Guest Review by Selah - Suspense "Before The End"

Suspense is a West Virginia hip-hop artist who has been putting in work on the local scene for nearly a decade, both as a solo artist and as a one-time member of the Daulton Gang. He progressed from participating in battles in Huntington to securing features on several notable mixtapes spearheaded by local DJ’s and producers. During this time, he also branched out and found greater notoriety in the international music market with his unique parody rap songs inspired by and thematically based on the videogame Starcraft 2. His worldwide efforts have garnered him 500,000+ plays and 10,000+ downloads. Surprisingly, even though he has had an extended run in the hip-hop scene, Suspense has not release any official projects until now, as he presents his opus “Before The End”.

Suspense’s intent in making the project was for each song to express an urgency of getting things done before time runs out. He channels this concept through multiple approaches including stream of consciousness raps, storytelling, and audio samples conveying the sentiment. At times, it comes across very well, but occasionally the listener is left scratching their head wondering where certain songs fit into the scheme of the body of work.

The album’s appealing title track “Before The End” is a song that summarizes Suspense’s presence in hip-hop scene up to this point and conveys his bleak outlook of the local scene. It drives home the point, via the chorus, that Suspense is focused on moving forward both from his own past work, which he reminisces on disdainfully, and from being held back by the crabs-in-a-barrel mentality of other local artists. “Classic” is a track in a similar vein that finds Suspense making his aspirations for his new material known and recalling a time in hip-hop when the same sentiment was held by most artists, in opposition to the current trend of making catchy music with the focus of gaining commercial popularity for riches and fame.

Suspense displays his abilities at exercising extended metaphor with the track “It’s Suspense” which is comprised of verses and a chorus that cleverly weave together the names of numerous horror movies to create a portentous feeling around the arrival of this project. The chorus makes it known that “the wait is over” and “it’s time for action” keeping with the album concept. Suspense battle skills are shown on songs like “Killing Bars” featuring R.O.B. and Yung Rob and “64 Bars”. Both of these songs seem to deviate from the album concept, but it really doesn’t matter as each is packed full of hard rhymes encouraging repeat listens. “In My Eyes” featuring Yung Rob has both emcees discussing serious subject matter having to do with life’s trials and tribulations and questioning the existence of God.

Storytelling is performed throughout on songs such as “Story Carries On”, “I Was Wrong”, “I’m Sorry” and “Can’t Keep Living A Lie”. Each track describes different dynamics between Suspense, as either himself or the male figure in the story, and various females. They are well executed for the most part with only “I’m Sorry” feeling somewhat lacking. While Suspense’s subject matter and conveyance of emotion is strong, the heavy metal guitar riffs and rushed feeling of his vocals detract from the quality of the song.

The club oriented songs on the album “Lowriders” featuring Avatar De Dymonkrook and “Go Time” are lackluster. “Lowriders” fails for several reasons. First, it is one of the tracks that does not really fit the concept, as getting into a girl’s pants by the end of the night doesn’t really seem to be on the same scale of importance as the previous material following the album concept. Second, the verses are not on the level of those found throughout the rest of the album. While it is understandable for club songs to be lyrically less dense, the contrast is too great for it not to be noticeable. Third, the instrumental is somewhat cheesy sounding with its pop-like synths. “Go Time” is a fellatio anthem with an excellent beat, but lyrically it falters as Suspense begins to describe a day of constant oral satisfaction from a female sex partner where he only stops her when he needs to empty his bowels. Also, this track, like “Lowriders”, does not seem to fit the concept of the album. Suspense seems much more comfortable with describing his relationships with women through the storytelling tracks mentioned above and the ode to finding a dream-come-true- lover for a videogame junkie “Gamer Chick”.

“Hustlin Freestyle” utilizes Rick Ross’s “Hustlin’” beat and has Suspense firing off punchlines and switching between slow and rapid flows. While the track showcases Suspense’s skill-set and ability to incorporate multiple aspects of it into a single track the use of an industry beat on a project otherwise devoid of them and the at times forced sounding nature of the song make it one of the weaker tracks on the album. On a positive note, the track holds up the concept with its insistence that every day Suspense is hustling to further his dreams.

Suspense’s “Before The End” is a unique album that stands out in West Virginia hip-hop with its excellent concept and well-rounded approach to execution. From beginning to end, the listener is bombarded with tracks that will make them dwell on the concept and reflect on its relevance to their own existence. However, it is not without faults. Suspense’s preoccupation with “covering all his bases” by including club tracks and battle tracks that do not stick to the concept take away from the cohesiveness of the album. The club tracks also detract from the general sonic and lyrical quality of the album. This makes it likely that listeners will be hitting the skip button, whereas, if Suspense would have been pickier with his track listing the only button they would be hitting is repeat.

RATING: 7/10

Download the album here