Royce Da 5’9 – Tabernacle: Trust The Shooter

    Similar to his favored Bar Exam mixtape series, Royce Da 5’9 (newly minted) is back with another exhibition of bars wedded closely to beats created by some of Hip Hop’s best. Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter features an all-star grouping of producers. Premo makes an appearance on the opener “Black History,” and the rest of the team is stacked. Mr. Porter, Aarab Muzik, Nottz, Jahlil Beats, Jake One, AntMan Wonder, DJ Pain 1, and S1 create signature soundbeds for Royce to go off to. He does just that, for the most part, backed up with some of the new school and old school’s diamond dusted MCs.

    But rap has become a kind of conversation with one person. A schizophrenic operation wherein the MC isn’t really talking to you or about your or about life for that matter, but projecting a kind of fantasy at which they are the center. A life and persona of their imagination. To be sure, emceeing has always been fantastical and aspirational, but the role of the newer generation seems to be to mostly surround themselves with the results of machinations dreamed up by longing. Royce has dabbled in that kind of creation and delusion with his solo projects; an artistic experience that has balanced the weight of his relationships: with Eminem, a bond that is probably deeper than blood, and extending out beyond the Detroit scene to the fearsome foursome Slaughterhouse and into the waiting arms of their urban cousins in New York.

    That kinship led to his collaborative project with DJ Premier, whose place in Hip Hop history is cemented by being one half of the legendary Gang Starr as well as his being one of the best producers of all-time. PRhyme (not P-Rhyme, for God’s sake) managed to get Royce’s mojo back, as this very publication gave the album it’s highest rating in 2014: Album of the Year.

    To commemorate that fantastic project, Royce has been doing a much deserved victory lap. Heading out on tour and staying sober. Tabernacle, then, is an eschewing of new age rapper’s conventions. It replaces imaginative escapism with autobiographical candor, spilling bars about his ADD, his natural talent for music, and his tumultuous personal life. Also included is his relationship with his sons (detailing one’s autism), his relationship with his wife and life begging death in turn. The lyrics are sharp as usual. On “Wait” Royce pens a chapter on a Christmas morning, “Christmas morning I remember wakin’ up wishin’ I could just go to sleep / Cause we only got like two toys a piece / I ask my pops did you do more for me? / He said, ‘Yes, I got you clothes, heat, and I let you keep a whole two rows of teeth.’” On the posse cut “The Banjo” Royce takes up arms with the masterful Styles P and heat spitters Conway along with Westside Gunn.

    In fact, each turn is a tightly wound galaxy of Royce exhibiting his most special ability: creating a fresh world around his bars and going beyond mere mood. “Rap on Steroids” is just that. A monstrous flow played to near perfection over an ominous rhythm. And “Dead President Heads,” feels like a movie soundtrack with sensuous beats holding tightly to rhyme schemes made easy be repetition.

    The jewel of the project, though, is the titular track. A multi-pronged tale of Royce meeting his crying on the way to be at the bedside of his wife who is delivering his child as his grandmother lay dying. Add in a rapidly approaching show, and Royce gives you an idea of what it really means when so many are counting on you and you must inevitably let one of them down. He’s let no one down with this one as Tabernacle: Trust the Shooter is already one of the better mixtapes/EPs of the year.

    19 thoughts on “Royce Da 5’9 – Tabernacle: Trust The Shooter

      1. Why does he need a hit song? Does that make an artist great? Also define “hit song”? You must listen to a lot of Flo-Rida on the radio.

    1. Been a long-time fan of Royce’s music since the Rock City LP. This man never fails to vividly describe his life and situations with the utmost honesty through his lyrics. His career is a movie of its own, to not only be relevant but killing it in the scene 15 years later since his major debut with minimally commercialized mainstream exposure. People can say all they want about his success being due to his affiliation to Em, but at the end of the day, he would not be where he’s at if he were wack on his own. Nothing should be taken away from his grind and talent. One of the few individuals in hip hop that holds nothing back on wax, which is almost a lost art these days – much respect & appreciation.

    2. Wow. Now my two favorite hip hop albums this year so far have been from Detroit. This and Elzhi’s. Unbelievable quality coming out of the Midwest.

    3. He did mention pusha & k.dot as the best out there real recognise real . and yea about gays that dont write they own rhymes by the way Dead President Heads most qoutable song on the whole Ep …..Royce leave those pop beats to the meek mill & the drakes , lyrically on point i give it 3.5 Royce killed Prhyme he can do better than this . . . that was for the lyricists courtesy of your Dj

    4. A man hating on Royce just cant seem to come to terms with his LACK of sense and RIPE in stupidity…

    5. “Everybody becomes a nobody when it comes to Royce”….no other rapper exists after those jaw droppin bars he dishes out on every track. Beyond underrated. Half the industry gags dare spark beef with this cat. Inevitably the most important hip hop of all times. Secretly, Eminem knows Royce is lyrically insane way more than he is, reason why he never responded to his diss tracks back in the day. He knows!

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