There may be a new Midas in the rap game, Mr. Nicholas Williams

The Rap game is good for two things: getting rich and losing your excessive monetary gains. For young Harlem artist, Vinny Cha$e, the former is reality while the latter looks like an impossibility. Since signing an absurdly lucrative deal with Epic, Vinny and his gold gang (Cheers Club), have flooded social media with pictures of vintage and new jewelery, luxury cars, and bottles of alcohol that cost more than your new iPhone (and yes, that includes its future replacement within the next 3 months). Needless to say, he’s had plenty of resources and time since his last project, Golden Army, from November of last year to put out something worthy of his relevance to New York Hip-Hop. And what we got on King’s Landing was somewhat close to that.

The most noticeable improvement on this project is Vinny’s flow. He’s damn near perfected going in double time, which is what he rocks with for most of the tracks. It’s not a challenge either to understand what he’s spitting. Vinny’s ease on the mic almost matches the frivolous spending he touts throughout. Unfortunately for about half of the mixtape, he’s not doing much with the increased speed other than blandly running through the following themes: fine dining, high end clothing brands, representing Harlem, and making/spending money. While these are common among almost every Hip-Hop hit these days, Vinny doesn’t do much with clever imagery or wordplay. I respect him for paying homage to Biggie and Pimp C, while giving a feature to an icon like Ma$e, but he seems too content for me to be running through the laundry list of his new activities as a young, filthy rich entrepreneur.

The depth of content doesn’t go much deeper as you get further into the project with “This Check” and “100.” They sound like remixes of each other, both attempting to get spins at your local clubs. Vinny does opt to go in for straight bars with “Modern Rap” and “Can’t Play Me.” “Modern Rap” is a lyrical exhibition of his confidence in this newfound flow over a mix of a “All About The Benjamins” sample and a typical New York City gangster boom bap beat. “Can’t Play Me” is a return to his relaxed flow over a big band jazz beat, and includes the metaphors some nerdy fans have been waiting for.

The production on a majority of the tracks have become more free form with undefined synth noises, also adding a more foreboding tone. And of course, you get your token Young Chop beat on “Need That.” The most innovative beat comes on “Bang Wit Us,” which is a futuristic Trap beat with the typical hi-hat replaced with them gun sounds.

King’s Landing starts with “Interlude” instead of an “Introduction,” setting the stage for his fans to see this as the next act in his career. This Golden Era in his life is a continuation of the Cheers hard working mindset and lifestyle, but just with more to show. The mixtape was a respectable experiment on Vinny’s part to handle his new expendable income, fame, and quick cadence. But here’s to a more fully developed project next time. Cheers!

http://youtu.be/zrO4DMwnWkY

Bryan Hahn (@notupstate)