Album Reviews: All My Heroes Are Dead by R.A. The Rugged Man

Release Date: April 17 2020

Rap traditionalist and hip hop veteran R.A. The Rugged Man is back after 7 years. I really liked the impressive lyrical ability on some of the songs from his last album, so I was excited to here this. R.A.’s signature style is fast, dense complex rhyming patterns that are for the lyrical hip hop purest. On this album, some of his lines are very bitter and resentful of the music industry, mumble rap and this kind of comes off as corny. R.A. the Rugged Man himself has always been a ridiculous character. I liked the skits and songs where he was quite self aware and self deprecating in a humorous way. On songs like “Wondering” and “Angelic Boy” R.A. tries his hand at storytelling. In my opinion the morbid plots just didn’t suit his voice (I think I think this because, the majority of his songs have basically been lyrical goof offs). I will say that throughout this album there is politically incorrect, disgusting and uncomfortable content, R.A. accentuates his self hating scumbag persona. The production is not too flashy, it’s old school, with a lot of record scratches. I loved the wu-tang centric “Dragon Fire” and I was pleasantly surprised by the heartfelt dad rap “First Born”.

Favourite Songs: Legendary Loser, Dragon Fire, Gotta Be Dope, First Born.

Score: 4.8/10

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#ratheruggedman #allmyheroesaredead