Since his 2002 solo debut, A Gangster And A Gentleman, in addition to his time with The Lox and D-Block, Styles P has been an undeniable model of consistency, superiority and respect among New York’s lyrical elite. Among today’s so-called “punch line” rappers, P’s influence is well documented. Now, at five solo albums deep, Styles P continues his run of quality releases with Float, a 12-song offering where he doesn’t stray too far from his blueprint of no-nonsense NYC Hip Hop, but which also sees the Yonkers emcee loosening his belt just a tad.
The beginning of Float is comparable to a psychological thriller told from a killer’s point of view right after they’ve committed their latest indiscretion: ominous and arrogantly threatening but intriguing and hard to turn away from. P intricately intersects his raspy bars tightly around Scram Jones’ dense, bristling drums on both “Manson Murder” featuring N.O.R.E. and “Bodies In The Basement.” The latter is the more expertly constructed song, as P feeds off of Jones’ brutal bass through his playfully insolent rhymes, spitting, “Cocaine, red rum, heroin, automatic gun / Watch the led come, twerking money then spread some / Nigga you’d die if you’d try me / Warner Brother, my gun is Def Jam, Joey i.e…”
And with his years and heavy stock in the game, “Pinero” is well aware of the fact that razor-sharp, stinging one-liners like that are his true bread and butter. So he sticks to the script throughout Float. The only place where he’s seemingly one-upped lyrically is by long time Lox/D-Block brethren Sheek Louch on “Hater Love.” It’s a slice of vintage back-and-forth family competition, suggestive of the sibling rivalry-driven rhyme patterns found on “One More Step” between Styles and Jadakiss. Further along, P actually does link with ‘Kiss on the clapped-up yet festive lead single “Red Eye.” And on one of the LP’s most stellar moments, the inevitable continuance of the Wu Block saga takes center stage as Raekwon lends a few banging bars to the neck-snapping swiftness and masterfully executed cuts and scratches of “Reckless.”
The best part of Float is that Styles P sounds like he’s having a blast on just about every single track; you can almost see him in the booth deviously smirking to himself as he plots his next set of stanzas and effortlessly dusts off his competition. But what’s new on this latest go-round is a certain bounce and revelry that was not as outright. And P energetically meshes them with his skillful wordplay and sinister subject matter. He lets his seemingly impenetrable gangster guard down just slightly, and subsequently the music takes a deceptively upbeat tone without sounding cookie-cutter or frail. The formula is most plainly evident in the second half on “Shoot U Down,” where all of the elements compliment each other: P’s earnest and hood-refined lyricism, coupled with Jones’ chopped up, pounding, soul-sampled hook almost makes the song sound hopeful.
But things hit a snag right before the midway point of P’s latest. He and Scram Jones fall into the trap of the all too familiar sped up sample on “Take It Back,” (here Scram borrows Frank Stallone’s hit of the same name) which walks a fine line between almost respectable and uninterestingly bland. The same goes for the unnecessary skit “Haze vs. Sour.” And “I Need Weed” may get some heads nodding in a few clubs, but severely pales in comparison to one of P’s most well-loved classics on the same subject, “Good Times (I Get High).”
With Float, Styles P shows that he’s not afraid to step outside of his gritty NYC lyrical gangster boundaries and be a bit more lighthearted. Though not his greatest body of work, it places his cunning lyrical skills front and center while showcasing his and Scram Jones’ identical ears for quality, bass-heavy production and the fact that gangsters want to have a little fun, too.
Paniro The Ghost!!
it’s Pinero not Paniro
This shit is classic!! His best works since “A Gangster And A Gentlemen!!”
Never been a huge fan my favorite song is good times
Styles hasn’t made a worthwhile album since he left Interscope, sorry.
agreed
This shit is banging the first 3 tracks are classic hardest out holiday styles and the rest showing love for weed gunz n everything else.
