After five years of group efforts and promising EPs, Ill Bill has returned for his fifth studio album, La Bella Medusa.
Aside from his last album about five years ago, Septagram, Bill hasn't had too many substantial solo offerings recently. I think it's a toss up between To Thine Own Self Be True from La Coka in 2016 and the Heavy Metal Kings sophomore record Black God White Devil for what my favourite Ill Bill project of the 2010's would be. 2019 was a decent year for Bill as he released EPs with Stu Bangas and Sunday over the summer of that year, Cannibal Hulk and Pulp Phixion, respectively.
La Bella Medusa boasts an impressive feature list from members of La Coka and Non Phixion to his HMK cohort Vinnie Paz, as well as lots of other hitters. The record was announced in July of 2020 and released on October 30th of that same year.
The record fades in quick with "What's My Drug?" Stu Bangas comes in lacing up twanging piano keys and chunky drums to lure us in as Bill paints pictures of disorder and Covid lockdowns. Dense and paranoid syllable layers carry throughout the song. Solid lyrical stand outs include "Up the ante, triple down, get your pistols out/Trump faced Baphomet rockin' Hitler's crown." or in the second verse where he's referencing the hip-hop police and the circumstances of when rappers pass on unexpectedly. It's not an explosive opening track but it does set up the albums themes and familiarizes us with Bill's typical lyrical fodder. Though words like these are more chilling now than ever. DV does a pretty solid chorus here too. In the advertising for the record this ended up being the second single and the first single came near the tail end of the album. In hindsight I actually liked the idea of having the whole center of the album remain a mystery until release.
"Be Afraid!" is an easy favourite for me. Aligning perfectly with the albums Halloween release date, Italian producer Furio weaves a seriously spooky mixture of synth chops and guitar licks atop some satisfying one-two punch drums. This whole record just sounds like a Halloween ride. I love the imagery Bill paints on here right on the opening bars, "Be Afraid its your best option/Your brain on the walls, your eyes on the desk watching." I love how the songs quiets down before the next guest comes in too. Conway The Machine describes putting ten thousand dollars on your head while hopping out of his sports cars. The syllable work on his verse is pretty tight too. Pharaoh Monch is the perfect finishing move for a song like this too. The vocabulary and imagery that most songs like this come from can be traced to an architect like Monch. I love his line about acquiring vibranium to fight the Aryans with. This is just a suspenseful and violent cut where everybody understood the assignment. Honestly one of my favourite slaps of 2020 just in general I can never just play this one once.
Track three brings Tech N9ne back into Bill's world for the first time since The Hour Of Reprisal and the results are spectacular. "Illest Killers" sees Ill Bill and Scott Stallone coming up with the beat which is cool because Bill hasn't been cooking too much on the production end in awhile. I love how the pace of the beat comes at no cost to the clap of the snares and the metal riffs and grand horn sections buff out the chorus to be stadium sized. Tech N9ne has a pretty solid verse full of the eccentric syllable switch ups and his trademark adlibs. Seeing Bill be this proficient with the double time on his verse was crazy too and the way they both tie their verses together make this collab that much more cohesive too. This album is three for three so far.
Our title track I think does a pretty good job of taking the myth of Medusa and relating it to something tangible in the real world. Bill relates the temptation and danger of the Gorgon into a metaphor for addiction and lust across a very cinematic soundscape from Stu Bangas. The resonating piano keys and tortured vocal performance from Rite Hook across the chorus just go so far to enhance the tragedy and lingering danger these plagues have. Even when Covid is over we'll see dark forces like addiction and death linger over us all and Bill's storytelling pulls through so much on this song. The second verse really goes in and unpacks his grief he still feels for losing his uncle but also how prepared he is to protect his children against these forces of nature and pestilence mounting all over the world.
"Dinner Plate" marks I think the first weaker point on the record. It's not for lack of wordplay or chemistry, however, as the track brings on Lord Goat (formerly Goretex), Recognize Ali and Jay Royale. Everybody here has stand out moments lyrically with Goat referencing mob history and Satanism while Bill's verse has him bragging that his silencers are bigger than your guns and he's mobilizing an army to coordinate chaos. Recognize has probably my favourite line on the song where he raps "I'll wipe ya whole city like a genocider/I walk the chambers of Hell and sell the Devil fire." And Royale brings up the tail end of the song with some tight syllable work and the imagery of driving off rocking jewelry the size of a dinner plate. Everybody brought it my main issue with this track is the beat and how minimal the chorus is. I don't really care for whatever passes for chord progression on this song as the same woozy noise keeps repeating over and over again. For this long of a song I wish there had been some variety in either the drum pattern or the music itself but its the same tedious loop. Even the chorus feels like Bill's voice needs to be mixed super high just to cut through the noise. The beat could've done a lot more but also a lot less.
