Send "Guilty Simpson " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 To be perfectly blunt, I was disappointed in Guilty Simpson's debut, Ode to the Ghetto. I mean, roughneck rhyming over J Dilla, Black Milk, and Oh No beats-- how could this fail? But for the most part, I felt like I stumbled upon an indie version of Memphis Bleek's M.A.D.E., where an embarrassment of production riches were squandered on someone who had no problem portraying himself as a token street soldier. A lot of people told me I'd underrated it, and listening to OJ Simpson, I'm inclined to go back and find out if they're right. Guilty Simpson's second record is so cohesive, so focused, and so flat-out fun, I'm amazed it's the work of the same guy.What's at first striking is that two tracks of erratically paced skits and assorted chatter totaling about four minutes pass by before we actually hear Simpson rap. OJ Simpson is entirely produced by Madlib, so if that structure puts you in the mindset of either Madvillainy or Lord Quas, it's for good reason. Though it lacks the bottled-lightning brilliance and brevity of the former and the bugged-out demeanor of the latter, Madlib still tailors it to Simpson's individual talents. Through a haze of stand-up routines, half-remembered conversations, and fake news broadcasts, OJ feels like the work of someone equal parts class clown and playground bully, daydreaming about his next lay, next high, or, most often, next chance to knock some sucker out....full text |
| Dustedmagazine |
| The nihilism of the G-funk era left us with the lesson that not giving a fuck was, at least in the rap vernacular, a virtue. It’s been well over a decade since anyone’s questioned or revised that lesson, but it’s perpetuated itself through mythology and misinterpretation. And so maybe OJ Simpson is what it sounds like now, a few layers of history and irony and allusion later: swaggering, unfazed, a little menacing, but above all too cool to commit and too aloof to reveal whether that’s renunciation or laziness talking. Madlib and Guilty Simpson seem like an unintuitive team, except that both of them don’t give a fuck – fairly staunchly, at that, albeit in different ways. Madlib’s calculated imprecision has always blurred the line between innovative and indulgent; Simpson is hard to pin down, neither all thug nor all brains, reasonably complex with rhyme but still hard (and more authentically so, probably, than fellow Detroit rapper Eminem, who doth protest too much). Both of them are untethered at the expense of consistency, great one minute and utterly forgettable the next. Nothing they do ever really feels out of the blue, because it’s all the blue. So they made an album: why the fuck not?...full text |
| Moovmnt |
| OJ Simpson. That’s the name of the album. No bloody gloves. No Ford Broncos. These are some 12 hard-hitting hip-hop tracks featuring Guilty’s inimitable baritone, and an equal number of Madlib’s signature album-as-soundtrack/radio/sideshow arrangements, where the beat & sequence is as important as the rap. This, with a couple no-nonsense guest appearances, some cuts by J.Rocc, and a whole bunch of attitude, makes up one of our favorite projects in a while. The charisma that Detroit’s heavy hitting MC Guilty Simpson and the Los Angeles based Beat Konducta Madlib share testifies to a musical kinship that is rare in today’s rapper-as-an-accessory marketplace. Going back to Guilty’s first appearance on wax (Jaylib’s “Strapped”–2003), Guilty over a Madlib beat to us is like hearing Guru over Premier circa Daily Operation, or CL over Pete around the time of “Straighten It Out.” Some times, a rapper and a producer just work well together. Album drops May 18. stonesthrow...full text |
Guilty Simpson lyrics
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