Your Old Droog – “Pravda” (Feat. Mach-Hommy, El-P, Tha God Fahim, & Black Thought)
Today is a great day to hear a whole bunch of motherfuckers just rap. You probably won’t hear a better example than “Pravda,” the new single from the Brooklyn rapper Your Old Droog. Droog just announced the new album Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition, his follow-up to last year’s Jewelry. Where Droog explored his Jewish identity on Jewelry, Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition is an album about Droog’s experience growing up as a Russian-speaking Ukrainian immigrant in New York. That’s what Droog does on “Ukraine,” the track he shared last week. But that’s not really what the new single “Pravda” is about. “Pravda” is just five people rapping their faces off for six minutes.
On “Pravda,” Droog joins forces with frequent collaborators Mach-Hommy and Tha God Fahim, as well as long-tenured underground greats El-P and Black Thought. All six of them go in over a loose, hazy beat from producer Roper Williams. All six of them get lines in. Droog: “We like Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, you don’t want no fumar/ Actin’ tough, you goofs Harold and Kumar.” Mach-Hommy: “I need a python trenchcoat/ I been dope ever since GP and Shawn Kemp, though.” El-P: “Gee whiz, pardon, I’m trying to get to your coffin/ Always do the Ed Lover dance on the spot I dropped him.” Fahim: “We dogwalk rappers, just miss me with the small talk/ Ol’ Hallmark rappers, we knock ‘em out the ballpark.”
Also: Black Thought. Fucking forget about it. Black Thought’s verse is ridiculous. “My passport full of visas from back when going overseas was still allowed, no concern about diseases/ He’s the 20th century’s quintessential exemplary spitter, for carrying the culture to where it was meant to be.” Also: “Far as these other rappers, all I got for them is nada/ I’m a one-person Iron Curtain, all you hear is Pravda.” He brought the theme back around! Black Thought is really good at rapping.
In a press release, Droog says, “This track is more of a quarantine freestyle session than anything that remotely resembles standard song structure. It’s the first thing I recorded in isolation, and the rest of the features just naturally unfolded.” Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition will also feature collaborations with people like billy woods and Phonte. You can hear “Pravda” and check out the album’s tracklist below.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Dump YOD Intro”
02 “Kazakhstan”
03 “Ukraine”
04 “New Religion” (feat. Tha God Fahim & Mach-Hommy)
05 “Matryoshka”
06 “Odessa” (Feat. billy woods)
07 “Malchishka Krutoy” (Feat. Tvoy)
08 “Babushka III”
09. “Uzbekistan” (Feat. Phonte & Mach-Hommy)
10 “Pravda” (Feat. Mach-Hommy, El-P, Tha God Fahim & Black Thought)
11 “Kyrgyzstan”
12 “Dump YOD Outro”
Dump YOD: Krutoy Edition is out 12/4. Pre-order it here.