9/28/21

88-Keys' The Death of Adam, the Long Island Hip-Hop Album Co-Produced by Kanye West

Where have I been all month? Listening to Donda of course. J/K, just "Lord I Need You" on repeat. Nah but really work, birthday, work, ring shopping, etc. That album is great, though, and that's thanks in part to West Hempstead's 88-Keys, whose production appears on six tracks, including standouts "Jail," "Heaven and Hell" and "New Again." Of course, to those who know, Kanye's chemistry with 88-Keys comes as no surprise; the man contributed to "Blood on the Leaves" and "No Church in the Wild." Less well known is that Kanye executive produced 88-Keys' only solo album, 2008's The Death of Adam. Fun fact: Ye also rapped on it, on the song "Stay Up! (Viagra)," in which, to the point of the title, he rhymes, "Try imagining something passionate / Between you, Cassie and Kim Kardashian / Maybe that'll work when you get to hit that ass again." Talk about prescient!

All jokes aside, this album has aged really damn well, musically, lyrically and conceptually. As for its ties to Long Island, on the one hand, it's any high school's toilet stall graffiti as a brilliant album; on the other, there's a clear through-line from 3 Feet High & Rising to the entire backpack era to this. The Death of Adam retains all the humor of the former while building on the record crates of the latter.