Psycho Les is a 52-year-old MC/producer from Queens, New York who stands for 1/2 of the Beatnuts with Juju as well as 1/5 of the Liknuts supergroup with Tha Alkaholiks. He finally began carving out a path for himself as a solo artist in the spring of 2007 with the debut album Psychotherapy & I'm back nearly a decade later for my weed sophomore effort Thank God. Ahead of Real Psychos' self-titled debut with B-Real next month, Eric Bobo and Stu Bangas are getting together to help Escape the Matrix on his 1st solo EP.
“SOS” opens by spitting conscious lyricism over a boom bap warning the world as we know it today is in danger and consider yourself lucky if you're still alive refusing to get on Chuck D, while the Snyp Life-featuring “Crooks” works on more kicks and snares with a thin backdrop that refer to themselves as the last of their kind that implore everyone to take facts over fear. “Fire” featuring Blahzay Blahzay ends the EP properly with Outloud joining Les with PF Cuttin' on scratching to talk about the world on fire.
Thank God it had its high points, but I always felt it was overloaded with features compared to Psychotherapy. And although Escape the Matrix only became a 3-track EP instead of a full-length studio album, what it delivers in nearly 10 minutes is better than much of what was on the previous LP nearly a decade ago. Eric Bobo and Stu Bangas recapture the magic of their production throughout Empires collective effort on 4/20/2021 to keep the traditional boom bap vibes alive and Les himself offers more politically conscious subject matter.
Rating: 8/10
