Wednesday, April 29, 2020

New Music: Alph Tha Alien - Black Tax



Alpha MC is one of the most overlooked west coasters and rappers in general imo. His nonchalant quirkiness and creative rhyme schemes make him one of the best examples of the last real wave of Blowedians. Over the past handful of years, however, he's been relatively quiet. He released a lowkey album with Pigeon John in 2014, did a name change to Alph Boss and dropped an instrumental EP a couple years ago, and now, finally in 2020, changed the name again to Alph Tha Alien and dropped the long awaited, "Black Tax."

The album, which was rolled out via a number of loosey singles over the past months, sort of sounds like Alph finding his way back into the scene. The guy can still absolutely rap no questions asked. Stylistically, however, it seems like he's trying to fit his way into various forms of established contemporary LA sounds. I can hear Kendrick vibes, Open Mike Eagle (who is featured on the project) vibes, Blueface vibes. He pulls off most of the styles and sounds well, but it's at the cost of his own more original lighthearted style that many older fans have grown accustomed to. A lot of the songs feel like they could use more fleshing out beat-wise and conceptually as well.

If you're an Alpha MC (or Swim Team/Project Blowed) fan, this is absolutely worth checking out, just based on the fact that we get to hear Alph rap again. Hopefully Alpha both stays around for a while this go around and finds some time to find his more original voice again.

Stream "Black Tax" HERE

1 comment:

  1. Damn, this is amazing. Can't believe I hadn't heard of this guy before. Shame it's not longer but this guy has awesome bars. Thanks for this review!

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