R.A.P Ferreira — 5 to the Eye with Stars — Album Review
Hip-Hop | Rap
Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Music
Whether it be through R.A.P Ferreira, or any other one of his musical aliases, Rory Allen Phillip Ferreira is a productive force that come around at least once a year. Around this time exactly in 2021, R.A.P Ferreira released his second project of that same year, though the first, was collaboration between himself and…well…himself, again.
In other words, the very beginning of 2021 saw Rory release Bob’s Son, an album released under R.A.P Ferreira, and Scallops Hotel (which is another musical project of Rory’s, and the one that I actually discovered this creative and poetic indiviaual through).
I though that both Bob’s Son, and the later 2021 project the Light Emitting Diamond Cutter Scriptures, this time released solely under R.A.P Ferreira, made for an incredibly strong musical year. But while that gave Rory enough warrant to take a break for a year, those (like myself) who know any better, knew that Rory was not going to be slowing down anytime soon.
And thus, we arrive at 5 to the Eye with Stars, the newest outing of R.A.P Ferreira. In the musical year of 2022 leading up to this album, there were a few tracks that teased this album, and a few that stood alone as sole singles. Those that did tease the album included “mythsysizer instinct” and “ours”. The former, funnily enough, I didn’t manage to catch on to until the full album’s release. But even with just listening to “ours” beforehand, I noticed a significant step-up in production quality, in which it doesn’t drown out Rory’s actual lyricisms too much. That being said, I had very good hopes for the musical goodness to come.
Those hopes were thankfully fulfilled, as the tracks on 5 to the Eye with Stars display some of the most engaging material from the catalogue of R.A.P Ferreira. And considering how top-shelf his previous material was anyhow, that is truly saying a lot.
Atmospherically, there are little inklings of this album that remind me slightly of the King Geedora project Take Me To Your Leader, albeit with the sobering quirk made possible with Rory’s lyrics.
Something that I always appreciate is a little jazzy goodness, and the production on 5 to the Eye with Stars certainly has that. I’d say it definitely had a great role to play in allowing this record to stand out more from past R.A.P Ferreira projects. I mean, it’s not exactly the first time we’ve heard this kind of thing with R.A.P Ferreira; there was a fair amount of it on his 2020 album Purple Moonlight Pages, and let’s not forget the phenomenal first single “Respectdue”. However, that aspect definitely feels more abundant on this new album.
I’ve kind of touched upon it already on this review, but 5 to the Eye with Stars is a perfect example that R.A.P Ferreira is showing no signs of slowing down, even with his aesthetic as a humble poet well-chiselled out at this point. On the contrary, he is only speeding things up.
Favourite Tracks: sittlichkeit | mythsysizer instinct | lampião’s flow
Least Favourite Track: tennessee farmer jutsu
Ruby Yacht
