Paradime is a rock solid old school Detroit spitter, which is an assessment of his rep, not his build. Highly esteemed by some of the Motor City’s most highly esteemed, Paradime cashed in some of those chips last year with Period., a new album on AZ imprint Mello Music. “New” in the sense that he’d been out of the game for over a decade by that point, aside from the Apollo Brown feature that re-ignited the flames. (That was 2019’s Sincerely, Detroit and it aged beautifully; check that out if you ain’t familiar. The lineup is incredible.)
The lineup on Period. is pretty sparse, in terms of guest features. That’s generally a good thing. Too many artists are padding the product with cheap sixteens these days. The culmination of years of demos and songwriting, Paradime is carrying his album himself.
Like Rapsody, he’s at his best when he’s talking about his life & his culture. When he goes into straight-up braggadocio mode, things flip from compelling to merely adequate. No amount of context can make bars un-boring. Just because the man means it or earned it isn’t enough to redeem the product itself. Shit-talking, especially in Detroit, is set at a very high bar.
As the album makes clear, Paradime has hella range. He’s a talented, painfully honest songwriter with a deep toolkit of flow patterns & pockets. He can also get off some killer verses: on “Wolf Greys,” he holds his own alongside Marv Won and Ty Farris, which is a fucking accomplishment for any man. On this “Rock A Bye” joint, though, he’s getting absolutely washed.
Guilty Simpson is an artist whose reputation & longevity made their name into a brand. Kool Keith. Andre 3000. Black Thought. That kind of legendary. “A rapper’s rapper, I beat beats” is one of those boasts that was right there, waiting for someone, for decades. The fact there could still be low-hanging fruit for us in 2024 is a testament to how infinite this canvas really is, just beats, rhymes, and a universe waiting to be explored. Guilty is a master swordsman whose pen game and vocal delivery are an inseparable whole: a laconic, dangerous, and original voice with the perfect balance of amped up & laid back.
Music videos used to be advertisements for albums, now they’re just obligatory content, resume pieces for digital creators with big dreams. Period. is very much worth your time, but this video ain’t much of a meal. Three Dickies.
