Apathy, Wanna Snuggle

Three years in the making, with many long nights in the bag, Ap finally releases his new album Wanna Snuggle, recorded and distributed almost completely on his own. He points out that his drug of choice for the past three years is a heavy dose of sleep deprivation, due in part to his anal retentiveness when it comes to his music and also the willingness to take on a totally independent avenue for the album: creative content, production, distribution, etc.

Wanna Snuggle, as horrendous a title it may be, is for sure one of the biggest sleepers of the year. With 22 tracks and virtually no interlude fluff, Ap delivers a heavyweight effort in every aspect of the genre.  The beats exude gritty precision at its finest; the drums come through very heavy with a nice swing throughout. This may be the most surprising thing to many after hearing that he put down most of the MPC work on the album, aside from only a few tracks by Mike Shinoda and Teddy Roxspin. Reminiscent of emcee/producers like J-Live, who is also featured on the album, he places himself in a league of very few artists who can successfully pull off such a tremendous feat.

With the boom bap department taken care of Ap moved into the booth where he’s proved many times he has all the elements aligned quite nicely: the voice, the delivery, the metaphors, the art of storytelling, and a good sense of humor. No matter what your fancy when it comes to hip hop this album has something for you. For those looking for cutthroat delivery set your sights on tracks like “I’m a Demigod” and “On and Off the Mic”. The ladies even have a few tracks dedicated to them wherein Ap states one of his main requirements: “I wanna find the perfect mate who knows about the purple tape.”

Coming to the end of a year with its fair share of notable releases, Wanna Snuggle can easily sit near the top of many hip hop heads list for album of the year.