Chicago emcee, Vic Spencer is not only arguably the best emcee in all of Chicago, but one of the best in all of Hip-Hop right now and his newest album, Spencer For Higher, is just further proof of that.
Teaming up with producer, Sonnyjim, who provides really nice rhythms underneath the smooth corners of blaxploitation and jazz reefer-friendly soul for Vic’s ruff and gruff flow. The album opens with Ironside Hex introducing Spencer, who offers warning shots of what’s to come and brings a very nostalgic feel that only he could bring on, Hex Hawking.
The very vivid imagination and imagery that we have all come to know and love from Vic Spencer verses is ever-present throughout the album too. First showing up on the very horn-laden and smooth, Adventures Of Ew McNasty, which is a crazy blunted dream about a nasty dream he has in which he sees a midget that warns about avoiding any group of women who had knives with AIDs in it. While over the R&B-sounding floating smooth backdrop of, Bleek Gilliam, he relates his life to how much he paid for a pair of Yeezy Boosts.
The skits really bring the album to a whole other level and standout features from the likes of Sonnyjim on the very classic TV series sampled, Spenser: for Hire?, track, Uzi Shoppin’ and the sun shining silky smooth, Gs3, which features both Sonnyjim and Hus Kingpin bring a very enticingly nostalgic and romantically timeless feel to the album.
The last quarter of the album has easily the best tracks and really shows how truly great of an album, Vic blessed us with. The closing sequence of the Chris Crack-featured, SauceMANIA, Nia Long’s Weed Stash, Duape Sells Itself and Husky Contractor Bags, really so seamlessly going from one track into the next. With the very triumphant horn-driven and boulder-thick of SauceMANIA, really showing what truly great chemistry Spencer has with his Chris $pencer chemistry. While the very hard-hitting D. Brash and Verbal Kent featured, Husky Contractor Bags, which has such hard-hitting verses from each emcee that would make most other emcees who aren’t as talented want to quit.
This album is one that is truly such a gem and you can easily play the whole way through without skipping. I know the word classic and timeless really gets thrown around a lot these days, but this is easily without a doubt, a very timeless and classic album, which is by far the best in Spencer’s very vast and great catalog so far. While it wouldn’t get a Grammy-nomination, let alone win a Grammy, this album will have a very big impact for not only this year, but many years to come. With it even having a sleepers great chance at not only making many Chicago-centered Top Hip-Hop Albums of the Year lists at the end of the year, but for across all Chicago music period.