This is the 45th EP from Atlanta emcee/producer Tha God Fahim. Coming up as an affiliate of Griselda Records as well as being 1/3 of the Dump Gawds alongside Mach-Hommy & Your Old Droog, we also can’t ignore the massive discography that he’s managed to build for himself, some of the standouts include Breaking Through tha Van Allen Belts & Dump Assassins. But dude has been on a CRAZY ass EP run in 2023 with the standouts being the Camoflauge Monk-produced Dark Shogunn Assassin, the Nature Sounds-backed Iron Bull & the Nicholas Craven-produced Dump Gawd: Shot Clock King 4 & the Oh No-produced Berserko. Now I didn’t get the chance to cover Dump Gawd Reloaded or the Sadhugold-produced Dump Gawd: Tha Knocking of Loose earlier this month, but to hear Mike Shabb fully producing Dump Gawd: Rhyme Pays was more than enough to peak my interest considering he just dropped his best EP Shadow Moses earlier a couple weeks ago.
The title track kicks the whole thing off with bare crooning soul loop with Fahim describing the way every single one of us play the game in our own different ways whereas “Cash Over Convo” takes the boom bap route with a gospel sample working in some kicks & snares to talk about every song he makes being mind-blowing as an innovator. “Fo My Peoples” blends some jazzy horns & strings making it clear exactly who he does this shit for leading into “Mr. Truth” returning to drumless territory talking about having to see it through because he’s a visualizer.
“The Dragon n The Treasure” dives back into the boom bap sound to begin the 2nd half of the EP asking to be protected by his enemies & his friends while “The League” hooks up a humming loop, horns, snares & kicks to talk about never interfering when it’s his turn ever on any circumstances. “The Remembrance” is mostly drumless even though there are few drum that pop up in the mix occasionally as he magnifies his riches & “Crème Dela Crème” closes out the EP glamorously talking about being the best of them all at the end of the day.
Of the 3 EPs that Fahim’s given us this month, Rhyme Pays is my favorite & Tha Knocking of Loose is right behind it. If you can tell by the title paying homage to the full length debut from West Coast gangsta rap pioneer Ice-T, tha 50 tape legend himself steps his pen-game in comparison to the 2 predecessors with Mike Shabb’s production style teetering between drumless along with chipmunk soul & boom bap. Very exciting to see what May brings us from the Dump Gawd.
Score: 9/10
Source: UndergroundHipHopBlog.com