New surprise LP & the 19th overall Detroit, Michigan emcee Mickey Diamond. Emerging at the beginning of this decade off the strength of his debut EP Bangkok Dangerous, the dude has since gone on to turn quite a few heads in the underground by building up the impressive discography for himself with his previous 18 albums alongside 7 EPs & a mixtape. Since 2022 however, Mickey has been consistent putting out some of the best material of his career thus far. This includes the Gucci Ghost series produced by Big Ghost Ltd., the Ral Duke-produced Oroku Saki EP, the Sadhugold-produced Death Threat$ album, the Camoflauge Monk-produced Capital Gains album, the outstanding Oroku Saki sequel Super Shredder & Gucci Gambinos. Coming off both Wolf Tickets & Black Sheep however, the Blood of the Lamb has arrived without any prior announcement.
“Stigmata” begins with this soulful boom bap beat talking about his preference of being wealthy instead of having all the fame whereas “Cold Sweats” takes an eerier route instrumentally explaining that karma catches up to all in the end. “Break Bread” brings some pianos into the fold so Diamond can talk about killing the greedy just before “Practice What You Preach” hooks up some sampling chops spitting more hardcore lyricism.
Meanwhile on “Communion”, we have Mickey over this gospel-inflicted boom bap beat explaining that he speaks from the heart rather than making himself sound good leading into “Have Mercy” grittily talking about still surviving when the backstabbers tried to take him down. “Collection Plates” starts the 2nd half on some more piano-driven boom bap instrumentals boasting that he’s been like this entire life while “Wormwood” sinisterly takes a more conscious approach to the songwriting.
“PREYers” featuring Daniel Son references the inaugural IWGPヘビー級チャンピオン, former 12-time WWE world champion, WWE tag team champion, 3-time WWE Hall of Famer, Real American Beer founder, Real American Freestyle Wrestling (RAF) co-founder & known racist Hulk Hogan while “Lamb’s Blood” brings another gospel flip to the table gives us some observations of his even if he including myself isn’t the kind of guy who knows the bible by heart.
The penultimate song winds down Blood of the Lamb’s final moments on some drumless gospel vibes giving all praises to God for having his back & that being the reason why he won’t ever forsake Him while the outro “Erick’s Sermon” soulfully concludes The Wolf, The Lamb, The Goat trilogy talking about a vow he made to his his father that he won’t ever let him down. Especially since he was the one who made sure he had food on the table when Diamond was younger.
Wolf Tickets made for an introspectively spiritual detour from Gucci Gambinos or the Gucci Ghost saga & Black Sheep focused more on Mickey Diamond’s capabilities of telling stories, but what makes Blood of the Lamb an interesting conclusion to this series he & Big Ghost Ltd. have been doing for 6 months already is the production could likely be more sample-heavy than it’s predecessors & the likelihood of it being Diamond at his most religious topically.
Score: 9/10