Time and again throughout Nicky D’s‘ new tape, The Gray Area, the So-Cal MC lets a familiar voice speak for him. Be it Kanye, Biggie or Slimkid 3 of The Pharcyde taking hook duties via record-scratch, or the adoption of a Nas or Hov line to spark a verse, Nicky is speaking HipHopHead. Everything on The Gray Area is in place to make those who long for the boom-bap era feel right at home in a more straight-forwardly satisfying way than Joey Bada$$ and co, but that’s not to say that Nicky D’s lacks his own well of talent. His voice and style of rhyme itself is as inviting as any boom-bap, it has an effortless cool, a smirk at the edge of its mouth. Rick Hughes, who produced nine of the tape’s ten tracks, never strays from his comfort zone of ’90s worship, but he absolutely nails it. Download and get acquainted with The Gray Area below.
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