The long awaited fifth full studio album release from Orange County, NYC duo (well trio if you included Big Josh) The Doppelgangaz is finally here and is a great listen from start to finish.
The production as you would expect is superb and runs the gamut of a solid Hip Hop production arsenal: deep bass kicks, kicking drums (a break or two in the mix but not full break-beat loops), swirling keyboards, all kind of samples from flamenco guitar, soul etc and rumbling and smoothed out bass lines, not to mention that they get quite experimental with some of their break downs ("Bubblin" for one is a great example of this), which just shows just how devoted and serious about the craft The Doppelgangaz are.
Truth be told, I have always likened Matter OV Fact and EP to EPMD as they have that kind of chemistry and once again MOF and EP drop amusing lines about the opposite sex (“Strong Ankles”), pharmaceuticals, the cloak lifestyle ("Pride's Cloak", "If It Wasn't For The Cloak") Humourous ish (“Boston Beard”) and amusing anecdotes "Beak Wet", "Dopp Hopp" on well everything really.
The engineering on Dopp Hopp is top notch too and you can pick up little things in your headphones especially on "Future 86" that vocal distortion is ill AF.
There are a handful of tracks on Dopp Hopp that in a realistic World should be all over radio "Roll Flee ft Tnava)", "Die 4 It" (a perfect outro song for an album) and "Bubblin", E.W.W.” all sound like they were designed for cruising down the road with the system pumping loud and the windows down (12’ o’clock at night mostly ;)
In all actuality Dopp Hopp often reminds me of Masta Ace Inc's classic sophomore album Sittin' On Chrome (1995) simply because some of the production has an East meets West feel and the album is a mesh of solid boom bap tracks and smoothed out joints, Dopp Hopp is a much needed breath of fresh air from the lame, boring and dull music currently polluting the industry and the culture.
It wouldn’t come as a shock to hear some longtime fans say that they aren’t feeling this album but I for one am seeing, hearing, feeling and appreciating the Dopp progression…say yeah!
8/10
Pick up Dopp Hopp here
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