Menthol Slim X Rass Guru – The Esper Tape
Menthol Slim is a Jamaican-Canadian rapper who fuses experimental hip-hop, trap, rock, soul, psychedelia and blues. His album, The Esper Tape, is a split with Rass Guru Featuring YardeeSoTropical and Golden FDd. The result is a mixed bag, featuring some of Slim’s best works, but a myriad of tired hip-hop songs.
No breaks is among one of Slim’s best. It’s powerful, well-articulated verses open the album in style. The stylistic interplay between the pitch modulated vocals and the flow is far more impressive than it sounds; the track utilises its use of space very appropriately between the takes. There are other tracks on the mixtape that feature an equally impressive delivery, such as Bag n Strap, Escape and Sky, the dreamy latter adding a much-needed dynamic to break the monotony of straightforward beats that proceeded it. Because the majority of The Esper Tape is directionless and composed of filler; many songs don’t have anything of value to add trap, bar the incredibly impressive delivery of its rappers. Most songs lack progression, an interesting beat, and feel only held together by the vocals.
The biggest compliment one could give The Esper Tape is mentioning how well it works despite how little instrumentation there is. The strengths of the rappers are distinct, well-articulated and memorable. If Menthol Slim can bring forth some inventive ideas to the instrumentation surrounding his vocals, he’ll easily dominate the scene; his vocals are already a strong contender. Unfortunately, The Esper Tape becomes quite tiresome towards the end, as there’s very little to differentiate the songs bar the distinct vocals. Songs such as Esper stand out not only for the exceptional interplay between the two rappers, but the notable accompanying synthetics. Here’s hoping Slim keeps this in mind for his next project.
Average
Listen to it here:
Menthol Slim X Rass Guru – The Esper Tape
