Tales From the Trenches – Jamal Gasol & VH$

01. Tales From the Trenches Intro

02. Rider Music ft. Heem

03. Walter’s Monster

04. A Sad Short Story (Interlude)

05. Misery Won’t Be My Company

06. Street Fighter ft. Eddie Kaine

07. Crazy K’s Perspective

08. Da $#&

What do you get when you ask your homie from the block to rap over the Godfather Theme? Tales From the Trenches by Jamal Gasol & VHS. These beat choices were risky and I actually really enjoyed them. Gasol’s delivery is rugged and a little raspy and while on it’s own, it’s solid; he doesn’t mesh with the instrumentation at all. A few times he talks about his wordplay being top tier, and then proceeds to have no wordplay. The rhymes and flow on this project are easy to listen to but lack imagination. Album isn’t bad, but I feel like everything he’s trying to do on here, someone else could do better. The standout track is number 7 and it comes off as an honest story from start to finish. This should be a lesson to aspiring rappers out there. If you here a song and say “I could do that”. Don’t do that, be brutally yourself, and people will relate. The Eddie Kaine feature killed it though. This one is fair to middling.

Album: 6.2/10 || Art: 5/10 – Euphonic