King Push - Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude Review

Calling it a prelude let him make the album he wanted without the pressure of being a statement, and the freedom shows. There is no radio play here at all, just ten tracks of dust and menace, mostly built on unsettled loops and drums with no bounce in them. Untouchable opens on a Biggie sample and a Timbaland beat that lurches rather than swings.

Crutches, Crosses, Caskets is the best thing on it, a Kanye and Timbaland production so bleak it barely qualifies as music, and his verse over it is close to perfect. M.F.T.R. brings a Kendrick Lamar hook to the one moment of light. M.P.A. is unpleasant in the way he does deliberately. What keeps it just below the top rank is that it is designed to be a placeholder, so it has no arc and no surprises. Within its own modest brief it does not miss once.