First Blood

There’s a new experience around every corner. For me? It’s covering an album loosely based on Rambo! As a millennial this alongside Rigs in Lethal Weapon, Mcclane in Die Hard and Arnold in Terminator were the main action hero’s of our time and so it feels almost nostalgic to cover a record based on one of the pillars of the action genre! With that in mind let’s get into it! This is the brand new album by MC -GRVNOLA and Producer and personal fried and brother -Dev Rogers! Together they drop this 7 track, 14 minute bombshell that features -Daniel Son -Eminemcee -Griot Noy, a dangerous trio potentially more dangerous then the compound Bow! Far from being alone, this man might be just as deadly on the mic as Rambo is in the survival game. In the booth we hear -GRVNOLA who comes equipped with his own arsenal of tools from -Smooth delivery -Fluid motion -Sharp lyricism -Great chemistry with the features. With this belt of weapons he comes ready for war! Sometimes it’s a swift army knife full of tasteful puns and intricate set up lines that tie A and B together in a way you didn’t see coming! Other times it’s a silencer shot to the head packed with a surreal/methodical performances that force the listener to observe every single word and sentence that is dropped by NOLA! If he’s ever finds himself trapped between a rock and a hard place, he even has a ready to Detonate thick smoke bomb that consists of his in depth bar analysis, fused with his brash and often aggressive approach in his penmanship that can throw enemies off his scent due to his rather relaxed and vibrant tone he accompanies the words with! As is shown in the introduction, help is only a flare away as we see him team up with mercenaries just as deadly as himself (if not more so) from the Umbrella’s own Daniel Son, the powerhouse MC Eminencee and even the one of the more new yet deadly faces on the scene in Griot! All come packed and ready to strike alongside GRV to deliver some of the harshest feature verses you’ve heard all year! Now as far my brother and main man Dev is concerned. I suppose in this tale he would be -Colonel Sam Trautman. A man who is here to not only help but document the situation Rambo is in! So in this music context he’s the man providing the epic instrumental atmosphere for GRV to go off and man there is many epic moments to speak of! Such as -Lane the opening track this song sets the tone of the whole record. You’ve got those shimmering keys that’s put together with some hypnotic drum usage and some heavy bass! We hear that trademark Dev ‘Space Invader’ watermark thrown in there as well! To give some extra texture to the song! The song -I Tried To Tell Em Lord stood out to me for its gritty & raw soundscape! You’ve got those fever dream style plucked keys that loops throughout the track every 10 seconds or so! That’s combined with some sharp guitar strings and those same chords from before echoing throughout the track! Can’t forget the drum beats that rock your head off if you aren’t careful! This is the track that -Eminencee goes off on towards the end! What about the track -Stallone Wolves which has one of the more smooth and soulful vibes on the whole album! I adored those dreamy acoustic guitar strings that turned this track into a heavenly tone! These are combined with some blissful keys in the background in the glistening fashion that’s accompanied by some methodically paced drum beats! Truly the definition of ‘magical’ on this one! ‘To Survive A War, You Gotta Become War’ and in Hip Hop terms they did just that! With -GRVNOLA’S words of steel and -Dev Roger’s Sound of Destruction they combine to create a calamity only a select few can hope to survive (and the survivors are the features on the album!)