Sy ShacklefordWith an NYC-reared upbringing, grimy street-honed rap skills, and a predilection for feature films, it makes sense that Your Old Droog’s latest album would be titled “Movie”. Dressed like a matinee host for the album cover, the Brooklyn-bred emcee presents listeners with a soulful inspection into the life of Your Old Droog. Sample-heavy with polysyllabic rhymes and witty adages, “Movie” is perhaps the one 2024 record that epitomizes the sound that New York City hip-hop is known for. Some would say that the production is reminiscent of NYC’s sound from the early 2000s with a bit of a polish, but that style of beats serves YOD’s purpose for his ninth full-length album.
YOD begins his semi-autobiographical outing with “Success & Power”, produced by Just Blaze. Sampling and manipulating strings, horns, and bass into an exultant beat, Just reminds audiophiles why he was a sought-after producer at one point while YOD raps hilarious bars over it: “So while you standin’ there with your face screwed up / Don’t talk about Jews, that’s how ‘Ye screwed up.” J-Es laces the beat for “Crescent Moon” for YOD to rap “in the studio, dumping 24’s like DiCaprio” while “How Do You Do It?” is the first of four tracks with Harry Fraud behind the boards. Piano-driven, YOD spins a yarn about his insecure adolescence and the lack of confidence that came with it. The hindsight view continues on the vintage soul-sampling “I Think I Love Her” as YOD examines his feelings of true love and destroys Ohbliv’s beat in the process.
To clarify, the only tracks on “Movie” that qualify as filler are the two interview skits. Those aside, YOD continues on “Mantra” with something of an American Dream narrative. Harry Fraud’s beat here has a gloss to the production, making it sound more cinematic as YOD raps about his early experiences in America as a child. Moody piano keys and a lo-fi backdrop define “Grandmother’s Lessons”, in which YOD touches on his late grandmother with tinges of both reflection and regret. Though more recently familiar for his work with Lloyd Banks, CartuneBeatz provides YOD with layered boom-bap on “What Else?” as the latter calls out his contemporaries (coke-rhymers, abstract lyricists, et. al.) for staying in their niches. The single “Mercury Thermometers” is a showcase for YOD’s boastful rhymes over production from Conductor Williams:
“The Sandbox” has YOD taking another look at his difficult childhood and the things which he was oblivious to over K-Nite 13’s nostalgic beat. He’s also behind the boards once more on “3 MILLI”, the album’s shortest song. Here, K-Nite’s beat stands in contrast to “The Sandbox” as it is ominous and menacingly prepared for YOD’s braggadocious rhymes. YOD co-produces “Yodi Dodi” with Roper Williams, proclaiming that he never pulls up to a function as he IS the function. YOD’s also demonstrated that he can hold down his own album with little to no guest stars. However, on the Madlib-produced “DBZ”, he enlists Method Man and Denzel Curry to tear down the mic:
Harry Fraud helms the beat for both “A Damn Shame” and “Roll Out”. The former is a woodwind-sampling narrative about fumbling love and the lack of second chances. The latter is also a narrative, with a film noir atmospheric jazz as the soundscape. The title track has YOD comparing life to a movie itself and the bonus track “Care Plan” features fellow Brooklyn emcee Yasiin Bey over Madlib’s production, with both emcees rapping like it’s a stoop conversation. “Movie” may sound dated to some, but it’s one of 2024’s best hip-hop releases. Your Old Droog translated his life into a full-feature-length film without the album being an art-rock/prog-rock equivalent. If featured at Cannes, “Movie” would receive top marks.