Belleville, New Jersey emcee/producer Action Figure 973 has returned with his 3rd studio LP. For a while at this point, his first couple mixtapes followed by his last 10 EPs & the full-length debut DOOM Was Right almost 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 the Lucha Libre for the Soul sequel Lucha Libra for Christmas & airing out some Luchador Body Odor to ask What Would Harley Race Do? a couple days after Darby Allin became the new AEW World Champion.
“Harley & Nash Driving Through the Hood” after the “Harley’s Credo” intro sets it all off with a grittily drumless loop referencing WWE Hall of Famer, 7-time WWE world champion, 7-time WWE tag team champion, WWE Hardcore Champion & current Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide (AAA) booker The Undertaker whereas “Puerto Rican Pyramids” goes for a boom bap vibe instrumentally to talk about there being a difference between him & us.
The title track references none other than the late 8-time NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion, WWE Hall of Famer & the inaugural WWE United States Champion Harley Race himself while “Harley Warned Bruiser About Puerto Rico” includes a bar about former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Rampage Jackson’s son Raja infamously beating Syko Stu to death damn near at KnoX Pro-Wrestling founded by WWE Hall of Famer, 2-time WWE Intercontinental Champion & 3-time WWE Tag Team Champion Rikishi.
“Blame Game” nocturnally references WWE Hall of Famer, former 3-time WWE Champion, 11-time WWE tag team champion, the inaugural WWE Hardcore Champion, CWA World Tag Team Champion & TNA World Champion Mick Foley alongside WWE Hall of Famer & former 3-time WCW Hardcore Champion Eric Bischoff and WCW founder Ted Turner while the drumless “WWE Ice Creams” featuring Brother Tom Sos makes a nod to the late WWE Hall of Famer, former 2-time WWE Champion & 2-time WWE Tag Team Champion Yokozuna.
The song “Harley Pulling a Gun on Hogan” embraces a jazzier sound whilst continuing to strip the drums talking about having dinner with former 2-time IWGPタッグチャンピオン, WWE Hall of Famers & 10-time WWE tag team champions The Steiner Brothers while “Bred 11’s” preceding the “Don’t Matter Who It Is” outro dustily spends the last couple minutes of What Would Harley Race Do? boasting that nobody can walk a mile inside of his shoes.
Both of Act-Lo’s previous full-lengths were already released under the ECW of underground hip hop a.k.a. Bars Over B.S. Records a year earlier & that was how I discovered his music last spring, so it’s not really that much of a surprise that they exclusively dropped What Would Harley Race Do? on their site at the beginning of the month & would agree with the sentiment of it being amongst his most refined material. I liked that he toned down the number of guest appearances to simply 1 so the east coast luchador can rip up some of Artifcer’s finest beats by himself 99% of the time.
Score: 9/10