Chicago rapper Valee has now teamed up with Detroit producer Black Noi$e for his fifth EP. He released 3 mixtapes and several EPs between 2015 and 2018, making his name widely known until one of my top 10 producers (formerly Kanye West) signed a joint deal with GOOD Music Protocol & Def Jam Recordings. The next two EPs, “GOOD Job”, “You Found Me” and “Runnin’ Rich”, helped spread improvised music to mainstream audiences, though both received mixed reviews, leading him to step down as of Thursday road. I should also mention that Valee has 2 additional EPs produced by AYOCHILLMAN as the duo The TrAppiEst, 2 more by ChaseTheMoney as the duo VTM, and 1 by Stan Lane as the duo Produced by Vlane. Regardless, his feature-length debut Virtuoso, produced by Harry Fraud, won me over last summer, and I’m sure Partridge will be equally enjoyable.
“Partridge” is a sample-laden trap opener, with Valee bragging about putting a bitch in Chanel and skating harder than Molly Bloom, while “Clutch” clocks in at nearly 2 minutes into a frenzied beat Switch it up so this guy can show off his lifestyle on wax. “DiGiMon” takes the weird boom-bap route, instrumentally talking about sex over money, while “Ruff” pushes a bit of a mellow trap veer towards the end of the EP towards the idea of flying to Berlin and toying with new things. The “Sonnet” ends with the Partridge gloomily showing his baby rocking the “Bathing Ape” without the monkey in the middle.
Initially, I considered “Runnin’ Rich” to be my favorite Valee EP because it took everything from “GOOD Job” and “You Found Me” and improved upon them. Five years later, he outdoes himself here, just as he did with Harry Fraud in Virtuoso last summer. The production on Black Noi$e is more experimental than Harry’s on his debut record, and Valee’s own performance is an improvement over the other material he’s given us over the past 10 months.
Score: 8/10
