Album Highlight: Gucci Ghost
By Mickey Diamond & Big Ghost Ltd.
Mickey Diamond an underground rapper and part of the Umbrella Collective, hailing from Detroit, linking up with Big Ghost for a very special collaboration. Big Ghost already quite an established name in the underground rap scene, with many projects under his belt in collaboration with Griselda Records rappers and other established underground rappers like Vic Spencer.
Mickey Diamond on the other hand, not quite a household name yet, like frequent Big Ghost collaborator Conway The Machine. But on this tape, he might as well be, with smooth flows over gritty production, his deep voice and mobster bars make for the perfect blend.
On half of the tracks Swab was brought in to do scratches and cuts, adding flavour to tracks in place of a hook or outro’s adding to the overall boom-bap feel of the album. With this being the first instalment out of 4 under the Gucci Ghost name, you can see why they decided to continue collaborating for more projects.
This project is full of Italian mobster and Italian fashion samples in combination with Mickeys’ bar heavy rapping and endless references to high-end fashion brands and luxury living integrate nicely. Tracks like; “Vineyards in France”, “Icicles” and “Maurizio’s Ghost” are good examples of this. Mickey Diamond really shines on “Icicles” over an eerie violin loop; his flow is unmatched cutting through the beat like butter. Mixed in with aggressive and ignorant lines he casually drops bars like: “I’m on the backstreets cheffing joints like Gordon Ramsay”.
On “Stone Island Shooters” he calls in help from fellow Umbrella Collective rappers, Pro Dillinger and Snotty for a mini posse cut. After the 3 rappers get their turn, the beat switch allows exclusively Mickey to boast for a few more hard-hitting bars. Transitioning into “Maurizio’s Ghost” an even smoother violin loop than “Icicles” supports Mickey into one of his best verses on the album in the 2nd half of the song. After some Gucci themed scratches from Swab. With hilarious bars like: “Ayo I'm stylin' so I know he mad, my wife rock Chloe bags,
her shoes got spikes like Legion of Doom shoulder pads” and continuing the verse with impressive rhyme schemes.
Ending the project with a 3-track run of pure grimy production with production highlight “Deluxe flux”, where Big Ghost switches the beat for just enough time for Mickey to shine. Continuing the project with “GG Buckets” Mickey takes centre stage again to drop a crazy verse with a scheme like:
“It's thirty in this rocket like he Kenny Smith
You got the goods, I'm the socket, now he really lit
Can talk about the plugs I met too, on some Benny shit”
While referencing Benny the Butcher, Big Ghost samples the “Crowns for Kings” beat off “The plugs I met”.
This album is really solid with a well-established underground producer delivering great beats, and a fairly unknown rapper (for now) performing like no other, which you should listen to ASAP.
Gucci Ghost 1 through 4 and the other 3 tapes (“Gucci Gambinos”, “Wolf Tickets” and “Black sheep”) are for sure albums you should check out if this one speaks to you.
Personal Picks:
Vineyards In France
Icicles
Stone Island Shooters
Maurizio's Ghost
Deluxe Flux
GG Buckets