Kenny Segal

For his debut album, producer Kenny Segal serves up a concept album based around food and cooking, keeping things a little more focused than MF Doom did with his similarly themed MM Food. As the roommate of Abstract Rude, it’s inevitable that Ab Rude’s flow-flexing Freestyle Fellowship fellows (Aceyalone, Myka 9 and P.E.A.C.E.) stop by to lend their blend of crazy styles. Segal also enlists the skills of other style-benders like NoCanDo, Dr. Oop, 2Mex, Acid Reign and more, including some cuts that feature DJ scratches and a few straight instrumentals. The song themes are sometimes basic and obvious: "Backyard BBQ,” a posse cut about a BBQ throw down by Ab Rude, or "Gringo Tacos,” 2Mex’s ode to the international cuisine of L.A. demonstrate. But more often, food and cooking work as an extended metaphor for things like love (P.E.A.C.E.’s "Romantic Cooking”) or providing for the fam (Aceyalone’s "Food on the Table”). With the exception of the up-tempo "Smelly Snacks” and "Potluck,” and the untitled acoustic rock ballad bonus, Segal’s production is mostly ’90s-inspired, smooth jazz boom-bap that creates a great vibe for your laidback BBQ or dinner party.