Hustling should be a state of being reserved strictly for rappers who can compete with Isaiah Toothtaker’s workload of running his own tattoo parlor, high volume appointments, father of twins, and always a couple album projects in various states of completion. When it came to recording his latest record with Meaty Ogre, entitled Your Majesty, they kept the format to Meaty’s live sequenced production on the SP-1200 and Isaiah’s one-take rhymes and improvisations. It was not a contrived decision, but rather all the duo had time for between tattoo appointments at Staring Without Caring.
On “U Fake 4 Real”, Meaty Ogre’s sinister yet silky production exists in compliment to the Isaiah Toothtaker we’ve come to revere due to proclamations like “I’ve defeated more than you’ll ever meet.” Forever wrestling with his demons, Toothtaker merely has to title the track as a statement against unworthy foes, so that he can dedicate his limited time in the booth to sorting out the greater moral questions as though it were only him and a higher—or perhaps lower—power in the room.
