A+

★ 8.0

album

The Latch Key Child

“One day at work, after playing Funkdoobiest's "Brothas Doobie" album, I wanted to keep listening to 90's hip-hop, this time an album from the East Coast. Simultaneously I was thinking about 90's police drama "New York Undercover" and all the music it had, one song being "All I See" by A+. I remember listening to A+'s "The Latch-Key Child" for the first time some years ago, but I never really formed a concrete opinion until recently after revisiting it. As soon as I began listening, I couldn't help but think of Shyheim, who raps in a similar flow a couple years prior. A+ is not a bad lyricist at all, as he has learned to spit using crazy wordplay and in a tone that comes off as convincing. The difference between A+ and Shyheim is he doesn't come off as too proud about coming up the way he did and instead makes sure to create uplifting songs while being a bit vulnerable (by 90's rappers' standards). Really, the best material on here resides in the first half. "All I See" remains the clear favorite overall, but I've been having "Hard Times" on repeat. What makes "The Latch-Key Child" suffer a bit in the second half isn't the rapper himself, but the production. The beats aren't terrible, but some of them lack anything memorable that would make me come back to them. Faults and all, "The Latch-Key Child" definitely displayed the talent that A+ already possessed by this album's release. The lows doesn't outweigh the highs, and the highs are peak enough to keep A+'s debut a great listen for me.”

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