Rap’s Jersey City gladiator Albee Al is back with an emphatic seventeen-track album FREE THE REAL along with a video to “King Koba.”
On August 15th, Albee Al was released from Passaic County Jail after a three-year stint, and FREE THE REAL shows that Albee Al has not missed a beat. Albee’s album asserts his superstar status on “King of New Jersey” with the lines “I’m a shooter like Ginobli, better yet Kobe, gotta pay up if you owe me. I ride around with a thirty… I’m the King of New Jersey…”
The following track “King Koba” has Al rapping about how he’s survived past wars in his city and now enjoying the fruits of his labor. The “King Koba” video is a celebratory one where he enjoys those fruits with his loyal friends and beautiful women in a penthouse and on a yacht.
The video for the album’s lead single “Thottie” went number one on Apple Music the same day it was released. It was received well by Hot97, REVOLT, AllHipHop, Global Grind, HipHopWired, and more. “Thottie” is Albee’s version of Jordan’s famous 1995 fax message simply stating to hip-hop, “I’m Back”.
Brooklyn’s own Rowdy Rebel joins Albee Al on the drill-type song “She F**k With A Gangsta” and Sacramento’s hip-hop king Mozzy delivers an introspective verse on “Cash Rules”. “Cash Rules” gives a nod to the famous Wu-Tang song C.R.E.A.M. as Al raps about what fuels his drive with the lines “Cash rules everything around me, CREAM, get the money, remember times when I ain’t had nothing, remember times when won’t shit in my stomach, so broke, felt punished…”
FREE THE REAL provides a juxtaposition between Albee’s superstar status and the recurring obstacles that hit him whenever he gets on a hot streak in his career. When asked about what his music means to his home state, Albee exclaims, “I just want to be somebody Jersey can count on. If I was the president, I’d do everything to make sure I’ll never let you down. Letting you down is like letting me down. It reflects how I carry myself and I want to show that there really is a way out during the times we feel like there is no way out.”
© 2022, Seth "Digital Crates" Barmash. All rights reserved.
