Unlike most “mixtapes” these days, The Simpson Tape is an actual tape released for Stones Throw’s “cassette store day” popup. It features 5 tracks produced by Oh No b/w the instrumentals. It is also available as a download. Although it is titled a mixtape it sounds more like an EP to me. It’s five tracks all produced by Oh No with the instrumentals included. I have reviewed a couple of recent releases that had excellent instrumentals (SlimKid3 and Nu Mark & Souls Of Mischief) this release is up there with them.

Guilty Simpson is not a rapper I listen to a lot. I have liked his songs on a few albums such as Fitta Happier from the Quakers album, if what I hear is correct he has a full length album in the works produced by Quakers. For The Simpson Tape the beats are little jazzier and less hard hitting than what I am used to for  Guilty Simpson songs. While it’s probably not for everyone I really like this combination. As you would expect from a Stone Throw release the instrumentals are very listenable by themselves

In a lyrical sense Guilty Simpson does not really say to much. He has a great voice and a slow methodical delivery but there is not a lot of emotional depth to what he is saying. He does have some good one liners that he repeats through out songs. I saw his style described as “gully” which feels like a fair description. This release was a pleasant surprise and I definitely enjoyed it more than I was expecting.

It is available from the Stones Throw store.