Here we have the latest studio LP & the 11th overall from London, England, United Kingdom born & Brooklyn, New York raised lyricist Rome Streetz. Emerging a decade ago off his debut mixtape I Been Thru Mad Shit, this was followed up by a plethora of projects with the most notable being the Noise Kandy tetralogy & Headcrack. This decade however has been his biggest, as he dropped some of the best work of his career from the DJ Muggs-produced Death & the Magician or the Futurewave-produced Razor’s Edge to the Ransom-assisted collab effort Coup de Grâce & the Griselda Records deal that followed. His debut with the Buffalo powerhouse Kiss the Ring alongside the Big Ghost Ltd.-produced Wasn’t Built in a Day both made the top 10 spots of my last couple Best Of lists & Hatton Garden Holdup produced by Daringer became a flawless spot in my top 5 of 2024 list. Trainspotter fully produced by Conductor Williams made for an equally outstanding Mass Appeal Records debut & hoped Sock It 2 My Pocket would maintain that level of musical quality.
“Yellow Brick Road” begins with a soul sample from Graymatter welcoming everyone to the sounds of the real whereas “Son of a Gun” produced by Pete Rock talks about having so much pizzazz because he’s a natural at this shit. “‘95 Mega on Shrooms” featuring Styles P unites on top of this bloodthirsty boom bap instrumental from Denny LaFlare to spit that gangsta shit until singlehandedly putting “Belt 2 Ass” over a Conductor Williams beat.
Havoc gets behind the boards during “.22” recalling the type of gun he had when he initially became more involved with the streets just before “Prada in the Polaroid” featuring Lloyd Banks maintains a boom bap vibe talking about envious muhfuckas watching them succeed behind a bench. “Cocaine Coltrane” hits us with a single providing hip hop for the fiends & dismissing the cheap imitators while “Marathon or Race” featuring Westside Gunn demands to know how people view the game.
“Dreamcatcher” continues the 2nd half of Sock It 2 My Pocket embracing a more soulful vibe talking about being on the road to riches while “Time & Place” featuring IDK leans towards a tropical sound talking about having now & giving fingers to who’s next. My favorite single had to be “High Speed” from 9th Wonder’s boom bap instrumental to Rome’s lyrics breaking down his New York state of mind while “Shoot Your Trophies” gets celebratory over a suiting beat The Alchemist cooked up.
The song “I Don’t Know” nears closer to the album’s conclusion talking about hoes he has no recollection of ever meeting being in love with while “Taylor Made Wave” featuring Ox Omni joins forces over a V Don instrumental to explain nothing being new under the sun with them. I should also mention that I was happy to hear Sovren was involved with the closer “Elevate”, where he’s flowing cutthroat bars over a soul sample to end the full-length.
Trainspotting has stronger consistency in my opinion since there were only a small handful of tracks that I could’ve done without on Sock It 2 My Pocket but nevertheless, I’m not gonna sit here pretending the 2nd full-length Rome Streetz has put out through Mass Appeal Records doesn’t contain some of the most important tracks of his career when the prominently strong production or the lethal penmanship that he & all the guests individually lay out attribute to it’s replay value.
Score: 8/10