Alfredo

Retrospective:

After the recent release of Alfredo 2, I had to revisit the original to see if it still held up or if I was just losing my admiration for jazzy, drumless hip hop records.

But nah, this album still holds up.

The instrumentals here are either a bit grimy or luxuriously smooth, which makes for some pretty interesting melodies throughout. Also, this album still has some of Freddie Gibbs' best raps of all time. 'God is Perfect' has an infectious flow to it and that beat is eerie. '1985' - a great opener - sees Freddie rapping over a beautiful and low-key addictive electric guitar lick. Smoother tunes like 'Scottie Beam' and 'Something to Rap About' just have very memorable productions despite their simplicity.

I think that's just it. I've listened to Alfredo 2 at least four times now, but I still fail to remember or connect to most of the tracks on there. Whereas, most of the tracks here clicked with me on the first listen. That's not to say Alfredo 2 is bad or anything, I still liked it a decent bit. I especially loved how much more psychedelic Alfredo 2 was compared to this original entry where we only really have 'Scottie Beam'.