#CyphLyfeReview – SHOTTIE x FARMA BEATS: NOTHING CHANGED EXCEPT EVERYTHING

        Produced by legendary UK Producer/Emcee FARMABEATS, “NOTHING CHANGED..” is described by SHOTTIE as his “Origin Story Album”.  A deeply personal album where the GOAT FARM founder takes us back before, “It was all a dream / Me and Liddls writing 4-bar stanzas before it was called a scheme/ Dre and Ed Lover on the Screen/ Karaoke Machine / Recording vocals before I found a local scene”. While the rest of the Hip Hop world is just recently catching wind of SHOTTIE, these bars transport Miami Hip Hop heads back to the late 90s/Early 2000’s, when a lethal duo named IDEE4 first popped up in the scene. We have witnessed the shooter once known as DEADSHOT grow into the mysterious man of many talents now known as SHOTTIE, who turned the phrase YOU A GOAT into a South Florida Hip Hop call to arms. Those are just the 1st 4 Bars of the album opener SPAM SANDWICHES. He proceeds to take his entire fanbase, old and new, further into his past than any of us have ever been privy to. Speaking about the death of his Father at the age of 7, growing up in a new country where he barely spoke the language, and how the trials of his past made him the unwavering man he is today. Not even flinching at the mention of a comet heading in our direction.

       It’s with this air of confidence that he skates over bangers like HENNY FACE, PRESS 2, BAGGIE STAMP, and ALLAN HOUSTON GAME WINNER, where he flexes his deep well of NBA knowledge with the dream team of basketball metaphors. He is joined by the Big Wolf MONEY MOGLY on the kitchen burner VINAIGRETTE, where they out-chef the majority of today’s wanna be cooks who seem to be copying off the same recipe. SHOTTIE & MOGLY have plenty of experience together regularly appearing on each other’s projects, and they put their foot in the FARMA BEATS produced pot with a healthy helping of that “Sauce”.  He then reintroduces us to Hialeah song writer, vocalist, and bar slinger PROTOTYPE, who we first caught wind of on the ORION: B.A.S.S. album. He blesses the hook and 2nd verse of  PINTURA ROJA where he and SHOTTIE get painfully open talking about the struggles that propelled them to be persistent hustlers. SHOTTIE conveys how serious he takes this grind with bars like “You thinking if I take this trip I’m up a couple bands/ And meanwhile God is laughing, homie, fuck your plans / And now it’s “Why have thou forsaken me”/ You told me there would be a blessing, and I’ve been waiting Paitintly/ but you dont realize thats the problem, Complacency / cuz while you waiting for that Blessing, I fill up that Vacancy/”. PROTOTYPE’s hook is a whole vibe but still hard enough to make you want to finish that last set of reps. His Verse about his parents’ fight with the legal system and substance abuse, watching his family struggle with poverty and how learned to “Operate thru Chaos”. The verse hits home like a whiff of nostalgia and fits the theme of the album perfectly.

    Then there’s the GAWD GAWD guest appearance on TESLA ROCKETS, where “Mr. Press 2” and New Orleans Emcee/Producer FERRIS BLUSA peer pressure the listeners to take a hit of some lethal smoke over a spooky FARMA warped piano score. They clarify the business plan over the hook, Serve that dope product, Feed the Family first, “Then the rest is profit”.  Another album standout is the SKAM2? feature ORGANIZED CONFUSION, where SHOTTIE shares “My Pops drove a cab uptown/ la Santa Maria hanging from the rear view as he’s driving past the gun sounds / And every time he made it home safe, my mama knelt and prayed / that’s why the day he died we all felt betrayed”  The bar hits like an insightful flashback segment in a movie, giving you yet another glance into SHOTTIE’s tortured past. But the real star of the ORGANIZIZED CONFUSION scene in the NOTHING CHANGED Film is Miami Legend SKAM2 who owns the FARMA slow slapper with his off the wall cadence. This track is just another example of what SHOTTIE & SKAM2? got coming in the near future with their collaboration project.

      In the past 2 1/2 years since his return to the mic, SHOTTIE has delivered 8 Amazing albums. What sets NOTHING CHANGED EXCEPT EVERYTHING apart from the rest is not only the expert ear and start to finish album production from FARMABEATS, who SHOTTIE praises for working tirelessly on the record and turning around a finished product that featured exponential improvements from the Raw sessions SHOTTIE turned in. NOTHING CHANGED stands on its own as SHOTTIE’s most personal work to date. With his fanbase growing steadily throughout the Underground, we are all getting to know this side of the artists together. On the album closer “KAVORKA”, SHOTTIE uses the smoothest beat on the FARMA composed album to deliver the exclamation point of the project.

“You looking for a Short Cut, I’m trying to take your cut/ The Russian Orthadox Nun said I got “The Kavorka” (GTS) / I met death young I’m a product of torture/ and still I’m trying to make Products out of my Torture/”

      Always a modest professional, he will try to tell you that nothing has changed in the past 3 years since he started dropping heat again from the shotgun seat of a Russian Moskvitch. But his fans will tell you, SHOTTIE is changing Hip Hop for the better with everything he drops.