Long Beach native Seafood Sam has returned with a new project, “Rocco’s World,” where he sticks to his formula of bumping West Coast beats and smooth lyricism. While this tape is rather compact by rounding off at a quick 18 minutes, there are a lot of moments that really stand out. What’s interesting about Seafood Sam is while he may still be a local artist, he talks as if he’s already attained all the highly coveted rap accolades. Tracks like “Cold 2 Step,” where he raps over a very sunny West Coast beat is akin to any Too $hort hit song, as he talks about his current success along with a couple braggadocious bars of foreign cars and nice clothes.
Although this project comes in at short supply, it may be something that works toward Seafood Sam’s advantage. He wastes no time putting as many bars as he can within his beats while also making sure not to overstay his welcome on his tapes. This may be a trend we’re seeing from him as his last few projects, “Hood Vogue” and “Backward Skates Only,” have been short and sweet but packed with a lot to love. However, it could also work as a disadvantage due to the fact that he has such great potential, but his projects are too short to really make a full judgment.
Seafood Sam paints vivid pictures of his life: from hanging with friends to committing acts of violence through slick lyricism and easygoing watery sampled beats. Songs like “Apple Eve” are a perfect example of this; it was definitely a highlight of this quick record, although there aren’t too many low points (if any). Aside from the skit, the eight tracks proceeding are all good listens, where you feel as if the tape ended too quickly, making you want to hit replay almost instantly. This is a bit of a downside to Seafood Sam’s projects as they are a little too brief for my liking.
This is a good introduction to Seafood Sam if you’re new since it’s not too much at once but just enough to enjoy. This project has a lot of good replay value. It is real smooth all the way through with little to no skips if you’re including the skit “She Said,” which was funny but so short that this tape essentially has no skips. For the consistent Seafood Sam fan, this is a project that isn’t different from his previous works. My only issue is that because of his talent, I would like to hear a bit more from him on a project. I find myself listening to his latest works and noticing how fast they end, wondering where the time went. Rather than just a bunch of small five to nine track tapes with great music, I would much rather like to see Seafood Sam bring forth a more complete body of work. If Seafood Sam did do a project with a little more meat and potatoes to it, I can see more ears being attracted to his sound.
Verdict: Overall, I felt “Rocco’s World” was a record of quality but just a little too short this time around, leaving me at a bit of a cliffhanger. The only difference is the production, but Seafood Sam still comes through with the icy lyrics and smooth word play. It’s short, sweet and to the point, leaving you wondering what else Seafood Sam has to offer.
