DOPE GAME STUPID: ALBUM REVIEW
Nobody sounds like Bruiser Wolf, and his newest project Dope Game Stupid is one of the most jarring releases of the year. Every song sounds like a relic from another era, restored and placed in the middle of 2021 Detroit. The bars are hilarious, the flow is off the wall, but most importantly, Dope Game Stupid scratches an itch that you didn’t even know you had. Bruiser Wolf is Detroit’s cowboy: unpredictable and dangerous.
Bruiser Wolf has an old-school flow and impeccable delivery. Every bar he spits glides above the beat, touching down for just long enough to find the pocket. Lyrically, the album is packed with bars about selling dope and references to nearly every quarterback in the NFL. The lyrical formula is simple and borderline corny, but it’s executed to absolute perfection with lines like, “drawing plays like X and Os / You think he sellin’ pizza way he’s stretching dough.” Bruiser Wolf’s flow can even make the goofiest bars sound effortlessly cool.
Dope Game Stupid breaks out of its old-school tendencies when it comes to its instrumentals. While many beats do have a boom-bap feel, they shift the focus away from the hard-hitting drums toward the more beautiful and resonant samples. The laid-back drums turn Bruiser Wolf’s voice into a rhythmic instrument: his vocal rhythms guide the beat rather than being guided by it. This allows him to quickly change the entire vibe of a track without changing the beat in any way, like on “Use Me (I’m Dope).” He acknowledges this fact on “I’m A Instrument” when he says, “I got my own sound, I’m like an instrument.”
The album perfectly showcases Bruiser Wolf’s versatility. His flow shifts on nearly every single track and even sings on a few songs. Bruiser Wolf seamlessly transitions from a more traditional boom-bap track like “Chess Move$” to a nearly drumless version of 50 Cent’s “Many Men” on the very next track. These transitions keep the album from feeling repetitive. Although Bruiser Wolf has a distinct voice, he changes the way he uses it so that it never becomes gimmicky.
Dope Game Stupid was released on Danny Brown’s newly minted label, Bruiser Brigade Records, and it continues the streak of excellent releases from the label. So far, all three of the releases from Bruiser Brigade Records have skillfully accentuated the oddities of their artists. The label highlights what makes each artist unique and pushes their sound to its limits. Dope Game Stupid works within a familiar framework, but pushes against the norms just enough to make you sit up and listen.
Dope Game Stupid is the type of album that should make waves. It’s going left while everyone else is going right. Bruiser Wolf should be a voice that we hear on many tracks in the upcoming year. He is a unique and special talent, and Dope Game Stupid is a fantastic introduction to his craft.