Maez301 - Hello, Goodbye (Album)

Firstly, we must acknowledge the subtle call back to one of the bars from Maez’s first single under Strange Music, “Get Em’” where Maez boldly promised that he will be bigger than The Beatles & obviously it’s a group which he, as I’m sure of all us, deeply admire & though quite the feat, there’s no denying his musicality & all the more admiring of his homage to the legendary group. Maez wastes no time presenting us with a brief soliloquy to open up his 3rd release under Strange Music which emphasizes his conversational skills as an MC. I know most technicians love to pretend like he isn’t as skillful a lyricist as they come, it’s mainly the auto tune they can’t get past but he’s always utilized it very well & the latter half of this record has a beautiful speech between him & his engineer EP that further proves his authenticity as not only an artist but an evolving young man.

Of course, Maez gotta snag that feature from the general himself & he more than holds his own alongside Tech on this subtle paranoia inducing track, which to me at least, is alot stronger a collab between him & the OG who blessed people like me with a new, versatile artist who fits right at home with Strange due to his chameleon like style. His rhyming continues to not “Let Up” as he surpasses those who try counting him out by simply jogging his way to “First Place” effortlessly. Unfortunately, not a lot of people, especially those pesky pigs, like to see a young “Black” man succeeding & here we get a brief glimpse of Maez’s storytelling skills where he details the fear his people face everyday, just for simply existing.

Now we reach the standout of this record with the King Iso assisted “Frenemies”, which is pretty self explanatory but is honestly one of Maez’s finest performances yet & not only that but listen to what he brought out of Iso with this one, all around important record with a message that I’m sure anybody can relate to & one that any our frenemies would be well advised to heed. Who has time for frenemies though when you got two bad white girls right by your side looking finer than them “Olsen Twins”, wouldn’t be a Maez record if we didn’t get these subtle bangers where he raps about those topics that purists for whatever reason can’t stand but it’s his life & his rapping it all to us & we appreciate it cause it’s “Different” than anything we’ve heard come from the label, he just brings that new modernist flavor to Strange & if you ask me, that’s very Strange!

I personally wouldn’t worry about the haters Maez, it’s true they just want to build up these artists only to make sure eventually they’ll have “Fallen” off the pedestal we once placed them on top of, a concept I could never wrap my head around, even though I know & even he knows that it’s simply jealousy, it’s still just weird how finicky fans can be. Maez is simply as versatile as they come on Strange Music & dare I say, the only other artist on the label who comes close to Tech’s versatility, he has those love anthems of his like “Inspire Me”, “Slow Down” or “Girlfriend”, the more inspirational tracks like “Lot On My Plate” or “No Limit”, he even taps into other genres like drill on “Nun 2 Me” & an inadvertent homage to Tech’s past love of “Ecstasy”, there’s always a lot to appreciate with Maez’s albums but this may be his most accessible work to date, one I feel will win over any technicians that may have still been on the fence about such an immense talent.