Shanti Dope - Self-Titled Release Mixtape/EP Review
When I first heard of Shanti Dope around May of this year, I was optimistic about his potential of bringing in solid tracks with his stunning flow, delivery, and multi-syllabic rhyming technique. The 16-year old prodigy and Artifice Records signee made a name for himself in the local hip-hop scene. The attention caused the most popular commercial rapper today, Gloc-9, to notice his talent on social media.
The Cavite-based emcee just released his debut full-length effort this year. The project starts off with the first track titled “1nethrow”, it didn’t do much as an intro track in my opinion. Klumcee, who is the executive producer of this project, wasn’t complimenting Shanti Dope’s delivery throughout the track. Klumcee’s trap flavored beats with a signature "Ron Henley"-esque snare, and instrumentals that sounded like they belonged in an Abra single, continues throughout the project. The second track titled “Wag 2laran”, Shanti Dope, again, lacks any direction whatsoever. The rest of the tracks are anything but worthy of a special mention. Instead, I would just say that tracks like “Mau” and “Anong Sabi Mo” are just alright tracks for everyone to enjoy for a while. The tone in “Mau” is hilarious, but the ‘PettyWap’ feature is kind of cheap and inexcusable. “Anong Sabi Mo” has this catchy hook; I got along with the track pretty well despite the lackluster multi-rhyming technique.
The things that I liked about this project are the hooks and the posse track “Outthrow.” Everyone from Shanti to the features (A$tro, Lexu$, Marc Mamuric, Al James, Migo Senires, RJay Ty, and OJ River) killed the beat and properly ended the album on a strong note.
As far as musical direction is concerned, I can’t find any lyrical evidence on where this project is going. Most of the beats here didn’t come across as being interesting nor exciting; it just falls flat everytime Shanti Dope jumps on it.
This self-titled effort is technically impressive, but Shanti Dope’s way of executing lines in a mid to subpar production entirely becomes a tried and tired formula. The EP sounded underwhelming in its entirety, but I wouldn’t mind giving this project another chance anytime soon. Don’t get me wrong, the bars here are certainly impressive, but they’re just being stacked onto each other. It ended up lacking the appropriate amount of substance that would hold those bars right in place.
Shanti Dope whips out his best verses to date, but some of them won’t make any lasting impression. This project is a bit of a let-down.
FAVE TRACKS: Anong 5abi Mo? , Outthrow!
LISTEN TO THE RELEASE RIGHT HERE, AND AS ALWAYS, SUPPORT THE ART & THE ARTIST: https://open.spotify.com/album/1puTtvNrFL96ZE2E7Gfnrh