Album Review: Goodie Mob - Survival Kit

 

Southern Hip-Hop legends Goodie Mob have returned for their first album in 7 years and sixth full length album "Survival Kit". With 16 tracks in total and features from Hip-Hop legend Chuck D, and legends in their own right Big Boi and Andre 3000 (not as Outkast sadly) let's just get right into this review. I speak on every track except for Back2Back, and DC Young Fly Crowe's Nest Break.

The first track Are You Ready ft. Chuck D asks you just that. I wasn't ready myself for the album to start out like this in the sense of the hard hitting beat right out of the gate. I'll tell you what I am ready for though, a remix of this track featuring Killer Mike one time for the ATL. 

Frontline is the title of the second track and it vividly captures the scenes of 2020 and plays as a part of the soundtrack of this crazy year in the US and the world. Riots, chaos, mayhem, tear gas, arson, everything you remember being all in your face through social media and the news, it's all a part of the subjects here. This beat carries on the with the same energy of the first track. 

With the third track Curry goat I found myself hearing the group talking about the delicacy and couldn't stop thinking that they're referring to themselves as a delicacy. I really messed with Cee-Lo's flow on the lead off verse. Khujo had me stank facing with his verse 

We talking greatеst of all time lil' ugly ass boy, stop tripping

Your hood gas you up, you guzzling, I'm sipping

I'm running, you skipping

Trap etiquettеs superior

Found the first, we all eat like high school cafeteria

These rappers, bacteria

Come on son, you can't be serious

Insulting my intelligence with them GMO lyrics

Go and get out your feelings, man up and grow a pair

If you see me dropping bowls, don't help me, help the bear

No Cigar ft. Andre 3000 comes in at track four. The calming beat switch on the chorus is pretty dope. Here you find the men asking who wants smoke, and while they get close it'll be no cigar. Andre's verse just made me laugh. He's being serious while having fun at the same time. 

It truly feels like the return of the Dungeon Family on Prey 4 Da Sheep ft. Big Boi. Given that the subject matter of this song relates to people falling for the same old tricks and acts, this reminds me of Mainstream off of Outkast's ATLiens album back in 1996. A track which T-Mo and Khujo were featured on. The chorus really drives that reminder home the most

Things ain't always what it seems
What's worse, selling dope or selling dreams?
Let 'em row your boat, they'll leave you upstream
Lost in the Matrix, prey for the sheep
Prey for the sheep

On 4 My Ppl the Goodie gentlemen make it a point to express how everything they do is for their people whether it be rapping, writing, singing, dreaming, shining, thinking, it's all for the good and the hood. They also remind those out their on the frontlines to not become distracted and lose the plot. 

Big Rube provides spoken word on Big Rube's Road Break. Rube speaks on how those who move with no limitations can move nations, and while encouragement and pressure to go off the course towards liberation is felt, that road to nowhere can no longer be traveled. It's like the beginning of 13th Floor / Growing Old all over again. 

We taking a turn to the countryside on Off-Road. This is without question that good ole Southern Hip-Hop exemplified in 2020. The soul of this track cannot be denied. 

Try We is where we find Goodie feeling themselves. They make it clear that it wouldn't be wise to try them, so step at your own risk. 

Me Tyme is a smooth flowing track that just feels like riding with the top down. That's really I have to say about this track. It's just a feel-good jam. 

It feels like we're going back to the first half, especially the first track Are You Ready on the title track Survival Kit. This beat is almost tribal. Whatever your survival kit be, protect and refine it at all costs. If you don't feel like what you have is enough to sustain yourself and yours, the Mob encourages learning to grow your own food, hunt for your food, buy guns and ammo, and many more useful tools and skills.

It's the Calm B 4 Da Storm on the next track. It's a laid back track which would play on the calm, but it's a warning of the storm that's brewing, which comes to life halfway through the track with the beat transition. This part of the song paints the picture that black people see everyday, but wasn't really being seen as vividly by others until this year. This could also be a warning that the storm that's wreaked havoc on Black America for centuries is making a turn headed for the establishment that's been the architect behind it. 

More spoke word from Big Rube is provided on Big Rube Amazing Break. Rube is telling the listener to pray to blessed enough to keep waking up to see new days, long enough to feel the touch of amazing grace. Every day is another opportunity to grow and leave a mark. Carpe diem. 

Amazing Grays - On the closing track, I can just feel the wisdom through the beat and lyrics. Peep the quotes.

They say the good die mostly over bullshit. I beg to differ now we die because of ignorance. Knowledge of what's really fake at your fingertips, in the land where they legalizing righteousness.

I'm old testament but I'm still relevant. 

Every wrinkle in my skin, every gray in my face, takes me right back to that special place. Every wrinkle in my skin, every gray in my face, reminds me that I don't have time to waste. Every wrinkle in my skin, every gray in my face, came to me because of amazing grace. 

Summary: What can I say? The Goodie dun done it again and with some of help from legends yes, but they left the heaviest of lifting to themselves and carried it well, reminding you that they are legends themselves. Everything I can ask of an OG group is on this album. Timeless wisdom and advice, social commentary that relates to the now, feel-good jams, and music for our people. 7.25/10