What happens when great isn't good enough anymore? That's what every Griselda affiliate has asked themself for the past few years, as the collective's consistent releases and knack for lyricism and gritty production resulted in lots of acclaim and some mild reception. Conway The Machine might be the most salient example of this right now, who followed up the excellent God Don't Make Mistakes in 2022 with the expectedly solid WON'T HE DO IT in 2023. With Slant Face Killah, he continues to suffer a similar fate.
Conway The Machine is combating his own prime: even meeting half of that quality would still overshadow many pens, production aesthetics, and artistic approaches in the rap game today. On this album, the Buffalo MC retreads old territory to the point of exhaustion, and also, backtracks on the skill that we expect across the board. It puts pressure on the next move to show a bit of evolution or quality control.
Slant Face Killah's Production
After a dramatic, short intro ("Despertar"), "Mutty" kicks things off with a dusty Conductor Williams beat, of which there are two more on Slant Face Killah. Other production mainstays include Daringer, Camoflauge Monk, Beat Butcha, and legends like Cool & Dre and Swizz Beatz, along with more potentially surprising names like Cardo, Don Cannon, and Cubeatz. In the record's first half, Conway The Machine showcases grimy and piano-heavy boom-bap that he murders with such conviction. "Give & Give" brings more luxury with a complex rhyme scheme and soulful vocal samples, whereas "Karimi" shifts the album's closing moments to a woozy and chunky place with mechanical percussion and synth pads.
Still, Slant Face Killah often stays in the same place production-wise for any given track's entire runtime. Other times, the instrumental rewinds the clock in less flattering ways, such as the trite keys, lyrics, refrains, and trap hi-hats on "Dasani" that not even a solid Conway The Machine flow could save. The very next track, "Raw!," ironically tributes Big Daddy Kane while almost venturing into rage territory. While La Máquina flows well on it, it feels like a translation of a boom-bap beat to a trap one rather than fully embracing some of the latter style's more distinct qualities.
Conway The Machine's Lyricism
"Griselda Records, I should be the logo," Conway The Machine raps on "Kin Xpress" with Larry June. On Slant Face Killah, the 42-year-old's pen remains sharp, vivid, confident, boisterous, murderous, self-aware, and focused. "Milano Nights, Pt. 1" easily has the best quotable on the LP with "I'll do a drive-by to André 3000's flute album," a distilled duality that oddly speaks to the appeal of his music. Much of the rest, such as, "You writing sixteens, I’m like JK Rowling’s four-hundred eighty-eight page novel" on "Surf & Turf," is as hard as it is indicative of his talents.
Alas, Conway The Machine can't escape some cringe bars here and there: Twitch and Adin Ross on "Ninja Man" and how his girl's fancy whip makes her feel like Khloe "Car-That-She-In." Actually, there's a specific inflection point that makes this more obvious. By the time we hit "Ten" with Key Glock, not only does Conway's flow get washed by Glizock on a trap instrumental, but his wordplay and topical focuses just either recycle or become less captivating on impact. It's hard to keep up a high level across the board here, especially when featured guests break up the pattern.
Where Does SFK Succeed & Fail?
Unsurprisingly great features from Method Man on "Meth Back!," Joey Bada$$ on "Vertino," and others like Ab-Soul, Jay Worthy, and Stove God Cooks really match him on the passion, the hunger, and the effort. Regardless, it would've been nice to see some more overt chemistry between them and Conway The Machine. For example, Tech N9ne underwhelms on Slant Face Killah beyond intricate rhymes, and Rya Maxwell's bizarre cadence and boring beat selection make it feel like you put on a completely different album.
Some tracks overstay their welcome, such as the overlong intro to the "Rya Interlude" and extended outros on multiple cuts across Slant Face Killah's tracklist. The attempts to switch styles or stretch out some beats weren't polished or intent-driven like previous albums in his discography. That being said, since the verses and instrumentals are mostly impressive, this is more of a retrospective issue, not something that incessantly interrupts the album experience.
Where Should La Máquina Go From Here?
For the most part, Slant Face Killah is still a very worthy album in Conway's catalog; it's just in some small but important Griselda details that it falters. When there's so much quality to go through, it makes these crevices look like caverns. Whereas other Griselda affiliates or "type artists" like Boldy James benefit from knowing their lane and quality standard, Conway The Machine's capable of doing everything under the sun from lyrical onslaughts to commercial crossovers and topical depth, so why wouldn't he want to push himself beyond this lane?
Fortunately, the closing track on here stuns. While "The Red Moon In Osaka" is not necessarily a perfect pen performance, The Alchemist's evolutionary and layered sample flip, plus Raekwon's monologued advice to "stay on the come-up," provides the most emotionally distinct, compelling, and unique track on Slant Face Killah. You don't read the bars: you feel them. That's the secret sauce that this album didn't spread evenly, and one that's hard to impress fans with at this point. So shock us on the next LP, Conway: you earned our undivided attention long ago.