Conversation With a Devil

iTunes Review

Conversation With a Devil is one of the best albums of Andre Nickatina’s career, not only for its consistency, but for the way it balances the artist’s taste for derangement with more traditional song structures. As usual, Nickatina’s lyrical imagination is stoked by the creativity of the music. It seems that the further out the beat goes, the better his raps get. In “Fust Full of Dollars (Green Eyes),” produced by longtime Nickatina cohort Nick Peace, incorporates traditional Irish bagpipes — anathema to rap music — and a rolling, evasive beat, and yet these cumbersome ingredients bring out the best in Nickatina. He completely switches up the tempo for “Show Gone Wrong” and “Summer In Florida,” beats that move with such sluggishness that any other rapper would simply give up. Of course, Nickatina jumps right in, teeth bared. While Conversation With a Devil features some of the rapper’s most successful forays into unfamiliar territory, it also features several of his most likeable tunes. In addition to the fan favorite “A Yo,” “Dice of Life (The Battle),” “Train With No Love” and “Conversation With a Devil” are as lovable as they are imaginative.