Gorilla: A powerful, intimidating, ferocious animal who is an absolute king of the jungle in their own right. An animal that can be funny but will fight with unspeakable velocity when necessary. That's what exactly comes to mind when I listen to Sean Price. An absolute giant of an emcee with a wicked sense of humor that has been making his impact on Hip-Hop culture known for over two decades until his untimely passing on August 8, 2015.
Fast forward two years from the day of his passing, we now have his new posthumous album "Imperius Rex" upon us and it's worth the wait. It's really and I mean really worth the wait!
From the first track all the way to the last, you can tell a lot of love went into the making of this masterpiece. The album starts off with Sean's daughter doing an acappella of a well known verse of Sean P with absolute perfection. It is no secret that it's very difficult to go word for word with Sean due to his complex but original rhyme scheme delivery. But for her, it was effortless and hearing that was my indication that I was in for something really special.
Throughout my listening of this album, I was amazed by how beautifully Sean's vocals were handed and how the selected beats by various producers just made his vocals sound even more lifelike.
On every single song, I felt Sean Price's presence no matter who else was on the track with him. On "Dead or Alive" and "Price Family", hearing his loving wife Bernadette Price on the hook was exciting, daunting and relentless. I was blown away by how dope she really sounds alongside Sean. On "Resident Evil", Sean just go bananas letting the world know who is the deadliest gorilla. On "Ape In His Apex" featuring a solid guest verse from Ruste Juxx, Sean goes straight up barbaric and kills the track with that wild animal instinct that he is famously know for. The beats on "Refrigerator P!", "Rap Professor" and "Negus" featuring Doom and Ike Eyez are super crazy and the "Not97 Skit" had me of the floor of my speakers dying with laughter. Honestly, I didn't hear not one bad track on this album. Every track shows no mercy and kills with satisfaction. Sean wouldn't have had it any other way.
Another track I must mention is "Clans & Cliks" featuring Smif-N-Wesson, Method Man, Raekwon, Inspectah Deck & Foul Monday. Boot Camp Clik meets Wu-Tang Clan. The best of both worlds if you ask me. Insane record and that's putting it mildly. My only wish for this record is having Ghostface Killah and Genius/GZA included as well. As dope as this record is, if those two were on it, I would of lost my damn mind.
But the song that stole the show for me was "The 3 Lyrical Ps" featuring Prodigy & Styles P. Hearing Sean starting off his verse saying "It Go/Waste Removal/We Dispose Brothers/Embarrassing The Family/Keyshia Cole Mother" had me jumping back from my speakers like damn Sean is going IN! And if that weren't enough, in comes the second verse from Prodigy who sounds dangerously focused with devastating appeal. And then there's Styles P who played the finisher with his dope 3rd verse. I caught chills listening to this.
I must say Thank You to everyone at Duck Down Music and most importantly his loving wife Bernadette Price for making sure everything on "Imperius Rex" got handled with deep loving care. In all honesty, the reason why this album is so good is if Sean Price were still alive, this is exactly the album he would of made. My only prayer is that there is more music coming from Sean Price in the future but for now, "Imperius Rex" is a masterpiece no matter which way you put it. Ape don't kill ape.
Good day to all.
Verse Essential.
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