“Even when it’s not about a woman, it always is.”
It’s with that ethos that Brooklyn rhymer ScienZe delivers Kind of Dessert, a project that loosely follows the concept of his 2016 Good Food album. The food references aren’t as prevalent on the 14-track project—aside from choice skits in which women name their favorite desserts–but the vibes are still there sonically and thematically. Like Good Food, the album is comprised of lush, melodic compositions which maintain a consistently soulful, sunny vibration despite there being a bevy of producers on the project.
Terms like “grown up rap” may be uttered more out of disdain towards immature, hypermasculine music than an actual criterion (we’re all adults), but the phrase just seems to belong slapped on the front of the project’s Take Care – inspired album art. When Scienze rhymes about “dreamin’ about you, hopin’ you’re there when I wake up” on the funky “Black Spades Dream,” or says “make sure your homies know that I don’t drive a Benz” on “Juice & Gin,” the honesty is refreshing.
As the Dope League rhymer noted on the Blu-featured “Water to Wine,” he’s been feeling great since he said hi to 30–for the most part. The bulk of the project is focused on his ups and downs with women, and he manages to expertly tuck existential insights into the context of those lows. In a genre now teeming with moody “give me space I’m an artist” songs, the Chazmere-produced “Say It,” in which Scienze collaborates with Chaz, I.O.D, Anthony Flammia and Ill Camille, is one of the most impressive of late. After a series of verses typified by I.O.D’s “I’m workin to put myself in a position…to bring your ass up from the rough” assertion, the climactic beat switch is met with earnest vocals that admit, “I feel my dreams slippin through my hands.”
With Kind of Dessert, Scienze successfully manages to craft an album predominantly dedicated to women, without entering crass or trite waters. That’s a feat in itself. Sweet.
Kind of Dessert is available for purchase here. You can stream below.
