Back with his follow up effort to his 2013 EP Crushed Grapes on Man Bites Dog Records, Brooklyn’s AG Da Coroner serves up the gritty, street sound New York was once known for with Sip the Nectar. In the 90s and through the early 00s, the brash tales and wordplay of New York MCs shined bright in juxtaposition to the funk inspired West Coast sound. Unfortunately for AG, in 2016, Sip the Nectar comes off as an attempt to hold on to a lost sound that hasn’t been in demand since Mobb Deep spurned an offer from Shady Records to fizzle out on G-Unit.
The album opens up over an increasingly repetitive and generic Statik Selektah soundbed for “The Game Changer” as AG introduces himself as the man of the people in an underwhelming frenzy with bars like, “Don’t ever try to play me, my pops dukes is Johnny my moms name Daisy /The nigga they created came out a little crazy” and enforces his bravado with “So miss me with the hoopla or end up where my shoes are (on the floor)” and “I wish one of you fools would say something to me, I face slap the shit out of all of you jive coonies.”
Low points on the album continue with “Death Camp” as homophobic epithets are still being used as heterosexual insults in Hip Hop; forgettable moments such as “Castor Troy” and tracks like “Underdog” that don’t fit sonically within the album.
All is not lost, however, as AG comes through on the Action Bronson and Roc Marciano-featured “Park Ave”, the Bodega Bamz-assisted “I95,” and the title track “Sip the Nectar” where AG displays ability to hit hard with straightforward bravado as he belts “My jersey hanging from the rafters, I been ill since Sho Nuff was the master” and “The Last Dragon, my pants saggin’ / no skinny jeans, I let the semi lean and unload it on any team”.
Perhaps the strongest exhibition of AG’s raw ability is shown on the most sobering and relatable track with “My Truth.” AG opens up and bears his soul as he recants stories of growing up as his parents split to smelling crack for the first time as a kid. AG is at his best as he reflects “How can I see change when I don’t even have change /To buy a snack from the store, how can I hide the pain?” overtop wafting, melancholic horns.
In the end, the high points of the album were not enough to overcome the glaring miscues and repetitiveness for AG. Rather than find himself in a more modern approach to lyricism and production, AG cemented himself in the 90s with a dated sounding album that’s akin to the neighborhood old head screaming to youths from the stoop: “Y’all don’t know nothing about that real Hip-Hop!”
While I think the production could’ve been better, which was probably an issue due to budget…Why would you want to hear NY Rappers on non-Boom Bap beats? What ruined NY Hip Hip was getting away from the formula that gave NY identity (Boom Bap, Sample Driven Production, Aggressive Content, the feeling of what it’s like for a New Yorker) …that’s what people fell in love with whether it was Kool G Rap, Nas, Wu Tang, Biggie, Tribe, Rocafella, etc…All the “modern sounding NY rap” sounds like Atlanta, DC, Houston, Miami…everything but NYC! I appreciate AG doing him instead of doing the “Turn Up, Outta Town Biting & Dickriding” NY rap of today. At least AG is real!
[Why would you want to hear NY Rappers on non-Boom Bap beats?]
This is definitely a conversation for another editorial; a more monumental NYC release but the answer is easy: evolution demands it. It’s become customary to defend the would-be torchbearers of East Coast rap and slander the ones from the South who are leading the charge but if you look at the latter category, they won without duplicating “The Diary’s,” “Southernplayalistic’s” or “Soul Food’s” we all hold so dear. The A$AP Rocky’s and Shmurda’s or even 2K16 Fabolous were met with resistance on the home front but look what they were able to accomplish nationwide. And although they control the wave, it’s not like everyone down south are making incredible albums, either (look at Future’s last few DX ratings). If New Yorkers were still rocking Maurice Malone and 8Ball jackets and talking in the same slang, it would fairly justify the music being complacent in its time loop. But the culture has always been about staying fresh and pushing forward; something even the Mecca can’t cop a pass to.
