Dabrye is a producer from Ann Arbor who has been putting out music since the early ‘00s. In fact, the first album he released was One/Three, which was put out by Ghostly International back in 2001. With some other releases in between, he finally followed that up in 2006 with Two/Three. Since that time, however, the artist known as Dabrye has largely been working under different names and exploring other genres of music. Now, twelve years after his last proper Dabrye album and seventeen years after the trilogy was promised, we finally get the conclusion, Three/Three.

For an album this long in the making, you might expect something more groundbreaking or unusual from Dabrye, but one of the first things that hit me about Three/Three was how straightforward and underwhelming his production felt. To be fair, his production doesn’t sound bad here, it’s more that it just sounds like more of the same of what he was doing back in the early ‘00s, which was smooth downtempo beats. It’s fine and all, but back then he was part of a new style of production that was coming into its own. Now, everybody and their mom produces beats like this, so simply coming out with yet another album that sounds like this, especially after waiting all of the years, doesn’t sound all that exciting. It’s pleasant, but there’s never a moment that makes my ears perk up and take notice. On top of this, it feels like Dabrye is hoping to cover up his lackadaisical production by lining up some big name emcees to rhyme over his beats. So on paper, it looks like you’ve got some legitimate talent with emcees like Guilty Simpson, Ghostface Killah, DOOM, La Peace, Fatt Father, Roc Marciano, Quelle Chris, Danny Brown, Jonwayne, Nolan the Ninja, Phat Kat, G&D, Clear Soul Force, Kadence, Intricate Dialect, Silas Green, and Denmark Vessey. With all these cooks in the kitchen and talent on paper, you might be expecting more than what you actually get on this album. Best case scenario, you get some decent tracks out of veterans like Guilty or Ghostface, who can talk shit over a decent beat and have fun with it, even if it’s nowhere near their best work. Worst case scenario, you get some lazy emcees who veer into misogynist and homophobic lyrics over decent beats and drag the album down a notch. This album just reeks from lack of vision and effort to become something more than a generic release from Dabrye.

Concluding a trilogy seventeen years in the making seems like a big deal on paper, but it feels like more of a contractual obligation in practice. At best, there’s some decent hip hop made with smooth, downtempo beats and veteran emcees talking their shit. At worst, it’s lazy, boring beats with uninspired emcees carelessly dropping some offensive rhymes. I really wish Dabrye would have just waited another twelve years if he didn’t have anything interesting to say at this time.