This is the highly anticipated debut of sophomore and Drumwork Music Group from Buffalo, New York emcee 7xvethegenius. Emerging from her first 2 EPs The calm before & Self 7xve as well as the debut full-length 7xve is Loveuntil she and Jae Skeese became the first artists signed to Conway the Machine's own Drumwork imprint where 7xve made her biggest break yet. It has since been preceded Death of Deuce with Your Will be done along the side Self 7xve 2 & most importantly produced by DJ Green Lantern The movie Genius. Almost 4 years after signing, it's finally here.
The !llmind-produced “A Lesson” is that murky trap opener that assures things will only get crazier as time goes on and we'll be thinking wiser from this point on, while “Triangle” featuring Papoose to talk with soul that he saw $1 million before he even made it. as long as it is in the game. “Graymatter” laces a boom bap instrumental from the eponymous producer asking how you gonna buy your mama a house with street credit just before the jazzy dusty “Psalm” with Jae Skeese tied Camoflauge Monk hurts 1 verse at a time .
The title track maintains a boom bap edge by showing off some crazy rhyme schemes for 107 seconds straight leading into “Dirty Nikes” and returns to soul sampling talking about focusing more on her craft as of late. 'Moma' heads in a luxurious direction thanks to STREETRUNNER expressing his gratitude for making it without a spoon or fork, but then 'Deuce' strips the drums down fully welcoming everyone to this lounger.
“Authentic” takes the spacious boom-bap route, talking about wanting to be himself, while “The Genius” was my favorite single from the Daringer beat to the 7xve lyricism, warning to say no to rap drugs so you know what love is. . “Jump” has more jazz rap tones while keeping the kicks and snares, warning to look before you jump while “Serious” bends that she stays over their heads.
The penultimate song 'Float' is coming to an end Death of Deuce she questions God wanting to know when the first will be the last since she's had her heart broken by these moms so many times keeping her head down focusing on work and finally “If I” closes the LP on some cloudy boom bam shit we're basically talking about if he died for about 5.5 minutes.
Almost 4 years in the making & Death of Deuce begins a new era for the First Lady of Drumwork. I find myself leaning towards production The movie Genius more by comparison, but regardless, the fine lyricism and storytelling of that tape carries over to this album showing us how much she's grown since Conway gave her a record deal.
Rating: 8/10
