Joey Bada$$ makes his highly anticipated return to hip-hop with with a concise 3-track EP, The Light Pack. This is his first release since the critically-acclaimed album, All-Amerikkkan Bada$$ in 2017.
“Yo! Mic check of the Gods, n***a!”are the first words first you hear on this EP and rightfully so. Joey gets down to business on the Statik Selektah -produced track. In the song he talks about what he’s been through during his 3-year hiatus while using themes of light and dark, referring to the soul. He flexed his elite lyricism on the second verse when he spit:
“Unstoppable if it’s divinely guided
I’m like Mahatma Gandhi mixed Muhammad Ali
Trapped in a rapper’s body
Another old soul, in every lifetime you find me
My angels who surround me
N****s was frontin’, now they all behind me”
The Badmon is officially back.
This Pusha T-assisted track is the lead single and it is also co-produced by the legendary Swizz Beatz and Sean C & LV. No Explanation is dedicated to the mind, as evident by the pre-chorus:
“Been in my mind lately, yeah, been in my mind
So harder to find lately, harder to find”
Iron sharpens iron. The 2 MCs trade razor-sharp verses with Joey taking the first and third, with Pusha T’s sandwiched in between.
The final track off the project is Shine. Like The Light, this track is also produced by Statik Selektah. The producer shines on this while sampling the classic Roy Ayers’s 1976 classic “Everybody Loves The Sunshine”. Joey Bada$$ effortlessly glides on this track centered on the body. This is the most introspective song from the EP.
In closing, The Light Pack a very solid EP to whet our appetites for when the official album drops later this year.
8.5 out of 10
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