Mike Shabb Warms Up for “Hood Olympics 2” by Becoming “Shabb Van Gogh” (Album Review)

This is the sophomore effort from Montréal, Québec, Canada emcee, producer & engineer Mike Shabb. Coming up in the spring of 2018 off his full-length debut Northwave, he would continue to make his presence known by putting out 6 EPs & his last couple of mixtapes before gaining notoriety for engineering Boldy James’ 5th album Fair Exchange No Robbery along with producing “Switches on Everything” off Hitler Wears Hermes X & enlisting his mentor Nicholas Craven to fully produce his 5th EP Shadow Moses from top to bottom. Hood Olympics & Sewaside III were both solid in their own rights, returning 10 months later with Shabb Van Gogh.

“breakadawn” is this self-produced jazz rap intro asking how you know so much about him when he ain’t ever been around you whereas “merry go round” takes the lo-fi boom bap route instrumentally to dirty dance harder than the late Patrick Swayze did. “underground legend” soulfully with co-production from Nicholas Craven addresses his legacy since his popularity keeps increasing while “Jank” hooks up these bare pianos showing a serious side to him dealing with pain.

As for “Krump”, we have Mike bringing the soul samples back in the fold to speak in Ebonics for a little over 2 minutes prior to “can’t wait” after the “brand new sound” interlude continuing to show off his sampling techniques talking about feeling important these days. “nothing is the same” maintains the soulfulness except he’s going drumless to discuss everything always changing, but then “crews pop” featuring Niontay unites the pair to talk about nobody fucking with them.

“splash bros” featuring Trapmat Savior has to be my favorite collaboration of the 2 making me hope they got a Splash Bros EP from them coming out like the Moncler Boyz did while “Van Gogh” talks about others getting pissed over his girl playing his music. “Disco Duck II” is a highly enjoyable sequel to the Hood Olympics standout & “Rope” strips the drums for the final moments calling the most wanted dead men.

Preparing himself for Hood Olympics 2 in a couple months from now, one of Montréal’s finest in recent memory comes off the 3rd & final installment of the Sewaside trilogy that came out last spring with an album that I find myself enjoying more than Northwave. Regardless if I found myself enjoying the other more than the first one, Mikea artistic growth in the last 7 years on the mic & as a producer is widely put on display for almost an half hour.

Score: 8/10