boldy james

i am really enjoying his new album. Permanent Ink. he's so good. i had no idea. nobody told me to listen to him. better late than never.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL_UXAenSEo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4AiGQFTrFo

Wild that we haven’t had a thread for him yet

I like him but there seems to be more albums that I can keep up with, and none of them have fully clicked for me yet

this one is just one strong track after another. i did check out the list of his voluminous digital output.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDmNJoZPCGI

ya he is one of the best rappers alive but so prolific that it's hard to hear everything. he's been really good for like a decade now, but gained critical traction after entering the orbit of the alchemist and the guys from griselda.

haven't heard permanent ink yet, still at murder during drug traffic, his other album of january 2025, in my boldy backlog

listening to Murder During Drug Traffic and its way more low-key/demo/digi/mixtape and less produced than Permanent Ink. Permanent Ink sounds like an album album. i would totally buy a CD if i saw one. the rhymes are great on MDDT though.

i like the track with double dee on MDDT who is not the double dee of yore but a woman from now but the only other track i could find her on was this one with boldy and rome streetz.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unBcm3dwmMw

check penalty of leadership and across the tracks from last year. bo jackson and its deluxe, super tecmo bo, are personal faves. i first heard of him with 2015's trapper's alley 2, which now feels like a snapshot of a detroit sound that doesn't exist anymore. but the rhymes have always been top notch.

manger on mcnichols is unique. the producer sterling toles held a series of sessions with boldy in the late 2000s, spent the next decade bringing in musicians to contribute to filling out the sound around his rhymes, and eventually released it in 2020. it's a special album.

now i'm diggin' rome. nice ted dibiase shoutout...

love this track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99Y7pQE-hgU

will check those out, V-Chil.

manger on mcnichols is absurdly good but nothing else he's done has grabbed me in the same way, i think it's just a problem of that one being so distinct that it's overshadowed everything else for me

i don't think manger is for me. no offense to the people involved. it was obviously a labor of love, etc. its just too busy for me. like someone is sampling two freedom jazz records at once in their entirety underneath someone rhyming. its the kind of record i would play once. i can see why people would really like it. like that kendrick epic that i listened to once. BUT now i'm listening to The Brictionary and that is totally something i could listen to a bunch. and the music is great. funny that Manger is the only album not on Boldy's Youtube channel. also, tell that Manger guy to repress that album they sell for $$$.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plWh2o6RJK8

he’s been a cause of mine since like 2011. I did an interview with him around then https://somanyshrimp.com/2012/01/30/somanyshrimp-boldy-james-interview/

I saw him play for like 15 people are beauty bar in fall 2011. It’s so crazy to me how big he’s gotten because it’s the kind of music that you don’t expect to get that big. It’s just Good. As recently as I want to say 2019, one of my twitter followers made some joke about how we were like the 5 remaining fans of boldy James. A year or two later and Jay z was ranking him as one of his fav rappers above the other Griselda guys (whose afilliation with him clearly boosted his career)

I spent sxsw 2012 on a road trip with him and his manager, videographer, wife etc from the Midwest to Texas. I played him chief Keef for the first time on the trip & every time we got in the van he’d be like “put on that ‘don’t like’”

His best project to this day is his debut, imo. It’s called “trappers alley: pros and cons.” I haven’t checked for sure but I think the one on DSPs is abridged so I recommend tracking down a full download. It’s one of those “been working your whole life to make this” albums. I like the stuff he’s done with alchemist the last few years — “the price of tea in china” and “bo Jackson” especially (don’t care for “my 1st chemistry set” kinda “ok at best” to me) but even the best of that stuff feels narrower in range musically and emotionally than “trappers alley.” Like i said it’s like 28 years of life or whatever went into that one

I do also love manger on st Nichols. I think the producer deserves a lot of credit for making something that prioritizes a specific direction, and then of course the fact that it’s a bunch of earlier era boldy verses from before he even got any attention.

I always loved how he was a “boring type” rapper who makes other rappers in his lane sound actually-boring. He always does subtle little rhythmic things to keep you engaged, and then clever lyrical things, novel ways of stating stuff, super writerly. It’s pretty funny Jay z and nas are such fans when prodigy feels like closest inspiration

“There goes the neighborhood” off “trappers alley” is a really powerful thing to write. “Concrete connie.” Jesus. Perfect album

In my opinion he hasn’t matched that one BUT around “price of tea in china” he figured it out again. There are scattered songs I like in between those but I think the creative battery in his back really returns around the release of manger, “tea in china,” and “bo Jackson”

“Trappers alley” isn’t on Apple, just Spotify. But again id search out a download link. “Trappers alley 2” is ok but not really what I reach for

i definitely heard nas when i was listening to his latest. in a really good way. someone who grew up on it and running with it. in any case, people who don't know him should hear the new one. people should review it a bunch. its so solid!

i'm enjoying Cross The Tracks right now. it has a 70s freedomsoul vibe but its more my speed. its really nice.

oh and this is funny but i was watching the drink kings interview with 3rd bass - first time those two have been together in a minute - and it was serch who said that boldy's run of albums is better than anyone else's going today. so, that raised an eyebrow. i mean serch is a dick but he did work with nas and kmd and lots of other talented people. he knows good rappers when he hears them. (he might be an asshole but he DID dance behind big daddy kane at the latin quarter and go to high school with the kangol crew. he'll let you know it too.)

this was the first song of his I ever heard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9vg7eAanDQ

i just love stuff like this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXtdH-Ja7FU

"this was the first song of his I ever heard"

that's a great track too. love it. he should be more famous.

my #1 of 2011!

20. KLC – Grand Theft Audio
19. Don Trip & Starlito – Step Brothers
18. Gunplay – Inglorious Bastards
17. Kendrick Lamar – Section.80
16. Big Wiz & Tree – Wizardtree / Tree – The Tree EP
15. DJ Quik – Book of David
14. Max B – Vigilante Season
13. DB the General – King of Oakland
12. Stuey Rock & Future – FDU & Free Bandz
11. Trouble – December 17th
10. Fat Trel – April Foolz
9. Travis Porter – Differenter 3 / Travis Porter – Music, Money, Magnums
8. Sen City – Til The Lights Turn Out 2
7. E-40 – Revenue Retrievin
6. Schoolboy Q – Setbacks
5. HD – Fresh
4. V/A – Mobbin Thru The West
3. King Louie – #ManUpBandUp Pt. 1
2. Meek Mill – Dreamchasers
1. Boldy James – Trapper’s Alley: Pro’s and Cons

putting sen city over max b is cringe though so it evens out

This was when I first heard him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=weAZYNi8xC4

Anyway, I’m gonna play whatever the new one is now

do it its awesome!

This is the most animated I’ve ever heard him, I imagine this one will get some burn

i loved his Soul Assassins appearance

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1syH-URdP8