Action Bronson - White Bronco

Action Bronson
White Buffalo
2018
Spotify

There was a time where it felt like everything that Action Bronson did was going to be a classic. His locals only style of rap was infectious and a throwback to the early Wu-Tang records. I mean to be fair the man has been accused more than once of stealing Ghostface Killah's flow, which is hard to deny. Yet you couldn't resist the braggadocios New Yorker and were clamoring to hear just who He would take-down next. Just as a quick aside I think Giannis Antetokounmpo joining the NBA was the best thing to happen to MCs in awhile because I have heard his name mentioned multiple times on new records, including this one. The lead up to White Bronco has been pretty amazing for Action: multiple shows on the Vice channel, hit YouTube videos and an ability to be on every damn cooking show out there have meant Action has been in your face almost everyday for some time. It feels like a bit of that overload has watered down his music. He is saying the same things He says on his shows and in interviews, He likes to smoke weed and likes to eat food. Beyond that the topics stray from "old school" New York to love and loss. Yet the beats on this record fail Bronson from almost the first moment. There is not really much boom bap, which was the hallmark of his early stuff, and instead these hazy muddled beats land in their place. The lines aren't as cutting and just feel sort of nebulous and odd.

"Live from the Moon" is one of those tracks that samples some old song but does little to "hip hop" asize it. It feels like Bronson is so confident in his flow that He thinks the beats don't need to be anything special and that his vocal will drive everything that needs to be driven driven forward. He is simply mistaken, and it's 100% his hubris. There are moments on the record like at the beginning of "Telemundo" which feature just weird screams or street noises, not to mention the whinnie of a horse every now and again just to remind you of the title of the record. This is the first record where Bronson has used multiple producers and you can hear it all over the place. The record is disjointed, and though Bronson has some typical topics to elaborate on, He never makes them soar. The beats would usually make up for this, hopefully you could just sit back and bop, but not so much. With Bronson's brand on the rise an album was the right move, but this is not going to garner him any new fans and likely won't make the rotation for his day one's. This album doesn't sound bad, it just sounds like it is for the indulgence of one person and one person only, Action Bronson. That's not how you please the fans.

4.4 out of 10