If you’re a fan of the Atlanta underground, it’s almost guaranteed that
Pastor Troy has crossed your path. With an expansive catalog that dates
back to his 1999 debut We Ready: I Declare War, Troy has dropped an
album nearly every year since then, including last year’s Attitude
Adjuster [click to read]. Not one to
break a streak, the Georgia-native delivers his 2009 offering with Feel
Me or Kill Me.
Building on his resume of southern block rap,
PT puts haters on blast with “I Want War.” A track complete with
background gun cocks and shots exploding, Troy makes it clear that
nothing is holding him back from pulling the trigger. In similar
fashion, “Who U Gonna Call” exhibits Troy’s lyrical barrage of raw,
uncut demeanor. Warning his foes, he raps, “It’s gonna be a massacre,
It’s gonna be a shootin’/It’s gonna be some robbin’/It’s gonna be some
lootin’.”
In an attempt to make a more pop-friendly record,
Pastor turns down the aggression and turns up the swag on “Is That Your
Girl.” Eyeing a girl in the club, Troy makes his move as her man leaves
her side, and needless to say, walks away with the prize. Of course,
while this story line has been told before, it serves as a better
indicator to Troy‘s inherent confidence than “See That Swag on That
Boy,” a record that truly epitomizes the decay of anything
swag-related.
Historically, Pastor Troy‘s rhyming skills have
rarely been looked upon as his strongest asset, and with good reason.
Take “Talkin’ Shit” for instance, where PT rambles, “I do it cause I’m
clean/I do it cause I’m fly/I do it cause I’m drunk/I do it cause I’m
High.” Or, in the case of his whip game on “Ridin’ Big III,” Troy
harps, “Legend but I ain’t John, I tote guns/Put some rims on the drop
top and have some fun/Nigga I ain’t done, and I ain’t through/I buy
another ride, I buy another shoe.” With that said, he usually does a
sufficient job in finding beats that support his lyrical direction.
This is not evident on Feel Me or Kill Me, and consequently the
aforementioned “Talkin’ Shit” and “Who U Gonna Call” both suffer from
weak synth-tinged beats that hardly set the mood for what Troy is
rapping about. His most complete record comes on the album-ending
“Heaven Is Below.” Asking “can you picture [if] heaven was hell?” Troy
displays a collage of possibilities that would result from a world
turned upside down, however, this effort is too little too late to save
face.
While gangster rap, with artists like 50 Cent at the
forefront, has been replaced with artists who motivate their
constituents, such as Young Jeezy, Pastor Troy‘s career seemingly falls
in the middle of these camps. Subsequently, Feel Me or Kill Me carries
this same bravado throughout. With over a decade of experience, PT has
stood in his own position, unfiltered, unchanged, and regardless of
who’s listening, he’ll likely keep it that way.
