Here is the double 6th full-length LP from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada born albeit Compton, California raised emcee Jay Worthy. Coming on my radar in 2017 after The Alchemist produced his debut EP Fantasy Island from top to bottom, he would go onto drop 5 more EPs & a fantastic collab album with Larry June called 2 P’z in a Pod even though initial plans of putting it out through Griselda Records fell through for whatever reason. Harry Fraud-produced his debut You Take the Credit, We’ll Take the Check & DJ Muggs did the sophomore effort What They Hittin’ 4 to significant acclaim, but the Roc Marciano-produced Nothing Bigger Than the Program was still good despite having too many features & the DāM-FunK produced Magic Hour improved on that as did The Tonite Show 2 entirely produced by DJ Fresh last fall. Almost a year later,Once Upon a Time is finally arriving with Disc 1 now & Disc 2 in a couple weeks.
After the “Beginning” intro, the first song “‘96 Big Body” gets the ball rollin’ with a smooth ass instrumental recalling the days when he was driving around in this fresh whip 3 decades earlier whereas “The Only 1” featuring Kamaiyah works in a Mobb beat from Cardo addresses those who thought they were the only pimps around. “For the Homies” featuring & produced by DJ Quik sends a shoutout to all of those in their lives who can’t be here leading into the g-funk heavy “Rekkless” looking back at his youth.
“Open Minded” instrumentally reminds me of something The Neptunes would’ve produced in the early/mid 2000s praising his girl for keeping that exact type of mentality while “From the Jump” featuring E-40, Jim Jones & Wiz Khalifa brings the quartet together talking about how long they’ve been putting it down. “Dark Tints” featuring 03 Greedo strips the drums thanks to Conductor Williams refusing to stop what they started while “Famous Players” slickly gets in his pimp bag.
As for “Tides”, we have Jay Worthy on top of a drumlessly summery beat with lyrics about wanting a woman that he’s never even met by his side while “Bellagio” featuring Conway the Machine charismatically flexes of making music for the famous Las Vegas, Nevada hotel of the same name. “Choosing Shoes” featuring Boldy James keeps the drums out the equation painting imagery of the gangsta lifestyle while “2P’z” featuring Larry June recaptures the aura of their 2022 collab effort.
“True Story” featuring Ty$ starts the final moments of Disc 1 by touching on some real life shit over a piano instrumental while “The Outcome” featuring Ab-Soul, Dave East & Westside Gunn unites the quartet for a 4 & a half minute barfest accompanied by a sample-heavy beat that The Alchemist cooked up real realizing that this is the very moment where he & guests should observe the results.
It’s only a matter of weeks until Disc 2 of Once Upon a Time sees the light of day, so it’s a little too early for me to make a final decision regarding my full thoughts on the album & will reserve my full opinions for when the other portion of the LP comes out so I can assess it as a whole. However, it’s very much worth nothing that I enjoyed a great deal of Disc 1 for what it is from the production to the high quality guest appearances.
Score: TBA/10