Album Review: Denzel Curry, Kenneth Blume - ii
When Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume linked up for their first collaborative project six years ago, both artists’ careers were in a vastly different place than they find themselves in today, and not entirely an enviable one. Denzel, still cultivating a growing popularity off of the strength of his breakout albums Imperial and TA13OO, nonetheless felt caught between the more mainstream-friendly sound of those records and the dirty Miami trap of his earliest efforts that ended up dominating the sound of 2019’s slightly-less-rapturously-received Zuu. Meanwhile, Kenneth (who was still going by Kenny Beats at the time) was just as famous for his mostly-comedic Youtube series The Cave as he was for his production chops, with his biggest hit being a viral meme song with comedian Zach Fox entitled Jesus Is The One (I Got Depression). And while the bland, by-the-numbers tracks on 2020’s Unlocked could very easily have signaled an artistic stagnation for both of them, Denzel and Kenneth have each more than find their footing in the years since, only somewhat surprisingly. The former managed to carve out ample space in his discography for both the thoughtful introspection of Melt My Eyez See Your Future and the infectious Memphis-inspired trap of King of the Mischievous South Vol. 2; the latter managed to break out of the box his beats were starting to find themselves stuffed into by broadening his musical horizons and racking up an impressive list of hits and production credits even outside of the hip hop genre (one might argue that Dominic Fike isn’t exactly an upgrade from Zach Fox, but that’s neither here nor there).
And yet, ii doesn’t feel like a logical (read: perfunctory) next step for either of their careers; nor does it even really feel like a sequel to the first Unlocked, in form, function, or quality. More than anything, the new album from Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume is as it appears: a collection of incredibly catchy and well-selected tracks, as much a testament to the duo’s musical tastes and predilections as it is to their respective talents. One might think to call a release this short unambitious, or a waste of time, but a single taste of the smooth guitar licks on BENJAMIN or the breakneck verses on PRODUCT should convince all but the most stone-faced doubters as to the album’s validity, through the strength of the beats if nothing else. Those who haven’t kept up with Kenneth in the six years post-Unlocked might be taken aback by how much the producer’s style has changed (and improved) since then; the tracks on ii find him largely opting to pull back and let the understated drums and ‘70s-sounding guitar riffs speak for themselves, while also employing everything from thumping bass hits (DIFFERENCE) to chopped-up soul vocals (PRODUCT) in an effort to keep things fresh. Denzel, too, is no mere afterthought on top of these instrumentals; just look at how he picks up the lyrical thread from the vocal sample on CANDLELIGHT and spins it into a whole other verse, or how he glides across BENJAMIN like a jazz soloist enjoying his turn in the spotlight: “I shouldn’t give a rat’s tail ‘bout cheese/But if it’s all about the Benjamins, it’s not about me”.
Even with such a short runtime, ii finds space for a few well-placed guest verses that, while you couldn’t really call them highlights, appear to have been chosen with a bit more deliberation than may be immediately obvious. JPEGMAFIA, fresh off the most divisive album of his career (as well as another Twitter meltdown), manages to put enough personality into bars like “I ain’t even got no fans, I’m drinking Kool-Aid with my apostles” and “I hear so much bullshit, I think I got tin-ni-tus” to make his presence on EVIL GRIN tolerable, possibly even enjoyable. Westside Gunn’s name popping up on a Denzel Curry record makes a surprising amount of sense the more one considers it, and his usual blend of high fashion name drops (“Rocking Salomons, eating ramen in the promised land, Prada pants”) and drug-running confessionals (“Once you get your first body, ain’t no coming back”) sounds all too fitting over CROWN and its Conductor Williams-esque piano loops. Each of their inclusions on ii feels subtly intentional; Denzel’s style has clearly evolved to take at least some influence from JPEG’s crude arrogance (“Made in Christ’s image, you crackers read the Bible wrong”) and Gunn’s blend of the illicit and the illustrious (“Louis Vutton body bag shipped over Yosemite”), while also managing to avoid the lows of their more controversial creative instincts. “Lyrically not for the masses” is the self-description Denzel opens up the album with, and though that might be giving the punchline-reliant rapper a bit too much credit, the follow-up declaration of “But I got beats lined up to get they ass kicked” is one you’d have a hard time arguing with.
The one other figure whose presence reigns impossibly large over both the rapping and production on ii is the late great MF DOOM – it’s an incredible understatement to say that this is far from the first project to bear his DNA, and it will also be far from the last. Kenneth’s production leans into the offbeat boom bap the villain was known to prefer, to the point where moments like the wailing guitars on GONE FISHING could have come right off of MM..FOOD (the line between influence and biting is of course a thin one, but a bargain-bin Rapp Snitch Knishes still equates to one of the best rap songs of 2026). The best bars on the album also channel both DOOM’s talent for humour and his penchant for oddball references (“As-salamu alaykum, tun a pig into chorizo/I walk around with moxie, speak with gusto and finito/Titanium mic in my palm from the hands of Magneto”), channeled with a bluntness that nonetheless makes them feel recognizably Denzel. UPS makes for the purest form of homage: Denzel’s laid-back delivery invokes the Madvillainy vibe even more than his references in the hook to “A present from the villain himself”, to say nothing of the quirky vocal samples and keyboard licks Kenneth layers beneath his words. Overall, Denzel’s performance on this album bears all the strengths and weaknesses that his fans will be used to at this point, with any number of debatable punchlines and too-clever-by-half setups (“My enemies forever know it’s U-P without the S” sounds like a clever double entendre until you realize it doesn’t actually make any sense) overshadowed as always by his sheer energy and effortless flows that can’t help but impress.
Still, those fans who prefer the more self-reflective Denzel of Melt My Eyez admittedly might not find as much to love on here; at least until the closer DIFFERENCE, a barely-disguised diss track brimming with wordplay from beginning to end. Bars like “Wait a whole cotton-picking minute/Gave you money for a chain, but not to buy your masters with it” and “The side effect of fame have you not reading the label/While you scratching on the surface, I bet you I turn the tables” speak to a level of lyricism that the rapper could arguably stand to hit more consistently, though even then it’s difficult to imagine many people getting to the end of these briskly-paced 25 minutes without being at least somewhat entertained by the experience. It’s easy to get lulled into complacency by the self-confidence of ii, to forget that, while they are also here to have fun, Denzel Curry and Kenneth Blume are both at this point seasoned veterans of the industry who have lasted as long as they have through (at least in part) an uncanny ability to stick to their strengths and play to them as needed. Neither could be said to be infallible, but that’s just one more benefit of releasing such a short, high-energy project as this: the songs move so fast that any flubbed lines or questionable production choices barely have time to linger before the album goes looking for its next high, and the last thing these two want to do is overstay their welcome. ii is, despite what the pace of its raps and beats would have you believe, a remarkable show of restraint from a duo who no doubt have countless more tracks sitting in a digital vault but chose only the best and brightest for inclusion on this album – it’s hard to think of a more compelling demonstration in recent memory of why less is indeed more.
8.5/10
Favourite Tracks: GONE FISHING, PRODUCT, BENJAMIN, DIFFERENCE