Larry June & The Alchemist — The Great Escape
After teasing the album with multiple great singles, Larry June and The Alchemist finally release their collab album, and it lives up to the hype.
The Alchemist (left) and Larry June (right)
The Alchemist has collaborated with multiple artists, in the last few years he has single handedly produced some of the most respected modern Hip-Hop albums, working with a range of artists from Freddie Gibbs, Boldy James to Armand Hammer. The beginning of 2023, sees The Alchemist teaming up with Bay-Area rapper Larry June for the first time. Releasing the album’s first single “60 Days”, Larry excellently flows well and calmly over Alchemist’s jazz inspired instrumental and to much surprise Alchemist drops a verse as well. Though Alchemist awkwardly flows a lackluster verse, the instrumental and Larry do enough to still save the song.
The second single, “89 Earthquake”, does one better than the first single. Instrumental is even better, with relaxing yet also haunting piano keys, and again Larry’s performance is excellent. The last single, “Palisades, CA”, features Big Sean and the third single has the same issue with “60 Days”. That being Big Sean’s feature verse being poor, similar to Alchemist, Sean sounds awkward trying to flow similarly to Larry, whilst dropping a verse that lyrically isn’t memorable. On the other hand, similar to “60 Days”, the Larry and Alchemist’s production still saves the single.
There are however some great features in the album cuts, from Action Bronson’s feature on the album’s third track “Solid Plan” to the J Dilla sampled “Orange Village” which features Detroit’s legendary group Slum Village. Another Detroit feature comes from Boldy James, a few months on from his brilliant Indiana Jones album, he delivers a great verse on “Art Talk”. The production is a standout from the album, though it continues to follow the calm vibes of the album “Art Talk” consists of atmospheric production.
Though the album is fantastic, the album does have a couple of records that don’t hold up to the rest of the album’s standard. “Summer Reign” featuring Ty Dolla $ign may not be a terrible record, however compared to the rest of the album it’s really average and gets lost within the album as it’s surrounded with other songs that are much better. This is sadly the same case with “What Happened to the World?” which features Pittsburgh rapper Wiz Khalifa, a track that I had high expectations for, it failed to live up to the potential it could have had.
Overall though, The Great Escape is a phenomenal collaborative album. The Alchemist and Larry June are a perfect match. Credit to Larry who performed really well on the album, and as he normally does Alchemist delivers production that matches the vibe and style of the artist he is working with, continuing this incredible run he is on. Without question he is easily one of the greatest Hip-Hop producers of all time. Last year, Larry released one of my favourite projects with 2 P’z In A Pod with LNDN DRGS and Jay Worthy, and he’s done it again with The Alchemist on The Great Escape.