Grade: B
Drakeo The Ruler has earned his title as The Ruler because as of right now, The Truth Hurts is the best hip hop/rap project out this year. Yes we’re only 3 months into 2021, but we’ve seen albums that were released early carry their hype with them for the rest of the year i.e. Eternal Atake most recently. I had no anticipation for this tape as I’m not really a big follower Drakeo The Ruler. With that being said he not only won me over but made me question my decision making. This album is too good to not be spoken about.
Drakeo The Ruler is an LA based rapper who just beat the most insane list of charges. Facing life and possibly the death penalty, he was able to get out in 3 years time instead. From the moment he was released, he began to work like a madman and went on to release 3 mixtapes. Even before that, he dropped one of the most well produced prison projects of all time, Thank You For Using GTL. The traditional west coast sound has been turned into one DJ Mustard beat dissected and reused over and over. Drakeo instead went the other way choosing to introduce his own style.
Immediately, “Intro (feat. SaySoTheMac)” took me by surprise. Usually intro songs are either A. A hype track, or B. An interlude that feeds into the next song. Instead Drakeo chose the alternative route, go all the way f****** negative. Within 10 seconds “What we on though? Just put 15 shots in his torso”. He wastes no time, and not a single bar. SaySoTheMac follows suit perfectly. “Having dreams and I’m seeing flesh.. Let me put it to a test will it rip through flesh?”. It’s like listening to the grim reaper and Thanatos talking to each other about their day. “Too Icey” strayed completely away from “Intro” as it's entirely a flex. It feels like a cut away from the seemingly lurking figure that is Drakeo in “Intro” and humanizes him. It’s about jewelry. Simple as that. But, Drakeo still makes a point to dunk on his opps. “We are not the same, you don’t have enough ice” hits immediately and it goes into a flurry of taunts. I love this song. It’s glamours, grimy, catchy, and disrespectful.
“No Apologies” is definitely an okay song, but it’s not my cup of tea. I thought Damon Elbert took a little too much up but it wasn’t much harm done. His voice is very nice but what his singing sorta makes him sound like a Ty Dolla $ign prototype. However, “It’s Some Shit on Me” is an out of pocket masterpiece. Drakeo tends to rap about scenarios and never strays away from them, so the whole time he’s just rapping about being around people with a gun on him while also later on “geeking off an upper” and of course pulling up on his opps.
While we’re on the subject of pulling up, there’s “10”. “10” sounds like a counting game for kids that would be in a satire film about LA in the 90’s. “Ten Bricks in the car, ten bricks in the house, ten sticks in the car, ten whips in the yard” could be exactly that. It’s so hilariously menacing and it’s really unlike anything else on the album. While it did surprise me, nothing surprised me like “Same Order”. I was listening to this album without knowledge of anything but it being Drakeo’s. So for one of my current favorite rappers, Icewear Vezzo to pop up and lay down another 5 star verse obviously made me lose my mind. Drakeo has a brief verse that almost holds up to Icewear, but Icewear just dominates and lays down one of my favorite lines said this year “Hundred round clip we pull up and make a movie”. Right now the LA and Michigan connection is putting out some of the best music and “Same Order” is S tier in that 100%.
The connection stays strong because right after “Engineer Scared” features Krispylife Kidd. Krispylife is one of the new guys from the emerging Flint. He’s extremely clever and also wildly out of pocket so paired with Drakeo’s wild word play and Ketchy The Great’s (RIP) rolling with the punches flow, we’re given a one liner masterpiece. The song is hilarious. They’re just talking about having guns in the studio and simply put the “Engineer Scared”. Imagine being the engineer in this situation. 3 guys with guns probably toting them and then making an entire song making fun of how scared you are. Yikes. However I am not an engineer so this song rules. “Chrome Hearts” was another massive surprise as again a “what are you doing here?” a moment ensued. Out of nowhere a wild Pressa appears, squeaky, and ready to claw your eyes out. Before I get to pressa let me say “My shooter don’t show no love he Chrome Hearted” is such an awesome line. Now Pressa truly scared the sh*t outta me. Again I was listening with no idea who else besides Drakeo was on the album so to not only hear a little squeak, but a murderous Canadian one really made me stop where I was. With that being said Pressa also went on to have a really good verse. So all in all a win.
“RIP Deebo” is pure fun for 2 minutes. “Don’t call my phone your sh*t hotter than Mike Jones” is another worldly line. I let out the biggest belly laugh when I heard it. But we finally get our first little bit of average and below at this point. “Not Normal” is okay but it doesn’t really do anything for me. Drakeo definitely snapped but the production isn’t for me. I’m not a fan of the beat and how long it went on. Bravo The Bagchaser did lay on a good verse but again the beat just did nothing for me. “Dawn Tolliver” is the most random song on the album. “Pull up in a lambo, it’s Don Tolliver” says Don Tolliver like this was a Don Tolliver fever dream. This song is so insanely catchy that it almost hurts to hear it knowing tours are dead right now. Until they’re back, I’m gonna stick to dancing in my room and calling myself Don Tolliver until then.
“Pow Right In The Kisser” is just outrageous. Using Jackie Gleason’s infamous “Pow right in the kisser” as a euphemism for a headshot is more than clever, it’s genius. Who in the right mind would have ever thought of that? On top of that he continues to recite “Pow right in the kisser” after every single line. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever heard. Drakeo and The Stinc Team went on to make one of the most unique posse cuts I’ve ever heard. If any song should be the face of this album, it’s this one. “Talk to Me” is well, weird. I wasn’t expecting Drake and wasn’t too happy about having him there either. It was just Drake singing “Cause I know you want me girl” after Drakeo talks his sh*t. Yes it is hilarious but it also ruins whatever semblance of seriousness this song presents. It just feels like Drake showed up to hop on a wave. I do hope this song catches fire and Drakeo gets paid though.
Overall I’ve had a great time with The Truth Hurts and I’m probably going to always have it in my rotation for the rest of the year. As I said before, right now this is my album of the year. With that being said it’s low points are pretty obvious and hold it back a little bit, those low points being tracks like “Exclusive” and “When Thugs Cry”. The lack of a fun topic, good feature or great hook make them listenable, but not really replayable. Still, moments like “Engineer Scared” and “Too Icey” are just too exceptional to ignore, they show Drakeo as a singular performer, doing things that only he can do. Just on sound alone this is better than Thank You For Using GTL, so by that measure I give it a B+.
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