last knight - presidencee

The title track to Presidencee’s latest bears very few similarities to the soul-heavy boom-bap that producer Coffee Black provided him for his last full-length, Colombian Raw. Titled “Last Knight,” the Big L homage sees Presidencee interpolating a classic set of L bars into a hook over an uncharacteristically quiet beat - at one point, it practically fades out into drums and claps alone. But barrier-breaking aside, it’s one of the strongest records to ever emerge from the Cambridge rapper’s camp. The churning, alleyway rumble of “Last Knight” represents both a crucial step forward and a homage to his previous work - it’s an indication that Presidencee’s not afraid to crack the mold he’s been working with for over a year, and an indication that his MCing hasn’t faltered in the slightest.

Last Knight’s structured as to be directly compared with Colombian Raw. Released exactly a year after 2012’s collaboration with Coffee Black with the same number of tracks, it’s presented as to be seen through the lens of change - in Presidencee’s words, “This was my 365 days of transformation.” And although Colombian was strong, the comparison is a flattering one. A lot has changed for Presidencee in the last year as an artist, even beyond swapping his former name, CD, for his current one.

Now, he’s substantially more comfortable stepping outside of the sonical and lyrical realms he’s been more productive in to date, and as a result Last Knight is easily the most creative and open Presidencee’s been in his career. Take “Healed,” where he enlists fellow Cambridge rappers Tazz AMRCA and Melz to trade verses over a souled-out beat from Tonelist, rapping, “When I heard that diagnosis, I asked God why he chose this/Kid with no sense to feel this illness knowing that I’d become hopeless.” It’s hard to imagine a song this painfully, candidly transparent and simultaneously effective on Colombian Raw.

And that’s the modus operandi for Presidencee across the entirety of Last Knight. Very few of the songs here would fit with the decidedly summerish vibe of Colombian Raw, and he’s less preoccupied with stuffing as many rhymes into his lines as possible. It may be an overworn gripe to have about rap music (I’m sure Joey Bada$$ is tired of being dismissed as such), but it’s hard to deny that it hasn’t been a pitfall for Presidencee. Much of Colombian Raw is quality, but songs like “Crash Test Dummies” might have been very powerful records with the rapper who showed up on Last Knight.

He’s not reaching to awkward vocabulary words to complete the rhyme, he’s not stretching out words to fit the rhythm, and there are few better indications of experience. There’s not a single moment on Colombian Raw where Presidencee sounds as comfortable as he does near the end of his verse on “King,” snarling, “I’m just a kid and you kids is involved in intervals/Time me when I’m lapping, you motherfuckers invisible/If water’s talent these bitches is stuck on kiddie pools/To get specific, Pacific would fit inside of my living room.”

And it doesn’t mean that the songs that Presidencee rips without any deeper ulterior motive aren’t powerful - “Good Will Hunting” is one of the best songs on the tape, thanks to its drawling and twisted vocal samples. But when he’s deviating from his older patterns, as he does on the bassline and mass of pitched-up samples of “Hear Me Out,” it’s excellent. At this stage in a rapper’s career, quality’s a priority, but it’s also important that there’s potential to be realized – Presidencee’s only eighteen, and there have to be indications that his creativity is projectable. Doesn’t have to be immediately successful, we just have to know that he won’t stagnate as an artist.

And in that sense, Last Knight also serves as a partial realization of potential through its ambition. This is the first project Presidencee’s ever released that revolves and feeds off his openness, and the real progress with Last Knight is a bit more nuanced than “he’s a better rapper”. When I first started following Presidencee with Colombian Raw, I would never have imagined listening to songs as open and hard-hitting as “Hopefully”, where Presidencee raps, “I’m running out of money for recording time/Shit, hopefully this verse, I record in time.”

For all Last Knight’s huge steps forward, though, it certainly has its pitfalls. Its faults are most present on concept track “Cigarettes & Perfume”, whichlacks the emotion in its uncomfortably deliberate delivery to be as powerful as its lyrics and pitch-perfect beat promise – other than the hook, Presidencee sounds as if he’s forcing the lines to fit (spiritual followup “Ms. Purple” works much better). “All Ceeing I” hits hard when it’s on, but when Presidencee delves too deep into anti-establishment topics he’s not quite as strong. And he’s not quite beyond sinking into hip-hop clichés, as on “38 Caliber,” when he raps about “lyrical bullets” on an otherwise quality song.

But beyond its faults, crucially, Presidencee represents one of Cambridge and Boston hip-hop’s brightest points. Although the former is rife with rappers around his age of varying skill (two of the best of which who have brilliant turns on “Healed”), Presidencee’s been the most consistent and prolific. But Last Knight is important not because of Presidencee’s current status, but because of what it means for his future. He’s talented enough that he could get away with the same kind of raps and the same types of soul beats - but he’s not doing that.

Instead, he’s making increasingly risky music, as just a couple songs here fit under the leaky umbrella of "real hip-hop”. Naturally, sometimes it doesn’t go well, but regardless, Last Knight is a testament to Presidencee’s obvious ambition. The plinking piano riff and wavering sample behind the $wi$$ Bank$-assisted “King”, the filtered keys and the Meek Mill feel of “Do I Dare?”, the stuttering drum rolls and Clams Casino-indebted keys of “Unconscious Competence”. They’re all regions of hip-hop that Presidencee’s rarely, if ever, ventured into, and that type of creative determination (successful or not) is precisely what he needs to be engaging with. Especially if it’s as successful as it is on the most effective segments of Last Knight.

Grab Presidencee's Last Knight here.

7/30/13.