Audio By Carbonatix
R&Beast, the latest mixtape release from Wil Guice, finds the R&B crooner essentially taking rap songs and touching them up with his rhythm-and-blues charm. He takes on “H.A.M.,” Kanye West and Jay-Z’s monstrous joint, and, over a stock beat, sings it like nobody’s business with close to perfect pitch, which is not easy to do. The R&Beast-ed tracks are intermingled with original joints that stand out among them. “Smoke & Sex,” in particular, has contemporary lyrics, but the production is old-school; Guice wails like Lenny Williams on this ode to marijuana and the joys of sex. It’s rare to find R&B that’s not drenched in sad love songs yet sticks close enough to the foundation to not betray its roots. On R&Beast, Guice accomplishes this feat and then some.
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