This gotta be the 11th studio LP from Harlem, New York emcee UFO Fev. Coming up a little over a decade ago off his full-length debut Around My Way, it wasn’t until 2020 when he saw his biggest year yet by dropping not 1 but 3 well received projects: the Statik Selektah-produced sophomore effort Fresh Air along with the Termanology-produced debut EP From El Barrio, With Love & the Big Ghost Ltd.-produced 3rd album The Ghost of Albizu. This was all followed up with Magnum Opus along with the Vanderslice-produced Enigma of Dalí & 4 EPs: The Most High, Prayer, Weed & Music, E Pluribus Unum, Sunsets in the Ghetto & of course the Finn-produced Blood on the Bills. Last time I covered Fev was last summer when Fredro Starr fully produced Strapped & Vansleazy coming back for Pyramid Schemes was a thrilling surprise.
After the intro, the first song “Snake Charmer” is a jazzy hardcore hip hop opener talking about his lane being him fusing street knowledge with the drug game whereas “Dynamite” featuring NEMS crosses over rap rock & boom bap boasting that they feel like $1B each. “Razor Keys” hooks up some prominent pianos talking about eating all these wack rappers for dinner retiring from pushing dope to rap until “Momotoro” gets back on the rap rock vibe refusing to dumb it down.
“Stunt Squad” featuring Red Inf could’ve been recorded around the same time as their Vanderslice-produced collaborative effort Chemistry last spring although it’s still hardbody & after the “Never Heard of You” skit, “Blue Face Hunnids” brings the keys back in the fold talking about times where he feels like he could’ve been greater. “Hit List” takes a soulful approach quenching for blood while “Money Man Jr.” featuring FLZY finds them exceeding & expanding.
The penultimate song “No Grant Hills” returns to the boom bap talkikg about grinding to the point where he hasn’t even slept in days constantly trapping out the Airbnb & prior to the outro, the closer “Free Sam Bankman” calls for the freedom of FTX CEO & Alameda Research co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried a.k.a. SBF after he was sentenced to 25 years for 2 counts of wire fraud, 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud & conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Even if 1,000 Yard Stare produced by Body Bag Ben slipped through the cracks a little over a month ago & I didn’t make the time to cover it, I still thought it was a great way for him to start his 2025 & now he takes it to a new level with Pyramid Schemes. For the people BY the people, it’s guest list is stronger than that & Painting Houses 2 combined with Vanderslice’s gritty production pulling from boom bap & jazz rap to rap rock.
Score: 9/10