Written by: Andrew Kirkpatrick
For three years in a row now, Boston’s Statik Selektah has been putting out compilation records that serve as a showcase both for his beats and for a diverse swath of MCs, both underground and mainstream. While 2013’s Extended Play was a solid collection of well produced and nicely performed East Coast boom-bap, last year’s What Goes Around was vastly underwhelming in comparison. Its line-up of guest rappers was incredibly promising, including veterans and newcomers alike from every region where hip-hop thrives. Its instrumentals, on the other hand, was extremely bland and forgettable — not exactly what you’d expect from a producer-helmed album, particularly when that producer is one of the most prolific and important figures in modern East Coast boom-bap.
This year’s Lucky 7 suffers from the inverse problem. The beats here are some of Statik Selektah’s best and most experimental, but most of the guest verses feel flat and uninspired. The quick bass and synth stabs on “Crystal Clear,” for instance, are an exciting piece of Dilla- or Madlib-worship, but Detroit spitter Royce da 5’9”’s verses are loaded with some truly awful bars. When he raps “God made y’all in the image of SpongeBob… did it soak in yet?” on the track’s second verse, you’ll probably feel extremely thankful there isn’t a third. Meanwhile, on “Bodega,” A$AP Mob affiliate Bodega Bamz receives one of the album’s best beats — a restrained, warm drum and bass pattern guided forth by some elegant strings — and proceeds to use it to yell his name over and over again and deliver terrible lines like “if you fuckin’ on the plane for the first time, fly Virgin.”
Statik probably should have gotten ahold of everyone before the album came out to make sure they knew their verses were actually going to be used and heard by other people.
Statik recruits comedian Hannibal Buress to deliver a faux-rap mogul monologue on the album’s intro, but what should be hilarious in theory isn’t at all entertaining in reality. He just sort of rambles on for about a minute, making half-hearted bids at jokes here and there. It’s especially disappointing considering that Buress had an extremely funny feature on Open Mike Eagle’s excellent “Doug Stamper” last year. As it is, the track is just another instance of Lucky 7’s squandered potential.
Statik’s collaborators do his beats justice here and there. Rapsody has a solo track at the start of the compilation, and while it’s not mindblowing, it’s hard not to root for her as she takes a victory lap, having seen some mainstream success with her excellent feature on Kendrick Lamar’s “Complexion.” Elsewhere, Chicago up-and-comer Mick Jenkins attacks an excellent instrumental driven by frenzied jazz piano chords dynamic enough that they had to have been played live — a nice change of pace indeed, considering Statik’s old-school approach to production generally favors samples.
The best cut of all, though, is easily the early-album track “Beautiful Life.” The instrumental here is an insane combination of a rolling, 80s synth-pop bassline, and classically East Coast piano and guitar stabs. The song’s drum pattern changes up on a dime and brief piano and saxophone solos make an impossibly energetic song even busier and grander. The song’s guest MCs, Action Bronson and Joey Bada$$ kill it as well. The former’s delivery is so loud and hyped that his vocal track is slightly distorted, while the latter affects a smooth, almost West Coast-flavored flow to counterpoint Bronsolino.
So, there are a couple truly excellent songs on Lucky 7, and it’s certainly a much better project overall than last year’s half-assed blur of a boom-bap record, What Goes Around. Still, Statik has put out seven 17-plus track behemoths in the past eight years, and the feeling of diminishing returns is becoming undeniable. 2015 has been a banner year for hip-hop, one that’s made solid projects from the likes of Ka, Joey Bada$$, Meek Mill, and The Alchemist — projects that would probably go much more widely celebrated had they released any other year — register as momentary blips on the radar. Amidst this kind of competition, and especially in light of the fact that all standards and expectations for production in hip-hop have been pretty much obliterated at this point, an album like Lucky 7 just can’t hold its own.
Statik Selektah has hinted that this will be his last blowout compilation record, and that he’ll instead focus on closer collaboration with other artists going forth. While it’s somewhat unfortunate to see these projects come to an end, it also feels as though his string of releases has come to its natural conclusion. As one of the most prolific figures in traditionalist, no-nonsense hip-hop, even Statik’s iffiest releases hold some value. Here’s hoping that a change of pace will be for the better.