Holiday styles this shit is quality
real good.. 5 gunz up
D-BLOCK! ALBUM IS CRAZY SO FUCKIN LYRICAL MY G
5 Star General Salute This shit niiiceee
For him to have basically dropped this joint out of nowhere, it’s a solid quality project. Not his toughest lyrical project but Scram makes up for it with his production. Not mad at all.
meh
SHits Fire SP Tha Ghost
bodies in the basement! joint is hard body. Styles P never disappoints. I like this 12 song offering.
Boring dude only talks about guns, money and bitches. Dude is 46 years old! Retire! you just are average like the rest of the LOX who never made any classic material. they always disappoint. Lox doesnt evolve as artist they are stuck in the 90’s.
you took the words outta my mouth
so true time passed them by
lol, its street hop, bitch nigga
people talk about being stuck in the 90s, the better classic albums were made in the 90s.
Uh, Kiss is a monster
To quote Domingo…
“What exactly is “Stuck in the 90’s”… Lets see….
Trapp music & Down South music is a version of slowed down Miami Bass music which was popular in the 90’s
The majority of today’s commercial Hip Hop beats are made with The Roland 808 drum kit…which was made in the 80’s and used in the 90’s.
So just these 2 examples alone can make it very clear that the term “Stuck in the 90’s” is irrelevant.
Unless you can create a drum Machine or keyboard that has all new sounds… then music will always be “Stuck in the 90’s””
5 star shit how u gone say ghost aint dope ive heard plenty of rappers name him as their fav mc and every person i know who likes rap love Holiday
who gives a fuck if other rappers say styles is dope? They just promote eachother and nothing more. Nigga didnt had a dope album since 2001.
what
Album is great, I love it.
ay ay ay ay ay ah ah ah ah ah
Ya fucked up DX! This shit is fire! Scram Jones killed it with the beats. Ghost always delivers.
This
This joint is hot! ppl who say Ghost fell off or the lox did, say there are in the 90’s. Fuck that. I wanna turn the radio knob back to the 90’s-2004 so I can get today’s stupid rappers outta my head, for real!
Pull it out, cock back, liga-lead fly
Been a nigga gone on the riga-red eye
Those don’t understand the lyrical value, just let em hate. When you hear or read it, just smile cause you know they mad! HA HA!
Piggy Bank!
Open up, take the block over!
who’s the the best? Styles p or Ransom?
Styles all day shits real
This Album is just da bomb those beats will fkn destroy everything ghost just bombed that shit and you gte him a 3.5? holy shit this album is like 10 stars styles just tha realest buy this shit its worth everything and keep smiling is you bomb that in your car 🙂
well it’s good to me
Banger ALLDAY!!
Hip Hop We Breahing.No life support………
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eetOO7Z1Dfk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR3vHqdqdBY
Ghost and Scram gon’ murda ya mans!
Styles P is one of the greatest. Much better than Jadakiss.
He should do an album with DJ Premier. Styles on Premo beats is as dope as Hip Hop can get.
I agree with the last part. Ghost and premo would be epic hip hop. Idk about him being doper than Jada though. haha
Best thing Styles has dropped in a while…
Ghost and scram gotta keep collaborating. I’m waiting on that new LOX project!
Motivation speaker for the young wild Niggaz, old Heads, an all!!!!! But No fake shit!! Put the on the tip of the blade, been on ya since 1997 Real Talk”. Google Me on NOLA.com an see!! Dicks ran in My crib from some rattan fuck boy an got Me looking at Ten” but wherever a young Nigga go S.P.Ghost imbedded in Me like you really a sprit or something Real Talk”. Stayup Nigga Lord say the same you stay healthy so you can keep hitting Real Nigga with dat Real Nigga Shit!!!!
Great album only one track i didnt like SP a true MC
I was so anticipating this album was gonna be good because “The World’s Hardest MC” wasnt that good at all……Man really disappointed because these 2 are Giants and make great music…..first 5 tracks are great and then i dunno what the fuck happened but it just goes into terrible corny mode for the rest of the album……damn styles im let down
“tryin to take the black nigga out like Mitt Romney” yooooo
dope shit!!! real hip-hop!!