Buck 65

For his second release on Warner, Buck 65 approached things differently to produce his best album regardless of alias. Aside from Weirdo Magnet, a collection of unreleased songs, Talkin’ Honky Blues is the first Buck 65 album outside the Language Arts series since the Buck 65 persona took over the body. The Language Arts albums — Language Arts, Vertex, Man Overboard, Synesthesia and Square — were 100 percent Buck 65. The production on his first album made exclusively for Warner is mostly handled by the Entity (aka Buck 65, Graematter and T.O.A.B. La Rone) with live instrumentation added when needed by the Savant Guard; cuts are courtesy of himself. Plus, Witchdoc JoRun, a member of Haltown Projex 12 years ago with Buck 65, seamlessly adds a few of his own productions. Overall, Talkin’ Honky Blues is a lot of honky-tonk country and acoustic bits that make for an album of beautiful musical orchestrations that are hip-hop yet so much more. Plus, it’s Buck’s most aggressive album since Language Arts. The drums often kick hard, especially on opening tracks "Leftfielder” and "Wicked and Weird,” and Buck embraces his grandfather voice for some real rapping with occasional spoken word. Buck 65 records a lot of stories both personal and fictional, including the seven-part "Riverbed,” but he also drops some battle raps that would make Stinkin’ Rich proud. Talkin’ Honky Blues is unlikely to convert the mainstream hip-hop fan, but it should broaden Buck’s fan base, and deservingly so.