AZ - Doe or Die II (Deluxe) (Album)

I know a lot of people seem to take issue with the deluxe release since it’s become kind of a trendy thing to do but I just don’t see any pitfalls to giving the fans more music but I’m pretty sure most of the people who complain about that are simply not fans of whoever is releasing a deluxe at that time. But if you aren’t a fan of the legendary AZ then you need to get the fuck on home cause you can’t stay here. Capitalizing off his impeccable sequel to the classic “Doe or Die”, AZ has blessed us with 4 additional tracks that only further cement this sequel as yet another classic under his belt of many. Not only that, but these do not in any way sound like throwaway singles or just some shit he made to get some more music out, they fit perfectly into the vibe of the album & only enhance it further.

I also love the idea of the deluxe, especially in his case cause it also serves as a reminder of just how great this album actually is, for anyone who may not have gotten around to listening to it back in its September release. It’s the perfect blend of old & new & AZ sounds so comfortable spitting that fly, luxurious shit (“Just 4 U”, “Never Enough”, “Different”, “Blow That Shit”), as well as those gritty street tales (“Keep It Real”, “Ritual”, “Found My Niche”). Not to mention this album holds one of T-Pain’s best hooks ever in his long spanning career with his performance on the lone bonus cut on the original “What’s Good”. It’s definitely worth revisiting this album & not just consuming the 4 extra records this king has blessed us with.

We previously covered the 2 Chainz assisted “Motorola Era” which gifted us with that Playaz Circle era Chainz, those Tity Boi days are ever so present on his performance on this beautiful record, produced by none other than Statik Selektah. He’s so generous with the free jewelry his giving out on “Jewels for Life”, which contains excerpts of powerful speeches from Inky Johnson, definitely the most powerful of the 4 & a triumphant way to kick off these extras. He even goes stupid over a classic instrumental on “Stay Fly”, which I’ll let my fellow Hip Hop heads guess as to what the sample is. Then of course, we gotta end this with another one of those self reflective numbers, akin to others on the original like “The Wheel” & “Check Me Out”, just nothing but free gems scattered throughout this one. I’m cool if we don’t receive anything else from him this year cause he’s done more than enough with this, he can just kick back & be cool at this point. Hilarious I say that like it ain’t already what he always be doing.