New surprise LP and fourth record from emcee Isaac Castor from Detroit, Michigan. In 2010, he debuted under the original name Gameboi, released 4 mixtapes and 3 EPs, and signed with local underground hip-hop giant Middle Finger Music 8 years later. He then brought on label co-founder Foul Mouth to be the man behind his feature-length debut, The Rabbit Hole, as well as its sequel and final installment, Smoking Caterpillar, and tapped Machacha to produce Lost in Transit.
“Bullet Train” opens with this 92-second drumless intro talking about needing to change credit cards, in the same way the game is a scam, while “All Love” uses some exposed guitar to call out clowns who pretend to be tough when they really aren’t. Poet Dog brought some drums to talk about being forced to reach the top of the mountain before the Canadian wildfires abandoned them again so he could explain why the clouds were getting so dark.
On “Get Serious,” things shifted into a booming pop vibe, talking about the part that remains mysterious among the sheep trying to follow the herd, but it’s followed by “Hopeless,” which stars Miz Korona, who soulfully addresses someone so vain that they’d think it was a diss directed at them, “What’s in the Instruments,” and has people lining up to buy this designer drug they’ve concocted.
Featuring Aztek the Barfly, Fatboi Sharif and Foul Mouth, “Candy Flip” brings the quartet together for a gritty hardcore hip-hop anthem, with each artist delivering brutal verses without any hooks, while “Americano” is a jazzy talk about needing alfalfa and coffee to wake up to every morning. “1 Way Ticket” spends the last few minutes of “Lost in Transit” ending with a booming bap about how people treated him like a normal person until they realized he wrote songs.
For at least 6 months after Eye of the Beholder, many of Machacha’s projects for other artists either succeeded or failed, but Lost in Transit is, in my opinion, one of Isaac Custer’s greatest works outside of the Rabbit Hole trilogy. You always get high quality production from Machacha and this is no different, but the biggest difference is that the performances from both the main artists and the guests have improved.
Score: 8/10
