Michael G. BarilleauxHip-Hop artists Monday Night of Richmond and Nitty Blanco of NYC have joined together on the slick talking EP, “Any Given Scheme Day”, to deliver a brief, compact and worthwhile listen. Sharp raps and complimentary flows are the name of the game on this project and make for a strong showing by both MC’s.
Monday Night brings tight bars to the equation, such as on “Lalala” where, while one set of his rhyme schemes stay locked to each other, the other move further apart as he raps,
“Used to spark woods in the truck
In the dark right on Fifth and Curry
Where I parked, Bently Coupe berry
Colored my thoughts”
Monday delivers these lines with a flow that initially emits a casual flavor but one that also surrounds itself with robust intention as he maintains a deep, dissatisfied tone of voice.
Meanwhile, Nitty Blanco delivers some of the more outwardly frustrated bars such as on “Like Yo Momma” when he spits,
“Moving forward no more chips on my shoulder
Negative thoughts been taking me over
I need to spark something
Pacing through the crib mad about nothing
Heated, gave me good advice, I ain’t receive it”
Blanco also exhibits another form of frustration when on the same track he drops a few bars that would seem to be directed at another artist, rapping ,“They fold up after a few weeks in that tank, they Gunna”.
The beats across this extended play are only fitting on occasion. As backdrops they are mild when necessary, but could certainly give a bit more support to the project’s weightier bars, particularly many of those spit by Monday Night. The result is an instrumental framework that works for the most part but that could still use a bit more beef where it is called for.
This is by far not a project with mood, however. Instead, “Any Given Scheme Night”, though short and at times perhaps too short to fully flesh out any ideas in full, does vary to some extent in its direction. It would seem unreasonable to expect an EP to explore multiple ideas in depth, just as it would conversely seem unlikely that an EP should have to focus on one theme or thought process alone, particularly when there are two different artists crafting it.
“Any Given Scheme Night” is above all a demonstration of bars and finesse, with more of the lyrically substantive portions coming from Nitty Blanco and a smoother, more refined method of rapping coming from Monday Night. While this is not a hard and fast separation between the two MC’s, it does largely hold true and serves as a complimentary factor between them.