of times he mentioned it so he moved on and brought it up every now and again. The reason why albums like To Pimp a Butterfly work is not only because of the topics presented, but because it is an album with a lot of consistency, heart and a sense of tangibility instead of what we got here.  It seemed like the album went from having a consistent overall arc to kind of the mixed bag that it ended up being. A bunch of these songs are great, and more are definitely worth at least a listen, but at the same time there's a lot of filler and redundancies to keep this from being the GREAT album that it maybe should have been.

OVERALL SCORE: 7/10

BEST SONGS: I Bury 'Em, Bacon, Shake it Up

WORST SONGS: Change, I Will Kill Y'all (Remix)

If you want to listen to this album and see what you think, you can do so here and here. (Note: These are just snippets. To hear the full album purchase it.)