The Regime Album is Finally Out...Sort of

The Regime is a very loosely organized group of rappers lead by Yukmouth that have been around since the 90's. Whatever form of The Regime existed at any given moment always showed up for a posse cut at the end of Yukmouth's solo albums and Yuk has been talking about a Regime album "coming soon" for over a decade now. Previously the closest we ever got to a group release was the All Out War mixtape series, released between 2005 and 2006, but now there is an actual Regime album out, with another one to follow shortly...

Really confusing as to what is going on here with the Regime releases, but from what I can gather this album, The Last Dragon, is up for free on Datpiff (and also in stores as well), but next month they have the official studio album coming out, Dragon Gang. It was originally announced that this project was going to be a double album, but that has been scrapped in favor of this weird staggered-release-thing for some reason.

This is the current Regime lineup according to the internet (SIDE NOTE: I have no idea who half these people are)

Astute Bay Area rap fans will recall this music video from 2011 and should be happy to hear the track has been put on the new album  

After a useless intro the The Last Dragon kicks off with a title track that contains a surprisingly avant-guarde beat that is nevertheless hindered by an awkward hook. After that the album falls into a much more predictable pattern of Regime posse cuts bouncing between triumphant boasts and melancholy introspection.

Ampichino, Lee Majors & Yukmouth "Sandcastles"



There are some definite surprises on this release though, for instance Lee Majors is featured 12 of the 19 songs (by contrast Yukmouth is on 13 tracks and everyone else is on 5 or less).
Lee Majors' gruff, lumbering delivery will definitely not gel with many listeners' ears, but he is a very talented rapper who has improved 100 times over since he first came on to the scene ruining songs with his cousin Dru Down in the mid 2000's.

Dru Down and Lee Majors

Speaking of Dru Down, he shows up on five tracks here and kills it every time as usual. After these Regime albums drop there is probably not going to be any new Dru Down material for a few years (via him being in jail), so savor these tracks like a finely-aged expensive wine.

Yukmouth, Shoboat, Lee Majors & Young Bossi "I Got Work"



Shoboat shows up on one track to do the hook even though he is not a part of the Regime. His energetic style is much appreciated and provides a nice contrast to Lee Majors and Young Bossi's ultra-serious style. If Yukmouth were smart he would get Shoboat to do as many songs as possible with the Regime.

the logic of Yuk's shirt here is very confusing because I'm pretty sure there are a lot of non-rich people out there who are not snitches (EX: me)

There are a lot of solid songs on The Last Dragon and it is very easy to listen to front-to-back, but rarely do tracks leap out and grap the listener's attention. There is something to be said about the fact that I never felt the need to push that skip button during the length of the album, but I also never got particularly excited by anything on this release.
It's interesting how reminiscent the production is to the original All Out War mixtapes from over 6 years ago. Part of this may be due to the fact that it probably took several years to put all these songs together, so naturally some of the beats sound a bit older. It could also have to do with Yukmouth wanting a particular sound for all Regime tracks. Who knows.

Yukmouth & Freeze "I'm With the Shit"



Yukmouth's ability to write hooks has typically been a bit lacking and when he handles the chorus here it usually revolves around some simple phrase ("Wow Really" and "I'm on That"), but works quite well on this track. This song is arguably the most impressive contribution Yuk makes to the album.

As Yukmouth's music has strived more and more for commercial success in the past five years or so the number of hard gangster rap songs he has made has dwindled. Luckily when he is accompanied by fellow Regime members he tends to tone down his endless references to designer clothing in favor of more traditional gangster topics. This is definitely the best project with Yukmouth's name attached to it since Thug Lordz's Thug Money from 2010 and a big step up from his last release, Half-Baked.

cool fan pic with Yuk, Amp, and someone's middle finger

This album shows a lot of potential, but doesn't live up to the decade-plus wait. There are too many no-name rappers that pop up for one or two verses in the album, but never really make a notable impact. If the Regime were to trim their membership to the single digits they would have the opportunity to develop more group chemistry and musical cohesion. Instead the Regime is comprised of 30+ members spread across the country because Yukmouth likes the idea of being well connected and influential nationwide.

100 GRAND OFFICIAL RATING: 3 Regrettable Regime Dragon Tattoos out of 5.

If nothing else The Last Dragon definitely left me looking forward to the next Regime album:

This one comes out March 12th. You can look at the track list over at Amazon.

Here is RBC records' marketing plan for that album:

click to enlarge

Tons of hilarious things here:

- "Grass roots online marketing campaign targeting web blogs, chat rooms, message boards for all involved members." Ummm, excuse me guys, but 100 Grand on My Wrist is basically the best "web blog" ever and I have not received a SINGLE email blast about this release. How disappointing!
- Major lol at "datpif.com"
- "RETAIL: Aggressive discounting..." Good plan, guys.
- "TARGET MARKETS: ...Colorado Springs-Pueblo, CO, Philadelphia, PA." What?

- This whole thing is written rather poorly.

Ok that's all for now. Have a nice weekend.

What do you think of this album?
Are you excited to hear Dragon Gang?
Are you equally confused as to why they released the albums like this?