The Allegory

After the brutal one-two punch of 2018’s Book of Ryan and the DJ Premier team-up PRhyme 2, the game needed time to recover. Yet as his trio of ferocious features on Eminem’s Music to Be Murdered By made clear, Royce da 5’9” can’t stay away from the mic. Coming mere weeks after that surprise Shady set, The Allegory offers that raw pugilistic rhyme style across a selection of uncompromising and enlightening tracks and interludes. He finger-wags fly-by-night fad rappers on “Pendulum,” exposes the racist history of a famous jingle on “Ice Cream,” and gives sweeping condemnations across “Rhinestone Doo Rag.” His multiple New York connects come through too—swapping off with Griseldan Buffalo kids BENNY THE BUTCHER, Conway The Machine, and Westside Gunn, as well as with Queens’ own Grafh on the swirling street soul of “I Play Forever.”