Easton, Pennsylvania emcee Godilla enlisting Native Born to produce his 2nd extended play & debut under Omega Level Records. Teaming up with Eff Yoo in 2014 for the collaborative effort They Came on Horseback, he would eventually drop his full-length debut The Altered Beast & followed it up Battlebeast: A Prelude to Human Zoo in the summer of 2017 as well as his last EP Cerveza a few months afterwards. Nearly a decade later, he’s making a comeback with Prismas Electricos.
“??What’s This??” after the “Channel Surfing” intro made for a rugged lead single filled with hardcore penmanship for 90 seconds. whereas “88MPH” feels like a nostalgic throwback to the golden era. “Bubble Letter Glyphs” works in a piano flip for a dedication to all the writers for a few minutes & right after the compositional “Class of ‘96” interlude, “Starscream’s Ghost” kicks off the 2nd half talking about wanting all the smoke.
Mr. Misk & Tone Liv both make Prismas Electricos’ soul guest appearances on “Terror Ink” spitting cutthroat verses over this dreary boom bap instrumental while “Metal Sunset” talks about the heat starting to warm up right when the evening comes. The final song “Blind Focus” preceding the outro wraps up the concluding moments speaking of artists changing the rules by going independent instead of signing to major labels.
Channeling the spirit of hip hop’s past through a modern lens, Godilla’s return surpasses both projects he gave us in 2017 by additionally using layered audio textures to evoke emotion & memory a lot similarly to the late Sonia Delaunay using simultaneity & abstraction in her art. Native Born’s production furthermore combines warm sample choices, kick drums & snares bringing only a couple guests along for the ride as opposed to Battlebeast overloading it with them.
Score: 8/10
