Joey Bada $$ was born in that fateful year in which the probably greatest pearls of the second great golden era of Hip Hop have been produced: 1995. Everyone 30+ Rapfan will be remembered with a slight Wehmuts-stinging in the heart at this time. All the more surprising that this just 20 become "teenagers" (US, legally speaking) after already two projects in 2012 and 2013 (1999 and Summer Knights) this time takes again and drops a bomb with this album, which is the good old New York brings back to the discussion - it is the metropolis but become quite quiet compared to LA, Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta. Joey has a creme de la creme production team approach refereed: Statik Selektah, DJ Premier, J Dilla & Roots, as well as Hit-Boy and his Pro Era producer Chuck Strangers (- the latter with two of the best productions throughout the album) that it not only nostalgic Boom Bap Beats tinker, but real import, musical and soulful songs. Joey has greatly evolved, his tracks are stringing together these to songs in which he is not only able but to make a conclusive concept album. Here there is the right mix of unfiltered Gespitte (eg Paper trails) and soulful rap (eg Black Beetle). And everything sounds felt as those mentioned in the heading Boom-Bap legends, but of course is wonderfully modern and fits in a 2015 - hopefully high anreiht at the golden years from 2011 to 2014. What a Kopfnicker opener - so the year starts well. After TUT Mixtape "Preacher's Son" Joey now a Top 5 contenders, in January - because this album would definitely have been in my 2014 Top 5, it would be a few weeks earlier appeared.
Addendum: After frequent listening, I have now taken the bonus track "Teach me how to dance" from the list, because it is much too pop and annoying. That is why a star deduction in the overall assessment = 4 stars.
