Last year, John Anthony released Words Are Weapons, the album’s phenomena that has taken a unique mark in the early stages of John Anthony’s independent career. Even with an increase in numbers, the album still was hit from it’s blatant criticism in certain lyrics and blunt comparisons. While John Anthony, as many independent artists should, managed to shake off that so-called criticism while also restructuring his sound in contemporary hip hop with his latest album, Villaination!.
After the arrival of Words Are Weapons, or WAW, in early April of last year, John Anthony released only two songs to close out the 2021 year. One of those songs, My Life, a remix to Bon Jovi’s — It’s My Life, became a highly successful single. Entering in the new year, John Anthony quickly capitalized on releasing his new album — Villaination!. The staggering twenty-two song release filled the gap of adding mainstream trap, along with the mix of classic, alternative boom-bap style. The album’s artwork states to tributes, or quite possible rips-off, the 1998 hip hop album Kuruption! by Kurupt.
Unlike his previous albums, Villaination! seeks the addition of various musical artists. Notably, rappers like Yukmouth from the classic hip hop duo — Luniz, and Bronze Nazareth, a distant member of the legendary hip hop group — Wu-Tang Clan. Other features include independent artists BROSBY, Kwame, Draco, Katrina, BIG 50 and J Mont, who was recently signed to John Anthony’s record label Villainous Records. Villaination! covers a mixture of many positives and negatives, which can or cannot make or break an independent artist’s album.
Lyrically, John Anthony remains vigorous and reflective but ineluctably has diminished in lyrical consistency throughout the album. The back and forth change between trap and boom-bap tends to switch the vibe up for each song as some of the unique, boom-bap tracks deliver ear-grabbing topics and showcase exceptional lyricism and flow, while the basic force-fed of mainstream trap tends to lean more on the simplicity side with many of the beats being very less adequate, along with effortless lyrics. The energetic, bass-hitting Superhype is a prime example of the lack of creativeness and simplicity as basic standard 808’s and a heavy bass complete the production of this track. Song like this, GG and Legacy were simply made as a striking, energetic songs with simply lyrics, a style that doesn’t suit John’s technique quite that well though it does suit today’s hip hop genre. However, not all the trap songs lack a lyrical shape. John Anthony emphasizes his crafty penmanship through Midnight Cypher and Holy Grail, as both songs feature artists and both are straight verses with no hook or chorus. Not much of a story included through his verses but he definitely shows the creativeness to use multisyllabic rhyming and wordplay throughout the songs as he over-preforms and over-writes his accompanied features.
With the heavy basslines and elementary melodies comes the raw and refreshingly modern production, giving some certain boom-bap tracks that vintage, old-school aesthetic sound without sounding too outdated. Even more notable is John Anthony’s talent to grace well-enhanced rhyming patterns. He plays around with structure of each beat with a deftness, easily flowing over the production. Songs such as Evident, One Love, High Road, Alright Tonight and Lose One II — which is a sequal track to Lost One from John Anthony’s 2020 album The Bad Guy Chronciles — capture not only the grittiness and classic feel, but also deliver in exceptional lyricism. Ironically, even with the fascinating word-placements and phrasing, the only weakness you can knock against these rugged songs is the consistency of the over-explanatory struggles John Anthony explains with his ceased opportunities and this nagging pressure to make it big. It’s almost like hearing the same song on repeat, but with a different beat.
As an unsigned, independent artist with now six albums, along with multiply EP’s and mixtapes that has increasing shown growth in improvement, John Anthony has not only proven his ability to rap both lyrically and mainstream, but the undeniable truth his talents are underrated.
Creativeness: B-
Lyricism: B-
Originality: C+
Production: A
Boom-Bap Tracks: A
Trap/Mainstream Tracks: B-
Overall Album Grade: B
or 6.2/10 rating.