Screw your “Evolution demands it” comment Trent Clark. True Rock, Country music etc. hasn’t changed its sound to stay relevant. Why does Hip Hop have to come out with new styles, sound etc. to evolve and move on? The music I fell in love with in the 80’s and early 90’s is still the music or better yet SOUND that I wanna listen to in 2016.
People who are always looking into changing the sound of Hip Hop are people who don’t really KNOW or understand what HIP HOP is to begin with! I mean sure, change the sound, come up with new styles but please don’t call it Hip Hop music. The trash that’s on the radio now, in editorials on DX etc. etc. is NOT hip hop. It is its own thing and that’s fine, but please don’t tell me that “Evolution demands it” ….a new car model comes out every year. The Mustang from 1990 is not the same Mustang from 2016 BUT it still has 4 wheels, an engine, steering wheel etc. It has evolved into something newer but it did not lose its main parts. Hip Hop was born in NYC, its roots are build on four fundamentals which are DJ’ing (aka scratching/boom bap drum beats, samples), Graffiti, Break Dancing and MC’ing.
That is HIP HOP and everything else other than what those true 4 building blocks hold is something else. More power to creating new sounds and stuff but PLEASE don’t call that Hip Hop music.
Dope album. Period.
Who cares.
dusty New York rap
Ny is the truth so ny sounds must be real not south or west style.. east coast represent 4life
@Tigo: It wasn’t about hearing NY rappers over non-Boom Bap beats. Boom Bap is my preferred style tbh. DJ Premier is my favorite producer of all time. What ruined NY Hip-Hop, IMO, was refusing to adapt with the times. Adapting doesn’t has to be conforming. Not at all. But, as an artist, if you can’t look outside of yourself and what you do to allow yourself to grow then that’s a problem. G. Rap, Nas, Wu, Biggie, Tribe, Roc: All of them grew within and outside of the sound that made them and were able to grow the culture and add to it. No one has questioned AG’s authenticity.
This album was meh at best.
EVERYTHING that Trent just said. That.
Hip hop is the only genre of music where having a vintage sound is seen as a bad thing…there a whole subgenre of Rock & Jazz dedicated to that…Amy Winehouse had a vintage sound & got praise…Adele had a vintage sound & got praise…a rapper rhymes over boom bap beats & is considered ‘stuck in the past’…whether you guys at DX realize it or not there are people who want to hear boom bap so you should write from the prospective of someone who appreciates boom bap instead of someone who dismisses it..
Pure Trash
this shit is terrible. it’s not dated. it’s a shitty attempt at sounding dated.
I see a lot of people asking “what’s wrong with nostalgia?” and the answer is – nothing. the problem isn’t sounding “old” or “dated”, the problem is that shit like this is neither.
Skimmed thru this album; it didn’t sound old. It didn’t sound “dusty”. It sounded poorly made and filled with a whole bunch of rappin-ass rapping. The beats are awful. Shitty thin drums.
That’s the main problem with all of the “authentic” NY rap (or “authentic” rap in general) currently, it all sounds like a poor attempt at recreating an era that very obviously can’t be replicated. To do that you’d need pete rock, large professor, q-tip, rza, etc etc etc (AT THEIR PRIMES) handling production. that’s what these idiots forget… the “golden era” had GOAT production. THAT’s what inspired timeless rapping.
Move the genre forward. And if you’re not gonna do that, at least have a real understanding about what you think hip-hop is “supposed to be”.
Well fucking said. This is what all the fuss was over on Twitter?
one of the worst albums i ever listened to.
Album is FIRE!! Top to Bottom
This album is pure dope,it’s not a rappity rap album and it isn’t a Dr. Seuss abcd album either,the moods swung from track to track,the production is very NY and i don’t think that AG really cares about making music for anyone approval before his own. Last i checked that’s what artists do,its THEIR expression,not a service to everyone else’s tastes and opinions,it’s unfair for 1 “Journalist” opinion to reflect how a site which employs many more people feel about a project,it should be a collective debate and review
Excellent work from an Excellent artist,best out of the Outdoorsmen on my opinion