Ryan Carter comes out heavy handed with an intricate dose of 20 dynamic rap songs meshed together on his newest masterpiece “The Doctorate”. The witty Detroit-embraced banter embodies a comedic style of musicianship through the lyrical onset of exceptional deliveries. The rap bars remain consistent throughout the course of the album without losing a step in terms of inventiveness progressing diligently through the firestorm of comedic enactment. Carter is an extremely talented ambidextrous rapper with various faculties in songwriting, self-made production/mix engineering and overall revolutionary poetic thinking that has hacked the musical in a pioneering manner towards renowned status.

At first glance, parody rappers do not get the positive reinforcement that they deserve as it is an extraordinarily difficult maneuver to pivot after the initial caste has been broken in this genre of inspired craftsmanship – However, this artist has incessantly learned how to redirect negative connotations in his favor to ramp up creative interest recruiting aspiring listeners to the genus. This parody genre has long been ignored in the hip-hop realm giving Carter significant advantage to infiltrate while conveying raw value through enhanced entertainment with an astute consistency that he has carried throughout preceding successful albums that have won accolades and respective awards. The core cleverness of these parodies are manufactured in a method that aligns the songwriting components of the original songs in a chopped up resilient manipulation of counter culture against the gatekeepers. This radical attitude has been responsible for Carter’s timeless music that surpasses trending fashions to a parallel of novel expectations for artistry that reward imagination.

This album illustrates an interesting but significant contrast where the compound production methodologies are seemingly complex while the harmonic lyricism is complemented with Carter’s sophisticated poeticism. I think the word to describe this artist’s avid approach would be: refreshing. As he has definitely carved out a substantial niche in hip-hop taking advantage of this overlooked loophole. There are far too many musicians out there that sound identical and do not possess enough assets or faculties that set themselves apart from others. Furthermore, this inevitably causes staleness within the music that reaps inspiration from other musicians trying to harness value to the collective as well. There is an essence of hybrid musicianship that cannot be ignored with multiple alter ego stirred rap styles linking together in a customary fashion to establish an indistinguishable stamp on his music.

The minimalist defiance avoids bells-and- whistles and hones in on the songwriting process in its carnal formation. Likewise, this is not to be distracted with attractive instrumentals that can veer away from the central vision of the musician’s intentions. The relentless straight through forcefulness of the music doesn’t stop in the face of needless necessities and pushes the envelope to encourage pound-for-pound MC-ing. Contending rappers falter when confronted with this grim reality as it services the need to dig deep and execute without handicaps.

The production qualities are congruent to the conceptualizations of the songwriting themselves and provide a solidified cohesiveness to the music. The audience can truly expand upon the creativity that Carter shrouds on this album through its relatability. Furthermore, this is met with a seamless directness where each song flows into one another like a film with unpredictable twists embedded into its infrastructure. The use of humor is incorporated on each piece without becoming too overbearing to the listening audience and establishes an ingenious methodology to the content while avoiding sounding excessively crude or corny.

The remixed areas of the album were mixed in a fashion that sounded natural to the overall recording process through the musical continuum. “She Drugged Me” flips rape culture on its head with a twist that gives a male’s perspective of the issue through falling in love as a date rape victim. “Cops in Back” makes lighthearted jabs at police brutality avoiding political correctness while simultaneously criticizing the calamities in black communities much like Rodney King. “Poke It Slow” pokes (pun-intended) at the slow tempo R&B ballad music on a sexy lust composition through the eyes of an innocent virgin male. In contrast, “Let’s Get Pumped” displays the creepy end of the scale with a deranged man seducing a woman who can’t say “no” trapped his elaborate funhouse. “Spittin’ A Loogie” detracts from contemporary rappers who hold the same rap style cadences with a copy/paste attitude towards hip hop while providing relevant metaphors to make a sound argument. The “Wild U.S.” envelops the war machine of the patriotic United States through the military industrial complex that is simply unmatched on an international platform through the perspective of an arrogant and funny portrayal of American citizens. “That’s A Bit Yucky” relishes a funky instrumental tapping into the hormonal experiences of men in prude situations and its mere frustrations to notching the belt.

The Doctorate holds dear to the utilization of interludes that mesh the entire infrastructure of the music together like an emblematic glue of epic proportions. The dynamic energy of the compositions fluctuate in multifaceted dimensions while maintaining a grounded approach to the LP that stays true to the artist’s overall vision. The sample production surfaces significant homage paid to industry greats that preceded these authentic rap artists while shape shifting the collective art form into something crisp and renewed. The Doctorate morphs into a comprehensive story where the instrumentation moves fluidly throughout the tracks applying vivid descriptions in the form of complex metaphors and verbal jousting on each stanza. The vocal effects make for an interesting listening experience with motioning panning positions, frequency shifting and phasing effects. The rapping constituencies come out with forceful energy on every one of these signature tracks and a immaculate distribution quality that adds a consolidated vigor to the vulgar messages put forth. Every verse had a place in the album that was carefully coordinated in a meticulous manner that heightens the creative consciousness of this LP to an astronomic level – The listener can really feel the amount of hard work and dedication between every edit, delivery and songwriting faculty with diverse flow approaches that cannot be disregarded as it encapsulates Carter’s uniqueness.

The logical fallacy in the process of constructing this masterpiece was in its inherent contradiction of goofy rap flows peppered in with serious songwriting skills – in other words, this rapper goes pound-for- pound in terms of lyrical potential throwing stones at the windows of industry performers not pulling their weight. The topics of discussion vacillated throughout the extent of the album from satirical to down right sacrilegious, which displays this rapper’s courage to challenge the vernaculars of the modern contemporary visionaries. The wordplay moves fluidly from subtle anecdotal messages to downright blatant crudeness that embellishes humor on all borders of the frequency network.

Carter provides an authentic realization with a comedic gritty edge to insert value to the music industry rather than take it for selfish reasons through state of the art musicianship embedded in the contextual sound. The sheer assertiveness of the rapper’s vocals on each track comes out hard with no loose ends on any of the singles, which shows the Carter’s dedication to the overall apparition of the project.

Each song holds an important connotation in relation to one another that cannot be overlooked and discounted- this shows the extraordinary commitment through all aspects of the creative process in anything from engineering to the utter complexities in the rap bars.

The engineering aspect of the album employs essential equalization, analogue compression, and vintage effects to support the contemporary rap sound that pays homage to its roots in the Golden Age of Hip-Hop with a humorous twist.

I am really excited to see this MC blossom and it seems as though he has found his mark in the music industry, to put Detroit on the map with yet another aspect to be proud of within the majestic Motor City.

Album Review