Ween x Noah 23

In recent years, both before and after his retirement from rap, Guelph, ON rapper Noah 23 has rapped over Wu-Tang Clan, Prefuse 73 and Company Flow, as well as indie rock and even dabbled in witch house, with a trilogy of mixtapes. Therefore, it isn't a huge surprise that his newest project has the drug-imbibing MC rapping over the instrumentals from weirdo stoner rockers Ween. While some potentially awesome choices were missed, Noah mines the Ween catalogue for gems, going back to 1990 album God Ween Satan: The Oneness to final release La Cucaracha. Early drum machine-backed tracks such as "The Going Gets Tough from the Getgo" and "Springtheme" or the Prince-like funk of "L.M.L.Y.P." are obvious selections, as is groovy mid-career hit "Voodoo Lady," but he also surprises with the unusual picks of "Fiesta" and "Your Party" — not your traditional boom bap beats. Noah sticks to the themes of the originals only on "Voodoo Lady" and "Big Fat Fuck," while he uses most of the others as an opportunity to freestyle and drop Ween references, with "Scotchguard Bonghit" and "Crazy Zonin" heaviest with song titles and Ween trivia. Noah 23 is more than capable as a freestyle rapper, so there isn't great deal of filler, but as a Ween fan, more thought could have gone into the lyrics. Regardless, Noah's method is more in the spirit of Boognish and this new mixtape from Noah 23 is really rather brown.