ALL: Your Old Droog

In an interview with Variety, Your Old Droog said that if he was a movie director, he’d be “Tarantino, or maybe [Martin] Scorsese.” It’s a sentiment he repeats on the title track of his new album. “We’re all actors in God’s drama,” he raps while shouting out “Brian DePalma/Spielberg, Scorsese, and QT.” Claiming the bards of bro cinema as your spirit animals is a trope of the male-dominated rap space. To his credit, Droog aspires to the quieter, substantive moments of their work instead of their highly stylized violence. On “How Do You Do It,” he hearkens to his impoverished youthful self as he admires the Brooklyn drug dealers and their bank rolls. He raps about having to attend ESL classes as a Ukrainian immigrant while classmates harassed him for being “Russian” on “Mantra.” “So when I said I’m Puerto Rican, I was trying to survive,” he explains. These moments as well as “Grandmother’s Lessons,” his tribute to a now-deceased family member who survived the Holocaust, are balanced with his well-established “nutty bars.” “I’m the first Ukrainian cat to baffle your skull,” he brags on “Mercury Thermometers.” Movie isn’t quite a God-tier film, but it’s a solid excursion with quality production from Conductor Williams, Harry Fraud, Ohbliv, and others. “DBZ,” a pairing with Method Man and Denzel Curry that’s produced by Madlib, is one of the year’s better loosies. Just Blaze produces the album’s intro, “Success & Power,” inspiring Droog to rap, “Why you standin’ there with your face screwed up?/Don’t talk about Jews, that’s how Ye screwed up.” A “bonus” track, “Care Plan,” features Yasiin Bey. The New York label Nature Sounds released Movie.