TIME

Album review

Your Old Droog has maintained an exceptionally prolific release schedule, producing no less than eight full-lengths between 2019 and 2021 alone. While all of them are worthy of recommendation, particularly 2020's Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition and both 2021 efforts with Tha God Fahim, TIME makes its case as Droog's most definitive work to date. "The Magic Watch" establishes the album's captivating theme of time travel, while also demonstrating his masterful skills as a storyteller. The song centers around the tale of a watch that can transport its owner back to any time in their life, and it strikes an emotional chord right off the bat, when the subject in the first verse goes back to childhood and sees his deceased grandmother again. YOD revisits his own past on autobiographical tracks like "Please Listen to My Jew Tape," which chronicles how he came up in the rap industry and was initially passed on by bigger labels because his sound didn't quite fit in with the prevailing trends of the time. "Dropout Boogie" flashes back to high school with help from Edan's characteristically psychedelic production and a spirited, high-speed guest verse by the much-missed MF DOOM. Other songs focus on YOD's experiences with drugs ("So High") and weird sexual encounters ("You're So Sick"), and they're packed with absurd, humorous details. Tying the album together is a series of interludes by a slick radio announcer (played by comedian Anthony Jeselnik) who claims that he's got a time machine, and that he's going back in time to kill baby Hitler. As darkly humorous as the album gets, there's still something highly affecting about YOD's stories of growing up in the Big Apple, as he recalls when going to eat fast food with his family was a big deal, or remembers his parents teaching him self-defense. Final song "No Time" drives home the album's all-important "love 'em while they're here" message.

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