Boldy James & RichGains — Indiana Jones
After creating great projects with likes of The Alchemist and the Real Bad Man, Boldy starts 2023 with a new collab album with producer RichGains. Indiana Jones is perhaps sonically his darkest yet also one of his most ambitious project.
Boldy James
Boldy is no stranger to releasing collaborative projects with producers. 2021 saw the release of two projects with super producer The Alchemist, Bo Jackson and Super Tecmo Bo, whilst last year saw the likes of Killing Nothing (with Real Bad Man) and Fair Exchange No Robbery (with Nicholas Craven). His new collab album with RichGains steers Boldy to a more darker aesthetic and eerlie comes two weeks after his severe car accident. Now before I go further into my review, I would like to wish Boldy my well wishes and I hope that he recovers soon.
The album starts off strong with “Saints and Sinners”, were Boldy sets the tone of the album with each of his two verses starting with the same line; “I'm not a savior nor a saint”. Between Boldy’s lines and tales of drug dealing, it seems as if he criticises himself for the way he is with lines such as “I try to behave when I know I can't” and “I cannot be contained”. With Cassie Jo Craig’s vocals on the chorus repeating, “you’re not a saint” it begs the question whether Boldy looks down on himself for his past and his current personality.
Cassie’s vocals is sprinkled on two other tracks on this album, “Hunnit Sales” with Sir Michael Rocks and “Frozen”. Her background vocals are a great addition to this album and they add an extra layer to the production. Indiana Jones also consists of other great features, from the likes of The Cool Kids member Sir Michael Rocks. Rocks has has multiple great features on this album, with his best features being on “Dopey” and “Hunnit Sales”. Compared to his previous projects, this latest LP sees Boldy taking risks with his production choices. The album has Boldy rapping over guitar work from Jonathan Chapman on multiple tracks, such as “8 Days”. Tracks such as “8 Days” shows that the risk paid off well, the song features fellow Detroit rapper Gue Wop, as they rap lyrics of their drug dealing exploits. Boldy is the one who steals the show as he drops two great verses showcasing his phenomenal rhyme patterns. From a lyrical standpoint “8 Tracks” is Boldy at his best.
As a whole, Indiana Jones is a great collaborative album, you can literally put it on and let it play. Boldy’s new direction with this album may split fans down the middle, however I personally love the new direction that he took with this LP, from its production to general aura and mood of the album. With his consistent run since 2021, it would be difficult to top last years Killing Nothing and 2021’s Bo Jackson, however Boldy did it and he made it look easy. However, it couldn’t of been executed without RichGains. RichGains must get as much credit as possible, it’s clear that he understands what Boldy needs and is ability to produce instrumentals that fit with Boldy’s voice and style has to be applauded. Compared to a project like Bo Jackson, Indiana Jones may not be as grand and well polished, but somehow that’s what makes the project standout. Without a doubt, Indiana Jones is by far my favourite project from Boldy. Boldy’s rapping and delivery fits incredibly well with the production, and out of all his collaborations, his partnership with RichGains is his best. At this point it seems that the Detroit MC can do no wrong, and with each project he releases Boldy continues to show why he is one of the most exciting acts within the underground Hip-Hop scene.