KING VON STILL SOUNDS SHARP, BUT THE WELL BEGINS TO RUN DRY ON POSTHUMOUS ALBUM ‘GRANDSON’

It can be challenging to navigate posthumous album ethics. Either you meticulously and tastefully finish a project that was already nearly finished, like Mac Miller did with Circles, or you haphazardly compile any recorded vocals, throw some features on it, and call it a day, like the bastardized collection of XXXTentacion’s posthumous records. The posthumous works of King Von, Welcome To O’Block and What It Means To Be King, are included in the first group. But Grandson, his most recent postmortem endeavor, makes it plain that the well is starting to run empty.

Von had a life surrounded by violence, that much is certain. Within a few seconds of his opening stanza on “Don’t Miss,” even brand-new fans would be able to recognize it. Over the course of the two-minute introduction, Von raps about outwitting his opponents, the burden of being held accountable for other people’s killings, and the paranoia that develops as your notoriety increases. Given the time Von spent recording them, it seems sense that these three subjects make up the majority of the album’s topics, yet the lack of variety leads to monotony.

King Von’s raps are consistently confident and leave no space for doubt about his capacity for inspiration or leadership. With Von mentioning the eponymous coach and Shaq’s intrinsic ability to score at his best, “Phil Jackson” seems like a cocaine-fueled attempt by him to establish his domination. Polo G compares himself to Osama Bin Laden in his verse. The arrogance isn’t without comedy, though, as it pokes fun at the notion that Von wasn’t as conceited as his raps may suggest.

Von’s raps on Grandson may come out as gloomy and nasty, but there are also sobering moments of reflection and crucial context. On “From The Hood” with Lil Durk, he attributes his coldness to having grown up in one of Chicago’s less savory neighborhoods. Despite the superficiality of Durk’s lyrics (“Don’t take it personal / It hit different when you comin’ from the hood”), the conviction with which he raps them is something he hasn’t shown much of on his own tracks in recent years. Von only features for one stanza, indicating that the song was probably only partially finished when Durk got his hands on it. However, it’s possible that the loss of Von encouraged his Chicago peer to rediscover his sincere side.

Self-reflection opportunities are few, with the only other heavy songs appearing at the end, but with varying degrees of success. The song “Out Of The Streets” is a feeble attempt to convey Von’s desire to leave his former life behind, but his autotuned vocals clash with the beat’s potential “inspirational” YouTube tag.

For some reason, Moneybagg Yo and Hotboii come along, but none of them brings anything particularly intriguing to an already poor effort at authenticity. Even if it just scratches the surface of what Von’s death would mean to him and his loved ones, the penultimate song “When I Die” might serve as an appropriate end to his story.

Grandson’s lack of depth shouldn’t be unfairly criticized, but its obvious redundancy should be. Although most of the rhythms are decent and several of the songs have similar lyrics, Von’s charm and difficult flows prevent boredom from setting in. Consider his performances to be a little bit more biting than the Fast & Furious films. They don’t always provide the most profound insights, but they seldom ever slow down to the point of leaving. However, for the most part, Von accomplishes enough to hold the listener captive with his vivid narration. It helps when more voices join in to smooth out the roughness.

Grandson is the end of the line for the Chicago rapper’s music, so if King Von’s squad is as wise as they claim, they will realize this. It can only go so far until it becomes obvious that these songs and concepts weren’t finalized, much like the album that came before it. Songs like “Jimmy,” “GangLand,” and “Robberies” demonstrate how much more he had to give and their inclusion feels vital, but when you realize that this is it, they become gloomy. If this record is the greatest material still in the vault, musically speaking, it appears as though we have seen every facet of King Von, and any more attempts would be milking it.