Just over six years ago, Jay Versace had a million followers on Vine. Boldy James was in Detroit, rapping still, but sans audience. In 2020 they collaborated on one of the year’s most positively surprising albums, The Versace Tape. In his third album of the year and first as a member of Griselda Records, Boldy James opens his vault of memories, traumas, and successes. Years of struggling in a rough Detroit shaped Boldy; he is authentic, violent, subtle, and raw. Rather than reminisce on his past, many of his verses portray James as an active drug dealer, often validating his sometimes unbelievably descriptive bars. Rather than vaguely portray slinging bricks and getting money, Boldy raps with specificity: street names, restaurants, nicknames, stories. It’s real, and it’s vulnerable, and it’s understated.
Due to his deep monotone flow, some of his most creative lines can go unnoticed, but he remains elite with bars like “Twenty Joe Montana’s touchin' down on my Jerry Rice, eighty in my secret garden, I tuck the Barry White, look like a tomato in my cup, mixed with Cherry Sprite.” It’s complex, full of entendres and is delivered with such nonchalance it makes you curious if he is even trying. As an introduction to his Griselda career, Boldy delivers near perfection with some Griselda staples: wordplay, grime, and hard-hitting bass filled soul samples.
Jay Versace produced the aptly named “Versace” on Westside Gunn’s “Pray for Paris,” which served as his coming out party on the producer scene. Now he magnificently produces a cohesive album that listens as well and smoothly as a Boldy James story. A Stevie Wonder flip on “Monte Cristo,” a 1920’s horn-filled beat on Julio that sounds like prohibition coke rap. Versace is at his height with pitched vocals, soulful horns, and majestic high hats. The royal essence of the beats serve with stark comparison to Boldy’s grungy vocals. Rather than fill the beats with nuances and clever audio tricks (see Boldy’s previous album produced by The Alchemist), Jay Versace leaves the soulful beats as loops for Boldy to maneuver. And he does it with ease. Such simple juxtaposition between his violent past and current successes show up on lines like “Lord, when I get to hell, can I still wear my ice?”
Mostly one verse songs over a Versace loop, this album is the definition of short and sweet: complete with skits and intros. Boldy James proves on “The Versace Tape” that he is a top underrated lyricist and a giant acquisition for the already talented Griselda group. On the final track of the song, James gets his unofficial welcome to Griselda in the form of Westside Gunn’s booming ad-libs, “BO BO BO BOOOO.”
RATING: 7.3/10