Novel - Ghetto (Pt. 1)

Like money and orgasms, you can never have too many Joell Ortiz and Novel tracks, so when we got hit up with the dynamic duo’s latest leak Ghetto (Pt. 1) we didn’t hesitate to share it with the DJBooth.net nation. While Ortiz predictably kills his verse (more on that later) the true story here is Novel, who in addition to dropping another intricately and cleanly produced beat steps up to the mic for a rewind-worthy, half-rapped, half-sung verse; the man’s the definition of multi-talented. Now back to Ortiz: no offense to Novel, but the man’s been on a mic rampage lately (Line Em Up anyone?), embedding his always street-level lines with some of the sicker wordplay we’ve heard in a minute: “I’m a veteran of this medicine like Dr. Dre, knock on wood I ain’t ever been locked away.” Like the Wu-Tang Clan, Ortiz and Novel ain’t nothin’ to f**k wit. The pair’s upcoming, aptly-named mixtape, Defying the Predictable, which I assume will contain a Ghetto (Pt. 2), drops this coming Friday, February 5.