Columbia, Maryland emcee/producer KAAN keeps things consistent with the release of his 25th album. Over the past decade or so, Knowledge Below All Nonsense has put out numerous standouts in his ever-growing discography, such as Black Blood, the Ski Beatz-produced Requiem for a Dream Deferred, and the Big Ghost Ltd.-produced All Praise is Due , Mission Hillz , Death of a Rapper and Evening News are all produced by former Strange Music in-house producer MIKE SUMMERS , aka Seven and even Peace of Minds a few months ago. To keep the pressure on, Los Angeles producer/DJ DJ Hoppa was tapped to produce Delusions of Grandeur.
Sickly feverish opener “Can’t Help It” admits to kidnapping other rappers just for fun, while “Insane,” played over flute with kick and snare, admits that he often has conversations with voices in his head. “Nightmare” took a darker route, subtly took a different path, and is set to endure, but it was followed by “What Can I Say?” Since no one else has time, Dusty breaks down his process of decomposing beats and digestion.
“The Crown” puts it all in the booming Bapu wheelhouse, warning not to look down if you’re afraid of heights, while the orchestrally dusty “Dark Night” finds him losing his calm playing rules and going against the grain. society. “The Plot Thickens” has a bit of a jazzy tone, with a sense of urgency as the instrument talks nonsense that has nothing to do with him, like it’s an emergency, but then “Got One” shifts into trap territory, pushing it further .
Kicking off the album’s final leg, “Countdown” returns to the high-noon days of Boom Bap dancing with his demons, while the song “Destiny” flips a retro sample over a kick and snare drum to talk about war. The title track tells us that the things that don’t break you make you stronger and uses his own experiences of the dark days to make his point until “Kiss the Ring” completes the album explaining this and letting them Become stronger.
The output we’ve gotten from him over the last 6 months has definitely been great for KAAN and Delusions of Grandeur continues that momentum. DJ Hoppa’s production is primarily based on traditional boom-bap sounds rather than February’s “Peace of Mind,” balancing this out with trap and the Maryland emcee bringing more hardcore lyrical tones.
Rating: 9/10
