Denzel Curry - King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2 (Album Review)
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Written by Jay Fullarton
Just two years after a foray into jazz-rap on ‘Melt My Eyez See Your Future’, Denzel Curry has upended expectations once again with ‘King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 2’, serving up an ode to the music that raised him.
This album is unlikely to garner the same acclaim as the boundary pushing ‘TA13OO’ or ‘Melt My Eyez…’ but it does sit nicely alongside ‘ZUU’ and the original ‘King Of The Mischievous South’ mixtape in the Curry canon.
While ‘ZUU’ also saw Denzel pay tribute to southern hip hop, its focus on more modern Floridian sounds, as opposed to the grittier sounds on this LP, is a crucial point of difference.
Here, the raps are stylised, the beats are nostalgic, and it's expectedly drowning in syrupy flows and Three 6 Mafia influences. You can almost hear the Jolly Ranchers splashing into Styrofoam cups with every reverb-soaked snare.
And while it’s pretty much void of subject matter in comparison to previous releases, that’s kind of the point. This is aggressive, in your face, style over substance hip hop, adorned with retro cowbells, drowsy samples, and rattling 808s, which hit especially hard on ULTRA SHXT, a filthy throwback with nocturnal keys and fast-paced flows. It’s a first round KO, even if it feels a bit more BONES than DJ Paul.
The features here have been curated flawlessly, from southern royalty like Project Pat and Juicy J, to new-gen spitters including Maxo Kream and TiaCorine. Kream slides over the SET IT beat like it’s nothing, and it makes you wonder: how have these two not crossed over more?
The album comes with anthems too. Big, braggadocious bangers like G’Z UP, which comes equipped with a murderous beat, a riot-causing chorus, and slick Mike Dimes feature. SKED, with its thick, scuzzy bassline and marriage of old school and new school rhymers, is sure to give every Reddit keyboard critic a permanent stank face too.
It’s surprising to see this LP getting a colder early reception than an album like ‘ZUU’, but this perhaps indicates that there’s expectation on Denzel to keep pushing forward rather than retreading old ground. But, the homages here are tasteful and sharply executed, with some truly bass-heavy headbangers in the rotation. You don’t have to forge new paths with every release when you sound this great returning to your roots.
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