atari, sega genesis, garcia vega, blunts, grilled cheese sandwiches, judo chops, revolution!! the mighty quinn, friendship!! several of my favorite things and all in the same track! after our favorite mask toting friend’s previous album, born like this, sold only 11,000 copies, i was definitely not “expecting” unexpected guests to be released so timely and with such high quality. especially on the heels of the much anticipated madvilliany sequel. unexpected guests features a funny array of unreleased tracks, previously released untouched tracks, remixes, and group collaborations. it’s a mix that ultimately sounds pretty damn good together when it’s all said and done.
all in all, this album is great — pure unfiltered doom. very few if any appearances from king geedorah, metal fingers, viktor vaughn, or any of his other alter egos. what you get in exchange are some quality tracks featuring “superfriendz” such as the late j dilla, ghostface, talib (oddly enough one of the weaker tracks – “fly that knot,” which was previously released by talib), masta killa, vast aire, and many more.
while his rhymes are usually masked in absurdly complex and often times nonsensical themes, you actually get a glimpse of what might lie behind the mask on tracks such as favourite ladies and all outta ale. on these tracks you get some insight as to what type of ladies doom goes for and just how scary he would be if he did in fact run out of frosty beverages (seriously, dude is huge, i wouldn’t want to be in the same room as him after he ran out of alchohol).
whether he’s flying solo or sharing time on a track, doom’s distinct style always snags your attention and seems to overshadow all other emcees that he rhymes with. there is a lotta strength in some of the group collabos such as angels, street corners, and sniper elite. it sounds like they’re straight up having fun. one of my favorite bits is when doom consciously admits and apparently gloats about his confusing and complex rhymes, by stating that his rhymes are “capable of confusing your crew like a rubik’s cube.”
where are you madvillainy?? we want more!
until doom gets his act together and drops a proper followup project, unexpected guests will serve as a fitting substitute. gold dust is known for somehow finding the rarest tracks possible for their compilations, and this time they dug deep, finding cuts that i’m sure mr. dumille himself didn’t know he had. for the doom fan, this is a must have. for the casual listener, its a portal into the world of rap’s most complicated mind. buy this album today – The Couch Sessions