The Alchemist just isn’t an unrealistic man; he understands that even his powers have limits. In an interview with Tidal in late 2022, the legendary beatmaker admitted {that a} full-length collaboration with two artists presents distinctive challenges. “It’s all the time a little bit totally different if you’re working with two individuals,” he stated. “The result’s simply a lot extra unpredictable.” When he and New York rappers MIKE and Wiki introduced that they had been teaming up for Religion Is a Rock, it was logical to query how the trio would work collectively on an album. Luckily, on “Bless” and “Sentry,” two of MIKE’s current collabs with the Alchemist, his relaxed, virtually torpid raps sounded proper at dwelling.
However introducing Wiki’s winding, introspective monologues into the fold created the potential for an overcrowded panorama. Religion Is a Rock soothes any potential fears; MIKE and Wiki navigate the Alchemist’s warped terrain as equals. They obtain a steadiness just like Freddie Gibbs and Curren$y on 2018’s Fetti, delivering biting quotables and meandering soliloquies that reveal the total breadth of their powers. Over the 32-minute runtime, their raps by no means recede into the all-consuming mass of the Alchemist’s thick pattern loops.
This yr has been prolific for the Alchemist: He govt produced three information (and one deluxe model), together with Voir Dire, his most up-to-date joint album with Earl Sweatshirt. However making that a lot music in succession may deplete anybody’s creativity: In some unspecified time in the future, the boom-bap beats may begin to resemble one another. Religion Is a Rock avoids that lure, introducing sufficient temper modifications to maintain issues dynamic, all with out sacrificing the general tenor of the album. There are small however placing particulars scattered all through, just like the ghostly wails and sci-fi sound results that adorn “Odd Methods,” the cartoonish refrain that carries the bare-bones background of “Bledsoe,” and the sound of pencil scratching on paper on “Scribble Jam.” The 45-year-old producer additionally incorporates vignettes, sprinkling in Gil Scott-Heron vocals, Bob Dylan recordings, and narrations from basic Western movies as brief intros. The main focus right here isn’t essentially pushing the envelope, however crafting an setting that’s comfy for each MIKE and Wiki.
That method ensures that the highlight stays on the raps. When MIKE and Wiki on are on the identical observe, they’re like two savvy veterans on the court docket working in lockstep with one another, expertly assessing their subsequent strikes. They grant one another area from the outset; on the opener “Stargate,” which boasts a string pattern that sounds prefer it was ripped from a ’70s Blaxploitation movie, is a chief instance. Wiki drifts by way of autobiographical particulars, reminiscing about “sippin’ 40s on the fortieth Pier,” and his phrases bleed fluidly into MIKE’s bars with out shedding momentum. Solely two tracks listed below are solo efforts, a welcome homeostasis that permits every rapper to flex their presents. Whether or not they’re buying and selling truncated stanzas or spreading their legs out, neither feels rushed. There’s an intrinsic ease that rests on this relationship, a pure chemistry that feels prefer it’s existed for many years.
