Steve 'Flash' Juon“And to my daughter – you strong, you smart and you beautiful
Have self respect, value queens, and let them influence you
Make sure the world always sees the same when the viewing you
and feelings that you have for the man you choosing is mutual”
I did not expect the opening track of “Rap God” to go THIS hard. Walter Anthony “Tony” Bradford, better known as Montana of 300, got his first big break in 2016 with “Fire in the Church” but if what I’m hearing here is any indication that fire should have burned brighter than No. 95 on Billboard. “Just because they write about him doesn’t mean they right about him” is a bar so dope I might end up reusing it in a future review. Not only did Montana impress me off the rip with unexpectedly dope advice for little black girls, he showed me that he’s a rapper who understands not all publicity is good publicity (Kanye, take notes). He’s known as a Chicago drill emcee though and he gets back to those roots on “Last Dance” with a super amped up delivery and lines “What the fuck would you question my savage for?” I wouldn’t Montana. I suspect if you do you’ll say hello to his little friend.
“Your favorite rapper so basic nigga.” Montana keeps throwing out relentless heat without breaking a sweat. I worry more than a little bit about the way Chicago’s drill rap scene eats its own, particularly when different factions antagonize each other on records, then respond with gunfire when someone gets pushed too far. Something about Montana feels different though. I don’t feel like he’s calling out individual drill rappers or people who run specific city blocks — I feel like he’s calling out E’RYBODY. Montana of 300 has a “me against the world” attitude. That attitude informs his confidence on songs like “Let Me Put My Gun Down,” a song where his feelings for a woman could make him relax his guard. Haters would see it as weakness but I see it as strength. He trusts her not to set him up.
He also trusts friends like Arsonal (a/k/a Arsonal Da Rebel) enough to let them share the spotlight on “OMG.” Even though Arsonal’s reputation as a battle rapper and freestyle emcee could allow him to overshadow Montana on his own track, he steps up and delivers a fun sing-song delivery referencing “Hollywood Hulk Hogan” and then flipping out a title belt before he says “I’m good with a pen/pin like a wrestler.” Guess what? That just earned you extra credit with me, not to mention the line “I blew up with rappin’, was through with the trappin’.” RESPECT.
“Being on the outside looking in, is always safer than being stuck on the inside and looking out. To be outside is to be free.” Time and time again Montana finds ways to surprise me. The intro to “The Boy That Never Sold His Soul” shows a poet dwells deep in this warrior’s soul, one yearning to spread truth and wisdom to his listeners any way he can. You can mistake the production, the swagger and the willingness to stand his ground in the streets for stereotypical drill if you’re not paying attention. He’s a rapper who demands you pay attention. “I am nothing like the normal/every album I inform you.”
I find it especially telling that Montana raps about record labels recouping their advances and leaving you with nothing but regrets. It speaks to the fact these shady industry practices are still in effect in the 2020’s, as well as to the fact that Montana learned the lessons of those who warned about them before he became a success. Some rappers feel like they accidentally got big from a lucky break when a song went viral on TikTok or YouTube Shorts, but everything about Montana feels like a calculated and well thought out move. I’m not sure how else I can convey this to you — it’s like hearing someone who could have been a Nobel Prize winning physicist decide to apply his intellectual prowess to rap instead.
“Mastered every level, these niggaz don’t know what flow he on
I’m Michael Jordan, Mike Tyson and Michael Corleone”
If there’s anything that holds “Rap God” back, and this is an admittedly strange thing to nitpick, it’s that at two hours long it’s almost TOO MUCH. I give him maximum respect for the maximum effort but there’s an irony to having a song called “Children” where the guest star’s name is No Fatigue. Sorry but that’s a damn lie. I like Montana so much that I hate saying it but 25 tracks is just too much. It’s as though he took every complaint about today’s rappers making short albums with even shorter songs and said “Oh yeah? I got you.” ‘Preciate that bruh but you really could have dialed it back to one hour.
Taken as a whole though there’s too much to like about this rapper and album to make too much of a good thing into too much of a bad thing. I’ll take somebody who puts this much thought and passion into everything he does over a lazy emcee who just wants to fuck, drink beer, and smoke some shit (no disrespect to The Beatnuts). Montana should be on your need to listen list. This album may be a few years old by now but it was a magnum opus from the drill scene that was hard to beat at the time and will be even harder to replicate in the future.