This is the 2nd collaborative album between Chicago, Illinois emcees A.M. Early Morning & Novatore. Both of whom have been turning heads in the underground for a several years now, but didn’t actually connect with each other until “Looking Back” off the latter’s Embrace the Darkness II: Explorers of Experience produced by C-Lance. They teamed up on Kingdom of Criminality produced by Stu Bangas in 2021 & are back 4 years later with Johnny Slash producing the sequel.
“Rabbit & Elephant” opens Kingdom of Criminality II with a hardcore rap rock intro with some solemnly jazzy horns talking about their return as a duo whereas “VHS” featuring Nightwalker takes the boom bap route instrumentally cautioning the apocalyptic vibes when the pistols come out. “Gore Hounds” makes a dope reference to the Prince of hip hop André 3000 making New Blue Sun a flute-heavy solo debut while “Circle of Goats II” featuring Lord Goat turns up the horrorcore influences all the way for a sequel to a standout on the predecessor.
Jarren Benton joins A.M. & Novatore on “Battleground” fuses orchestral & boom bap individually discussing the violent nature of all 3 of themselves & after “Hyenas” hooks up a soul sample likening themselves to assassins ready to take you out with snipers, “Twisted Metal” homages the video game franchise TV adaption last summer on the Comcast Corporation & NBCUniversal-owned peacock with the franchise’s mascot being played by Samoa Joe of the current AEW World Trios Champions The Opps.
“King of the Jungle” featuring Chubs angrily expresses the struggle each of them had to endure in their lives to get in the positions they’re at now while “Smurfs” obviously sounds grittier & cutthroat than the Paramount Skydance Corporation’s upcoming reboot of the franchise starring Rihanna later this summer. “Nocturnal Predators” finishes up the LP with the pair describing themselves as being those who come out during the night to attack their prey.
Looking back when I first got into these dudes individually around the same time period, Kingdom of Criminality II lives up to the expectations. I had set out for it in terms of being another great underground hip hop collab effort. It’s refreshing to hear their chemistry still flowing tightly as it did 4 years previously & Johnny Slash’s production style seamlessly compliments Stu Bangas’ on the predecessor when we had originally entered the Kingdom of Criminality.
Score: 9/10