1999 review

<p style="text-align: center">1999 by joey fatass</p><p style="text-align: center">8.25/10</p><p style="text-align: center">favorite tracks: waves, fromdatomb$, <span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">survival tactics, killuminati, hardknock, pennyroyal, daily routine, snakes, righteous minds</span></p><p style="text-align: center"><span style="color: rgb(255, 255, 255)">worst track: funky ho'$</span></p><p>Considering joey was 17 when made this record, I think it's fair to say this is today's illmatic imo.</p><p>I kinda understand why not many people are talking about this project, and it's for a good reason. Considering how new and hungry joey was when he made this, there wasn't much hype when it came out, and there certainly isn't much behind it today. I didn't discover this guy immediately when this dropped, I only found out about this guy when I was bumping long live a$ap in high school and I found joey in the creds of 1train. I got bored one day and did some digging on this guy, and that's how I first listened to this.</p><p>I can still vividly remember my first impressions with this. Yes, it carries a soundscape that is the complete opposite of commercial production, so in no way is this ever gonna be a hype album. It's sad because for a boom-bap record, it's great, but because of the time period joey was born in, nobody was gonna give this guy a chance for people to bump him because everybody wanted the idealistic modern and contemporary vibe. You've probably heard of this phrase before, but joey was 100% in the wrong generation of hip-hop when he made this. Early 2000s or even earlier, I'd see this guy being hailed as one of the better pioneers for rap.</p><p>This is his best and most replayable album joey has ever made. I love the old-schoolessence of this, the grittiness and vintage tones really work well with all the elements shown in his music. Even when I stumbled on this guy in high school, it still baffles me how close I was to this guy's age at the time, especially how impressive his lyricism was.</p><p>The misses on this album like funky ho'$ and where it'$ at are examples of whether he's lacking in his voice or his production feels bland. For funky ho'$, I don't like how little energy he's bringing out, and with where it'$ at, it's one of the only beats on here that I can comfortably say that the simple beat and lack of production mixing connects well with joey's performance. But other than that, there's a large handful of bangers on here. Most of the songs, at least, sound like they've had a lot of thought put into every small detail of them, and I really appreciate that.</p><p>So yeah, one of the best indie rappers of this generation's best work.</p>