The kicks and snares are synchronized perfectly with a stronger bite to them, the implementing of bongos in the back of the mix on the banger "Crown Me" and recorded more prominently in combination with toms on the narrative driven "Fort Collins" are tasteful, and the trap inspired fluttering high hats sprinkled in "Crown Me" and dominating the bragadocious "Mr. The improvement is like night and day from "Knock Madness." The drums across the board sound MUCH more textured and never get heavy handed. What becomes very apparent right from the first track "The Pound (intro)," his first "intro" track since "Gazing At The Moonlight," is that Hopsin has put on his producer's hat and taken this very seriously. This doesn't go for all of his instrumentals though and I've always found that Hop implements a lot in the way of diversity among his sonic pallets which has allowed him a platform to create albums that are fleshed out and interesting. On past releases he has loaded his beats with plenty of over the top percussions, thin synths, cheap keyboard effects and never did a lot in terms of creating extremely dynamic compositions. If there's one thing that all of Hopsin's detesters have gone on record stating it's their disliking for his production. In fact only a few times does Hopsin name drop a rapper on this album, outside of his fellow Funk Volume peers, and they're all mentioned in a positive manner and lyrical context. We are no longer getting cross-dressing filled music videos or bars dedicated to dissing contemporary Hip Hop's most financially prominent. In those regards and many more I would say Hopsin has evolved a lot as both an artist and personality, and successfully solidified his spot in Hip Hop for yet another year. He needed to establish that he could rise above the missteps made on "Knock Madness" (an album I actually enjoy quite a bit) and further keep his relevancy in this fast moving vortex of Hip Hop trends and artists. And that made me worry a bit for "Pound Syndrome."įollowing up his lukewarm received 2013 studio LP "Knock Madness" (a sentiment he shares with his critics stating recently in interviews, and on occasion in "Pound Syndrome," that he isn't a fan of his last album) and a fake retirement publicity stunt in December of 2014 Hopsin had a lot to prove with this new project. And although all of these recent outputs (save for "The Growing Process") have been good, none of them have been great. 1" by Jarren Benton was a really strong EP, and "Hoppa And Friends" and "Pathomania" by DJ Hoppa and Kato respectively were decent enough, but "The Growing Process" by Dizzy Wright was a huge disappointment. Not to say there haven't been good albums released under the FV banner this year, because there have. Being that all of the label's artists are contributing an album and creating a large contrast from 2014 where a maximum of one project was released from Funk Volume. So on paper it would seem like that was a great thing. They've released five projects as of the last seven months and have a sixth slated towards the latter portion of this 365 day rotation. Especially since 2015 has been such an interesting and somewhat mixed year for FV. I am actually a big fan of Hopsin and really wanted "Pound Syndrome" to deliver. I am one of the rare few who doesn't fall 100% on either side. While others see him as an immature, corny and gratuitous Eminem biter who rides shallow instrumentals and addresses issues with the most on-the-nose approach possible. Some hold Hopsin as the savior of a faltering genre, who will call out bull *** when he sees it, and educate his fans on what is really happening in the world. But It seems as though the Rap community as a whole is extremely split on the California emcee. He has found great success with his co-founded record label Funk Volume through, not just his own music, but also that of Dizzy Wright, SwizZz and Jarren Benton's respective musical outputs.
I don't know if there is a more polarizing figure in the independent Hip Hop space than Marcus Hopson.
Review Summary: This is a really pleasant surprise.
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