Killer Mike released his opus, MICHAEL recently. This album is saturated with features, visionary production, and little to no bars wasted. Though Killer Mike is half of the legendary Hip-Hop duo, Run The Jewels, this album is a completely solo venture. The standout track for me is definitely the hypnotic, “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS.” This song is almost an assembly of the Avengers. With Killer Mike at the forefront, this track brings together Future, Eryn Allen Kane, and none other than André 3000. Future of course, is one of the pioneers of Trap music and has been a genuinely large voice in Hip-Hop for over a decade now. Eryn Allen Kane is a Blues musician with an ethereal voice. Lastly, the man who is widely considered to be one of, if not THE G.O.A.T., André 3000. André is half of a legendary Hip-Hop duo himself, hailing from the incredibly influential OutKast. Though the world has begged for an André 3000 album, that we’re still unsure as to whether or not it exists, he has given us feature after feature for a few years now. André has this deplorable tendency of entering a track, and stealing the show from whoever the headlining artist is. Whether it be Frank Ocean, James Blake, Kanye West, or Anderson .Paak, André just can’t seem to share the spotlight when he decides to grace us with a verse. 

Attempting to boil down exactly what “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS” is about seems almost like a fruitless effort. Sometimes, songs are just a stream of scattered thoughts that touch on varying themes and ideas. What’s interesting, however, is looking at the thematic parallels between each artists’ contributions to the track. Every artist touches on the idea of legacy one way or another. 3 Stacks says, “When you've think you've made it, you are then / Just tolerated, overrated / Hope I'm eighty when I get my second wind.” A few days ago, I wrote a review on the new Nas record and I stated that I believed, due to his consistency in both quality and quantity of albums, Nas was the rapper with the greatest longevity in Hip-Hop. I still stand by that statement, because no one else has been in the game as long as him, doing what he’s doing. But in this specific excerpt, André seems to be addressing this conversation of “longevity.” He’s been quoted before saying that Hip-Hop is a “young man’s game,” and that’s why he treats music as purely a hobby. Yet, here in this verse, André seems to be aware of his status in the game, and feels obligated to live up to and prove that appraisal. Just to further establish a pattern of legacy, Eryn closes out each verse with a repetition of “I’ma live, I’ma live forever,” directly referring to the immortality each artist has built through their work.

“SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS” isn’t just a star-cast among its vocalists. The list of producers is another lineup of Avengers; No I.D., James Blake, DJ Paul, TWhy, Dammo Farmer, and Agape Jerry. The track has a pretty atmospheric mix with spacey synths that are embellished with elements of Sci-fi. Given the way Eryn’s vocal contributions are mixed and layered, her voice sounds like a choir and gives the track a cool overlap between spacey synths and religious hymns and chants. Such a dynamic is pretty engaging given the idealistic contrast between religion and scientists/engineers. A song that's furnished with synths from aliens, angelic voices from God, and food-for-thoughts from scientists and engineers, this track is a beautiful mesh of ideas that all coalesce into a 4 minute soundscape. 

As previously stated, the song is a bit all over the place narratively. Each verse touches on different topics and explores varying themes. Nothing feels too out of place though. In André's verse he discusses communication in the modern world, and desiring “scientist and engineer friends” for intellectual thought, support, and companionship. He talks about how time morphs one’s career, value, and legacy. He reflects on success and how entertainers are forced to continue evolving and innovating. Furthermore, he reinvigorates his youthful spirit in the closing lines of the track, “Pajamas feel like a kid, cucumber will make her drip / Do jump on it, hit a split, hookahs don't really do shit / Duke Ellington in this bitch, rebelling is like an itch, oh I'ma, I'ma live forever.” Aside from content, the technicals of André’s bars are mind-numbingly, jaw-droppingly astounding. Having decades in the art of Hip-Hop has done nothing to rupture André’s technical proficiency. His flows remain inventive as they seamlessly shapeshift throughout the verse. His ability to live in a beat is otherworldly. André just fits his thoughts in a way that is both entertaining and wholly rhythmic. The musicality of André’s rhyming turns his raps into instrumentation. With multi-syllable internal rhyming, consonance alliteration, and powerful one-liners, André shows us why everytime he utters a line, his name hounds the GOAT conversation. As if the first half of the verse wasn’t enough, he displays his technical proficiency turned up to 11, before the final leg of the verse, “Operator, operator, I would pray that you connect me to a sip / Of sangria, Zambia, camera cameo, hand me a handful of hips / A stamina stampede of happily happenings, dabblin' into obliv-ion, neon, beyond the ambiance / Be honest, you promised that you will live.” ‘Nuff said.

The rest of the song is quite captivating too. Future gives us a pretty stellar verse. Filled with thought-provoking imagery, Future meditates on his past, riches, and his place in the world. He describes himself as infinite, yet again adding to the conversation of legacy embedded in the song. Directly following Future, is Killer Mike. My favorite aspect of Killer Mike’s verse is his effortless and airtight flow. Mike doesn’t miss a beat and every syllable fits right into its designated pocket. He comes in hungry off of Future’s verse. Killer Mike talks about his own legacy in regards to building generational wealth for his family, “Man, I'm a villain with children / So I'm never chillin', I gotta make millions.” Most of Mike’s verse consists of him telling us that he's that guy, and proving it lyrically. His verse is confident, well-delivered, and just genuinely enjoyable. 

For a song that seems to lack a cohesive vision in terms of content, each artist masterfully captured the vibe and aesthetic, thus giving us a superb and infectious track. If you’re a lover of Hip-Hop, you are contractually obligated to check out “SCIENTISTS & ENGINEERS,” given its all-star, ‘95 Bulls, lineup. If you like what you hear, check out Killer Mike’s MICHAEL. After you do that, join us all in unified prayer, as we beg André 3000 to give us this maybe nonexistent album. 

Author: Jordan

Jordan Wisniewski is a passionate writer and Hip-Hop artist from North Carolina, US.