"Chrissy Snow" shows Ill Bill and Kool G Rap dicing up syllable schemes over this really downtrodden Stu Bangas beat. The drums keep a brisk pace as this really woozy guitar piece plays along with some dreamy piano samples. I love the themes and one liners across this whole track. Bill describes the street name Chrissy Snow as the drug he and G Rap are moving. I dig the details of Bill telling the listener of drug packing operation and the finishing line of "My jewelry worth more than your entire life I buy it twice/My drip like the eyes of a crying Christ." G Rap brings even more dense syllable work describing the layout of what it takes to rise through the ranks of the drug trade and the decadence you achieve in the echelons on that life. This is the type of song G Rap could've written thirty years ago. Hearing him not miss at all after all these years and having Bill keep up is awesome. We got lots of wordplay but also the beat isn't too busy that we can't make it out. Solid track.
The album is still pretty strong past the halfway point too as Slaine and Little Vic assist for "Call The Coroner." The instrumental is again pretty gloomy with eerie strings and tones linking with chunky drums and heavy cymbals work. It's dark but the drum loop has some bounce to it too. Bills vocabulary is pretty exciting in lines like "A hundred plagues God conducts like an orchestra/A hundred AKs in the trunk of the Porsche truck" Bill's verse continues to paint pictures of massacres and plagues whereas Slaine delves into a scenario of premeditated murder. I like the staccato style that Slaine uses to jump between syllable scenes while still staying focused on the story. Little Vic makes his presence known with some serious standout punchlines like "Phones loaded with selfies the feds listen on it/So I bury electronics like the clip was Amish." Each rapper just stays in a medium paced pocket with cool rhyme patterns and focused stories. I like the second act of this album taking more of a mellow approach sonically
"Only Built For Gucci Drip" is pretty okay. The song continues the double guest, woozy instrumental themes of the rest of the albums middle portion. MoSS comes though with a decent enough beat I would say. I dig the drum breaks but given this song has no chorus there isn't a whole lot of variation in the rhythms here. Goretex does a decent job here though his second guest verse later in the record is better to me. Crimeapple to me really takes the song over. In a good way though as most of the standout lines and flows come from Crime here. I feel like Ill Bill has had a lot of verses of the same quality across this record thus far. Not a bad song but also not really a draw for me most playthroughs. There could've been more linking each guy here in terms of themes or song structure. Also the last couple songs after this are a lot more explosive so sometimes I'm skipping this one.
One the most ignorant slaps of the album is "Bora Bora Aura". Nems, hot off him and Bill's collab album, starts the song off hyping Bills entry into the first verse. I'm digging how low and rumbling the base is with these slow lumbering drums. The jaunty keys dangling in the background help make this beat sound serious and menacing too. Bill's verse juggles mafioso references, apocalyptic imagery of cyborgs and prison stabbings. Nems really goes off with hilarious one liners like "I had that bitch swallowing sacks/And I ain't even follow her back." I also dig his line about his chain costing two birds and likening that to falconry. Just lots mean mug stick up rap on this one. The Vinnie Paz verse is kinda just ok. Considering him and Bill have lots of great albums and songs under their belts its not a huge disappointment though.
The first single of the record was actually a much anticipated reunion of Non Phixion. The group reconnected over the summer of 2020 and came together for a timely update on a lot of the themes of their debut record. Prophetic lines about police brutality and revolution, wars in the streets and misinformation pepper each verse from Bill, Goretex and Sabac Red. Even if the hook is a little messy with differently pitched vocals fighting for space in the mix, each line from the verses really pulls through. I'm glad to see the group can come through with great topical focus after all these years and still be in touch with current times. DJ Skizz really helps create a cinematic back drop for the song with dramatic keys and string sections.
"Superb Clientele" is a decent finisher. Bills lyrical fodder of chaos and overturning cop cars with rocket launchers meets steady flows and syllable schemes. It's not super autobiographical but it does a good job of tying up the albums themes of apocalypses, riots and government corruption with a side dish of braggadocio. The chorus is one of the strongest on the album here too. Nems returns to fade out the track and list Bills accolades and double down on the credentials.
La Bella Medusa boasts some serious highlights between Bill having tremendous chemistry with most of these features and the production is pretty strong for the most part as well. It lulls slightly in the middle when the production becomes more subtle and the topical focus wanes but it also has a pretty solid climax with the Non Phixion track. Also for an album with as many features as this one I'm glad it's not padded out into oblivion like a lot of streaming era albums are.
Pros: The production is consistently fire as it ranges from theatric and haunting to cinematic and explosive. Each feature contributes well to the records themes of darkness, chaos and violence. I am consistently impressed with Bills consistent ability to line up next to any feature and still standout. The song structure ranges from posse cuts to well rounded thematic storytelling. Since its been a number of years since we've had a robust Bill album, I'm pretty content with a lot of what's on here.
Cons: While some features really amount to fun and exciting songs there are some entries that just get outshined by other guests on the song with them. I would also like to note that despite this being a studio album from Bill we don't really get anything autobiographical or personal from Bill. It's not quite competing with some of the essential solo albums from earlier in his catalog because of this reason. Lots of these songs earn their spot from the name recognition of the features and not because they really tie into the beginning and ending songs on the record.
