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Alright. So, let me preface this album review by saying these are my opinions and I am entitled to my opinions. My opinions in no way should stop any rapper / musician, etc. from making the music they truly wish to make. With that being said, let’s get right into it.

Deuce Ellis is a native New York rapper who has toured with notable rappers such as Das EFX and Prince Po (Organized Konfusion w / Pharoahe Monch). Deuce has created a fashion line to compliment his music as well as a cult symbol for his fans to associate themselves with. This is the skull / heart symbol which can be found not only on his SoundCloud, but any time you search “Deuce Ellis is a cult”. In his bio it states: “#TheCult leader organized a series of his own cross country tours, driving state to state with Tiger The DJ, crashing couches, trashing hotel rooms, and connecting with people, whether the crowds were 5 or 5,000. Whether rocking Warped Tour, sharing the stage with the legendary Rakim, or indie sensation Mac Miller. From mixtapes to now, Deuce Ellis comes to his fans with this newest album Suffer Fools Gladly.

We begin with “Runaway Slaves”, the first track. Accompanied by, honestly, an overly-simplistic and monotonous beat / I found the beat mind-numbing about 45 seconds in, which isn’t a good sign considering this is the first track. Just a snippet of the lyrics read as a contradictory mess: “fuck your couch / fuck your girl’s face / walk in like I own the place”. I found these lyrics to be basic, lacking substance which most of the time this would be a non-issue for the type of audience this track seeks to target. If not for the fact that the song, I think, was about modern-day slaves in Western society / Capitalism then I would really confused as to why the song seems to objectify women while being critical of Black peoples’ obsession with material objects. In this way, the first song already seems confused about its message. Then the beat kept playing for far too long towards the end.

Far too long. Following right after was “King Crab Leg”, a stronger recovery in comparison to the initial track; I found the beat to be far more engaging than the first track for its somewhat increase in terms of complexity but, again, the lyrics for me are key and this song doesn’t even make it half-way in that respect. This song is fun if you’re high and drunk, but lacking substance it’s not a song I would listen to as I go about my daily grind.

There were other tracks which did the same thing: severe lack of energy from the rapper. Then the song “Dilate”. At one point the rapper felt the need to rhyme fellatio with ratio and I’m honestly “but why?”. No seriously, why? With “Hell n Back”, another song that felt the need to do what so many rappers love to talk about—bitches and drugs. The song went from being about some woman on the train loving a rapper’s work, then about her shaking her ass to the work, and somehow morphed into an anthem for the homies—all in one song. All the while the rapper having virtually no enthusiasm or power in his voice. There seemed to be some attempt at singing as well. “Screamers” one of the more engaging tracks on the albums, but this track, like the majority of this album is stagnant thus far lacks any sort of risks. The feature did their thing, but even the feature fell flat; I could barely tell the difference between both the rapper and the feature, which is a real problem because the feature is supposed to bring such spice and charming irreverence to the song that I can’t help but to return for seconds and thirds. I don’t even want to come back for firsts.

And the buck stops here folks. For me, I really couldn’t get into this album; I struggled through every track and even then I was left wondering: “What impact was this album attempting to make?” “Where is the mark of mastery?” “Why did so many of these beat sound like they came from the ‘70’s?” If you want an album with a fun beat and simple lyrics “Suffer Fools Gladly” is your party album 1000%.

Final Rating: 2.5/5