Scottie Spitten is an emcee from Houston who made a splash in 2019 when he dropped his debut solo album, S.C.O.T.T.I.E. Since that time, he’s remained relatively quiet. That is, until now, as he comes back with a different sort of project, P-800.

If you are the type of person who stays up late watching ‘80s action movies on cable, then does Scottie Spitten have the project for you. That’s because if you look at the tracklisting for P-800, the clues might start to come together. “Ben Richards,” “Bob McClane,” “Douglas Quaid”…That’s right, they’re all characters from Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘80s run. Over the course of this album, Spitten is using movies like Terminator, Total Recall, Running Man, and Red Dawn as inspiration to lay down some retro-futuristic hip hop. Working with his brother and producer, King Midas, along with some additional help from Houston producer nocatchphraze, they do a great job of cooking up some beats that walk that line between sounding old school and futuristic. When you add Spitten’s clear and deliberately paced flow and his quirky sense of humor on top of that, it’s hard to not think of Antipop Consortium. What makes this album work, though, is that Spitten isn’t using the references as a crutch or just a punchline. He’s using them as jumping off points, getting into characters’ heads, getting to the heart of stories, and just laying down some dope rhymes over equally fun and challenging beats. So what starts off as something of a novelty just ends up being a really good hip hop album. That’s no easy feat.

Scottie Spitten gave himself an interesting challenge when he picked the theme for P-800, but the proof is in the pudding. This isn’t just some silly one-off project, it’s legitimately good, with some great retro-futuristic beats and plenty of smart lyricism from Spitten himself.