Pressure 2022 Album

Z-Ro

1. Pressure (Intro) ★★★★☆ The opener, with Pac vocal samples and Ro borrowing Pac's lyrics from the legendary 'Can't C Me', as well as other famous rap songs is dope. Someone needs to make a project full of Pac samples and homages. On 'Never Fold' he actually says, "I come up with my own shit, there's not a lot of sampling", but he actually has borrowed lots of concepts from 'Ring My Bell', 'Many Men' to Biggie's 'Fucking You Tonight' to name a few. 2. Man Hold Up ★★★★ This is dope rapping with minimal singing. 3. Where My Niggas At ★★★ This is the first to get a video for it. Far from my favourite, but a decent track about loyalty. 4. Roll 1 Deep ★★☆ How many tracks can Ro write about being 1 deep? Ehh. The chorus is alright, but the production isn't great to make the verses that worthwhile. 5. That’s Me ★★★☆ 6. Never Fold ★★★ 7. Fall Bacc ★★★ 8. Heaven 4 a Gangsta ★★★☆ The best song since 'Man Hold Up'. A little harder, angrier and darker. 9. Lord Knows ★★★★ Lots of singing, but this is more catchy, with the featuring vocals from Lolita Monreaux helping the hook stand out. Better production too. 10. Playa ★★☆ 11. Waitin on the Checc ★★★ 12. Shin Dig ★★★ 13. On My Necc ★★★☆ Another catchy hook ★★★☆ 14. MurdererxLanlawd ★★★★ As with 'Lord Knows', the featured vocals are dope and make the song stand out along with its vibey feel. 15. Everywhere I Go ★★★☆ 16. Live It Up ★★★☆ 17. H-Town Legend ★★★☆ 18. Gone Eat ★★★★ 19. Actin’ Funny ★★★ Here he addresses people like me who miss his spitting, but damn, I'd love more hard quick rapping from him, because there are few who do it better. 20. 5th ★★★☆ This album is similar to Z-Ro's past few albums in a number of ways. They've been over an hour making them take some time to digest, similar by way of quality, the singing/rapping style Ro has done for quite some time now-more so than his straight-up spitting, and without enough amazing moments. As with his past few projects as well, this has grown on me after being underwhelmed early on, but there is nothing-little here that fans will be putting in a best of Z-Ro compilation. It starts and ends fairly well, but there are too many skippable songs in between. Given Ro has been putting out material consistently for almost 25 years, he'd be much better off releasing a 12 track album, rather than a 20 one, given the content isn't breaking any new ground. And it has its moments, and I'm not sure who produced this, but the production definitely won't wow the listener. Still a 3-3.5/5 because there are enough good moments, and as always Z-Ro is more enjoyable to listen to here than most rappers, but here's to more quality control on his next. Beats: ★★★ Rapping/Bars: ★★★☆ Hooks: ★★★☆ Best Tracks: Pressure (Intro), Man Hold Up, Heaven 4 a Gangsta, Lord Knows, On My Necc, MurdererxLanlawd, Gone Eat, 5th