Yellow Gold 2 reunites two of RVA hip hop’s heaviest hitters. Legendary emcee Nickelus F and producer extraordinaire Ohbliv previously worked together for 2011’s Yellow Gold, a SHHO-sponsored mixtape that subtly made its mark as one of the best local releases of that year.
Yellow Gold 2 reunites two of RVA hip hop’s heaviest hitters. Legendary emcee Nickelus F and producer extraordinaire Ohbliv previously worked together for 2011’s Yellow Gold, a SHHO-sponsored mixtape that subtly made its mark as one of the best local releases of that year. The 2013 sequel certainly deserves a higher profile, and any hip hop fans owe it to themselves to check it out. Single-producer albums are not really the norm anymore in hip hop, but the sonic unity created when one producer creates all of the music on a record is an underrated quality, and Ohbliv proves that to be true with his muffled but smooth funk soundbeds on Yellow Gold 2. The soulful grooves on this album all sound washed out, as if they were sampled straight off of someone’s dad’s old cassette collection from the 80s, but the result is weirdly hypnotic, almost like hip hop chillwave.
Nickelus F’s rhymes throughout the album create a powerful contrast with Ohbliv’s smooth grooves, as Nick Fury seems fixated on harshness here. His rough, almost hoarse-sounding tone combines with filthy sex rhymes and some gangsta-style belligerence to give him a confrontational presence on Yellow Gold 2. The combination of rough raps and smooth funk may seem off-kilter, but it comes together well, and results in some memorable moments, as when Nick F’s rhymes dissolve into a rant on “Good Treatment,” which fades out only to come back in at full volume a few seconds later with a perfect R&B style chorus. Then there’s “Solar Plexus”‘s very literal definition of the usually metaphorical term “mindfuck,” and Nick’s impressively braggodocio-laden punchlines throughout “Da Hype”–appropriate for a rapper who made his name in battle competitions.
The whole album is really worth hearing, and you can do so below with a full Soundcloud stream courtesy of Potholes In My Blog. And you can grab a free download of the full album at Audiomack by clicking here.
