King's Disease III Review

The decision that defines this one is an absence. Where the first two leaned on famous friends, this has nobody else rapping on it, and the record is better for the exposure. Ghetto Reporter states the thesis plainly, an older writer returning to the job he was best at. Thun handles his most famous rivalry with the ease of a man who won something more valuable than the argument, and it is the funniest he has been on record in years. Michael and Quincy uses a producer and a star as a model for a working partnership, which doubles as a note about the one that made this album.

Hood2Hood and Recession Proof are dense, unglamorous technique. Once a Man, Twice a Child is the closest thing here to reflection and it earns its title. The production stays in the same lane as the previous installment, which is the fair complaint: at seventeen tracks the palette starts to repeat, and a few beats near the end blur together. The rapping does not blur. Three albums into a partnership this could easily have been a contractual exercise, and instead it is the best reviewed record of his late career.