Kiss the Ring represents a significant step in Rome Streetz's career, marking his debut with Griselda and reflecting the label's evolution. The album captures the essence of the Griselda sound, serving as a high point before a wave of less innovative works. Despite criticism of subsequent projects for lacking direction, Rome's collaboration with Conductor Williams in Trainspotting suggests a resurgence, as it revisits their prior successful chemistry. His technical prowess and intricate lyricism continue to shine, although finding an original voice remains a challenge.
Rome's main strength is his capacity to make acrobatic rapping sound easy. He's a masterful technician in perpetual motion, churning out stanzas that fill every space of a beat with mesmeric precision.
There's an argument that Kiss the Ring was the apotheosis of the Griselda sound, the last moment before the dam broke and flooded DSPs with half-hearted boom-bap revival drums.
Trainspotting, his new collaboration with Conductor Williams, is a solid, mostly successful attempt at a reset, building upon their excellent chemistry.
The lines, 'I've been shittin' on every cheap rinky-dink rendition... I'm in Louis linen, lit in Lisbon, livin,' don't exactly push the bounds of slant rhyme, but he moves around the downbeat like a deft boxer.
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