Agallah Faro - Bo The Legend Of The Water Dragon

“Bo is me taking back my respect from any and all competitors. Fuck all the other rappers out. This is business, nothing personal.” a confident Agallah Faro declares of his latest album, Bo The Legend of the Water Dragon.

Agallah Faro, who is just months removed from the death of his friend and fellow Brownsville neighbor Sean Price, returns with a new album to assert his superiority on the mic. At this stage of a career crossroads, the album will either establish him as either a rugged or disgruntled veteran.

Bo The Legend of The Water Dragon is a triumphant display of a vet’s skills in front of the mic and behind the boards. While Raekwon dubbed album executive producer Drop Jewels “The New Rick Rubin,” the production from the album, largely handled by the Don Bishop himself, sounds like it comes from another clansman: the RZA. Soulful wails, ominous horns and thumping drums make for sinister production to back the MC’s rhymes. The production is consistently strong, with highlights including the chipmunk-soul of “Luxurious Murder” and the grime of “Ag Season.”

As previously stated, Sean Price died during the recording of this album, so it’s fitting that the final track of the proper album (a bonus track comes in the form of the creeping “From the Streets” featuring Cadalack Ron) is the napalming “Brooklyn Emcee Murderers” featuring Ike Eyes and, of course, Sean Price. The song opens with a soundbite of Mike Tyson being interviewed post-victory in which he speaks on burying a best friend just weeks before – an appropriate nod to the late Mic Tyson.

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Aside from the tribute, the rapper formerly known as 8-Off the Assassin spends most of his time spitting gritty braggadocio while occasionally baring his soul. The album gets off to a rocky start, as he shouts out his city to a tiresome effect on the opening “Point Break.” The predecessor, “Thundaback,” suffers from a lackluster hook that fails to separate itself from the verses. Fortunately, things pick up with the solid “Monumental.” From there, the only other letdown is “Coral Reefs,” which features an elementary hook starting with “money, guns, drugs, all of the above,” that cripples the track before it can find its legs.

While the topics of getting paid, being fly, and busting guns are nothing new, Agallah Faro is able to keep things fresh with entertaining quotables. “Thundaback’s” hook notwithstanding, lyrics like “Break point game, yeah, I’m still wavy/Upsetting you rookie niggas like Tom Brady” are packed with flavorful swag. On “Ag Season” he sets himself apart from his peers: “In the Range Rover sport, lines I snort/I talk real facts man your lines is bought/My mind is gone every time lines is born/Your rhymes is corn, for dope shit The Don is sworn.”

Swagallah is not limited to lyrical exercises, however. He bares his soul on the minimalistic “Shark Meat,” rapping: ““I can’t lie my brain is fried since that nigga Sean died/But me you can’t sympathize/Real G’s can empathize/Some feelings got hurt it was meant, I apologize/Fuck your top five Agallah’s way overqualified.” On “Slavery,” he speaks on the limitations of being on a label with great detail. As powerful as those moments of insight are, …Water Dragon is at its best when its star is in pocket, boasting over ear-grabbing production. Take “Brooklyn Emcee Murderers” for example. While the aforementioned Mike Tyson sound bite is touching, it’s the verses–with Agallah Faro asserting “My niggas on the track with me, so there’s no competition”–that are the most fitting tribute.

And therein lies the reason–the Brownsville native’s dedication to tight lyricism over dope production–for the album’s charm. It presents little that is new, and it’s certainly not flawless but as a tribute 90’s New York rap and an assertion of Agallah Faro’s mic skills, it succeeds on both accounts.