Chicago rapper Valee now joining forces with Detroit producer Black Noi$e for his 5th EP. Making his name known by releasing 3 mixtapes & a couple EPs from the span of 2015-2018, it wasn’t until one of my top 10 producers of all-time Ye formerly known as Kanye West signed him to a joint deal with G.O.O.D. Music & Def Jam Recordings. The next 2 EPs G.O.O.D. Job, You Found Me & Runnin’ Rich helped spread plugg music to a mainstream audience despite both receiving mixed reception to the point where he would go his own way from Thersday onward. I should also mention that Valee additionally has 2 EPs with AYOCHILLMAN as the duo The TrAppiEst as well as 2 more with ChaseTheMoney as the duo VTM & 1 with Stan Lane as the duo Vlane. Anyway, his full-length debut Virtuoso produced by Harry Fraud from last summer won me over on him & I was certain of Partridge being as enjoyable.
“Partridge” is a sample-heavy trap opener with Valee boasting about putting a bitch in Chanel & skating harder than Molly Bloom whereas “Clutch” works in this crazy beat switch near the 2 minute mark so the dude can lay out his lifestyle on wax. “DiGiMon” takes the eerie boom bap route instrumentally talking about fucking on the money while “Ruff” pushes near the end of the EP taking a bit of a mellow trap turn flying out to Berlin & playing with the idea of pulling up in something new. “Sonnet” finishes up Partridge cloudily showing off his baby rockin’ A Bathing Ape with no monkey in the middle.
Originally, I had Runnin’ Rich as my favorite Valee EP since it took everything from G.O.O.D. Job, You Found Me & improved on it. 5 years later, he outdoes himself here much like he did with Harry Fraud on Virtuoso last summer. Black Noi$e’s production is more experimental than Harry’s was on that debut LP & the performances from Valee himself are an improvement over some of the other material he’s given us in the last 10 months since.
Score: 8/10