There is no secret to what makes Stik Figa and August Fanon's collaboration Heresy so god damned good. It's a classic-sounding, crisp and confident hip-hop album crowded with smooth '60s jazz loops and rambles that never manage to get in the way of the cool, clean and (sometimes) comedic delivery of the Stik and his guest's interplay. There is no mystery, no jive, just good old-fashioned, no-fucking-around hooks and juicy, jamming beats. The clearest, most definitive aspect of Heresy is the way it centers Stik lyrics and how these lyrics are pushed up and supported by August's production. Stik's exchanges with the other MCs are easy-going and spontaneous sounding, like they were having a conversation, just between themselves, and you just happened to walk in on them doing their thing, being themselves. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that most of their bars were recorded in a single take. As someone who grew up during rap's second golden era, it feels odd to single an album out for praise for simply emphasizing its MC's rhymes and lyrical capacity, but modern hip-hop is not necessarily a vehicle for wordplay. The genre has evolved in extremely interesting ways since I was in high-school, but Heresy seems to bound over this bridge of years in a single magnificent gesture. It's bars, bars, and more bars, with some slick beats added to even out the flow. Heresy is a spectacular stage on which the Stik can sling smilies and sarcasm past his friends and they can respond in kind, like an American Gladiators match that pits two friends against each other in a friendly duel of Joust. I've thrown this thing on first thing in the morning a couple of times this week while I am make coffee or reading a book and it's left me in a very copesetic mood for the rest of the day. I respect an album that can do that for me. I respect an album that can literally improve my day just by it being in my life. And I respect the hell out of Stik Figa and August Fanon talents and the effort they poured into Heresy to make it what it is.
