Mickey Diamond, one of Detroit’s worst underground emcees, is back with his 12th record. Bursting on the scene in early 2020 with his debut EP Bangkok Dangerous, the guy has worked his way through 10 previous albums and 7 EPs and mixtapes. But over the past year, Mitch has been putting out some of the best material of his career to date. This includes the Gucci Ghost album and its sequel produced by Big Ghost Ltd., the Oroku Saki EP produced by Ral Duke, the Death Threat$ album produced by Sadhugold, the Capital Gains album produced by Camoflauge Monk or the recent Parts 3 and 4 last winter The Gucci Ghost Legend. But starting with Season 2 in the new year, Diamond and Larduck will reunite in the Oroku Saki sequel Super Shredder.
“TGRI” opens with a chilly BAP instrumental that sees the sewers as his second home and calls himself a true villain wearing a chrome mask, while “Shredder Loves April” features soulful instrumentals that bring his romantic interests to life. Analogy to April O’Neil. “Foot Clan Party” rang his name from the Car City all the way to Baltimore with movie samples, but then “Cartoon Car Tunes” took the improbable boom route of cooking in Dex’s lab while wearing hazmat suits and hazmat suits The mask proclaims true horror.
Next up, “Coffee Beans” combines kicks and snares with melodic vocals in an office scene where people know nothing about high fashion until you give them a rude warning before “Rocksteady” Get out. It had been like this ever since Umbrella carved her way into this bitch. “The Masked Man” talks menacingly about Diamond’s rivals who now know about the deal with him, but after the “Feudal Japan” episode, the “Tin Can Assassin” skips the strings to discuss his style.
Following the “Oozey” interlude, “Technodrome” continues his symphonic rumble, treating anyone who walks in front of him through the microphone as “old news,” while “Hyperstone Heist” outrageously talks about being a killer . After the “Shredder’s Hideout” interlude, “They Took Splinter” dusted off telling everyone else to pray for God’s sake, and after the “Anchovies” interlude, the final song “Shell Shock” was a treat for the party people A fun song that makes a great ending to the album.
4 months later Diamond has done it again with 2 last minute additions to my best albums of 2023 list, taking everything that made Oroku Saki his best EP and Translate that to a whole album. Ral Duke’s work is dirtier, and while he’s somewhat new to working behind the scenes on other projects, the concept of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles remains untouched by any fan of the series, and Mickey’s Lyricality is more difficult.
Rating: 9/10
