Back in August of 2017, North Carolina emcee and Free The Optimus founding member C.Shreve The Professor released an EP by the name of Mommy Love To Dance, a fun release that saw Shreve stepping out of his comfort zone. Just before the year was over, he comes back with a companion album that’s right in his wheelhouse, Daddy Love To Rap.

If Mommy Love To Dance is C.Shreve switching things up and trying something new, Daddy Love To Rap is C.Shreve delivering exactly what you would expect from him. That’s not a bad thing, of course, since this emcee has been holding it down on the mic both as a solo artist and as part of Free The Optimus for years – he’s a veteran performer that knows how to hold your attention and entertain you by spitting rhymes. For this project, he enlists the production of Grove$ide, Delta Sigma, Pat Junior, B Squared, FLUE, and FLLS. There’s a lot of good beats here, mostly of the solid boom bap variety, with just a little bit of weirdness here and there to keep things interesting. Really, though, this is about finding some good laid-back, midtempo beats that C.Shreve can hop on, find the pocket of the groove, and then just come at you with some solid lyricism. It’s not an album that’s big on hooks or any other sort of pop sensibilities. This is more like a cypher session where a talented, experienced emcee just wants to grab the mic and take you through some lyrical calisthenics. C.Shreve has a nice grit to his voice, and he’s got multiple flows and clever wordplay for days. This is the type of album that you’ll want to listen to over and over so you can dissect all of the little hidden gems in his bars.

Daddy Love To Rap is about as straightforward as an album can get. This is all about one emcee just stepping up to the mic and spitting raw lyricism until the album is over. You can’t go wrong with that.