Belleville, New Jersey emcee/producer Action Figure 973 celebrating his born day with his 14th expedited play. For a while at this point, his first couple mixtapes followed by his last 13 EPs & the full-length debut DOOM Was Right over a year ago giving flowers to one of my all-time personal favorite albums Madvillainy have each established himself as a promisingly skilled luchador who so happens to rap. The Most Interesting Man in the World got with Machacha for his sophomore effort last October, coming off What Would Harley Race Do? as well as 24 Hours in Switzerland & the baseball-themed Polo Grounds produced by DiMaggio to announce Souled Out hours prior to it’s release.
“8 Hour Paris Flight” after the titular intro kicks things off with a drumlessly soulful opener talking about forever plotting outside of the country whereas “London Traffic” soulfully discusses the vitality in what he does. “William Regal” shows some love to WWE’s current VP of Global Talent Development, former 4-time WCW World Television Champion, 2-time WWE Intercontinental Champion, 4-time WWE tag team champion & 3-time WWE Hardcore Champion of the same name.
We have “Eyeful” kicking off the 2nd half incorporating more soul sampling referencing 2-time WWE Hall of Famer, former 16-time WWE world champion, WWE Intercontinental Champion, 6-time WWE United States Champion, 6-time WWE tag team champion & 9-time NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair leading into “Ashley Massaro” remembering the late WWE diva who was not only a sexual abuse victim of Vince McMahon’s, but also took her own life.
“No Fly Tipping” immediately succeeding the “Paris Baguette” skit winds down the last few moments of the EP bringing a rap rock vibe to the table so Act-Lo can assure everything he does going forward becoming symbolic for their own justifications & the outro “Flight Home” spends the last 127 seconds of Souled Out hooking up a crooning soul sample talking about none of these rappers being safe for the remaining 4 months of 2026.
Polo Grounds to me still remains a breath of fresh air for people who felt like Action Figure 973’s discography was getting stale & Souled Out continues that trajectory recapping trips he took to London, England, United Kingdom & Paris, France over mostly soulful production. I can’t forget to further mention the claims of symbolism behind his future output & no one being safe for the rest of the year, hinting he has more music coming down the pipe soon that I’m interested in hearing.
Score: 7/10