At nearly 30 years into his career, there isn’t much that Juicy J of Three 6 Mafia needs to do to further cement his legacy as a hip hop legend. With that said, his latest solo effort, The Hustle Continues, not only affirms that he is knowledgeable of that fact, but to some extent, he is doing his part to merely stay relevant. With a loyal core fanbase that will likely champion anything he touches, staying safe is in many ways the best route.
To his credit, J hasn’t lost a step when it comes to his presence on a bass-heavy, hyped up record. In that pocket, he’s lewd, yet consistent, delivering the flows listeners have come to expect from him for three decades. Nobody is expecting him to out-rap anyone, and at times, lyrics sound like they’ve faced no iteration of editing or revising. The saving grace of The Hustle Continues, though, is the interesting choices of contemporary rappers who line up to have a track with the icon. This in turn provides the majority of variety on the record, with everyone from heavy hitters like Wiz Khalifa and 2 Chainz to the biggest buzzing acts like Conway The Machine and Megan Thee Stallion taking a stab at Juicy J’s signature sound.
Juicy J’s persona and energy help minimize the shortcomings of The Hustle Continues, making the listener take missteps with a grain of salt, merely for the fact that it’s a Juicy J album. The first instance of a truly different sounding beat comes 12 songs into the project, when Megan Thee Stallion and Ty Dolla $ign make an appearance for “She Gon Pop It.” Often-panned, newly-retired rapper Logic also has two featured verses, making for two instances of a collaboration that almost nobody was asking for. It can be enough to take a listener out of the rest of the record, had both tracks not appeared close to the end of the project.
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If you look at who is putting out the record before hearing it, The Hustle Continues is par for the course from an artist whose legacy will likely be revered for decades to come. Without Juicy J’s track record, though, the album wouldn’t stand a chance.
