Masta Ace apparently doesn’t care what I have to say. I’ve been complaining about his concept albums ever since he’s been releasing them and he still hasn’t changed a thing. This one, which takes us back to 1980; the year he started high school; serves as a sort of sequel to Son Of Yvonne, which features beats by MF Doom. The sole producer this time is Kic Beats. His aren’t as funky but it’s pure (sample-free) hip-hop nonetheless. Masta Ace used to be a better rapper, but that’s not even the problem here. It’s the weak breaks and annoying skits, the latter of which fails the flow of the album by never letting more than three songs play without interruption. Fats Belvedere, from A Long Hot Summer, is also back, for whatever that’s worth.

Let me be clear. The skits are well-produced and might be suitable for, say, a dramatized audiobook, but when there are so many; some over a minute long; on an otherwise normal rap album, they tend to irk. Young Black Intelligent, on which Ace successfully transports back to the younger fresher rapper he used to be, is a good song with replay value, but you shouldn’t have to skip the proceeding interlude to get to it. There’s nothing wrong with an album having a concept, but Ace takes it too far. By the time you get to Outtakes, literally outtakes of the skits being recorded, you’re thinking of throwing the tape in the garbage like they did De La Soul Is Dead. Either that or trim the skits, leaving an album that sounds unfinished without them.

Even with them, The Falling Season sounds, at times, like an assignment left incomplete. Mothers Regret and Coronation both have potential, but neither offer anything substantial during the breaks. Not every song needs a chorus, but there should be something to hold them down when the verses stop. Passersby trying to console a crying drug addict or a staff member reading names at a high school commencement ceremony isn’t enough. How much better would these songs be with catchy vocals going in the background? “Catchy” is the key word. High School Shit, a thematic rendition of Be True To Your School, has a hook, but it’s basic and sort of wack. Say Goodbye is even worse. Mathematics, Ace rhyming math terms, is just silly.

What he should do, or what he should’ve done a long time ago, is free himself from all these restrictive concepts and simply rap. That, and an ear for catchy hooks, is all he’d need to make another solid album, à la Take A Look Around. That one, his debut, also has its flaws, but its one Reminisce song is still better than the whole Falling Season. Masta Ace, now 49 years old, reminisces about being a high school student on almost every song here; Me And AG, on which he mentions “Uber-driving”, is one clear exception; and that cheats fans out of what is supposed to be his new album. Nostalgia is fun and all, but he’s already done a project like this. I’m starting to wonder if it’s just another case of an old school rapper being stuck in the past.

my rating : 2 of 5

2016