by Conway the Machine
Released February 25, 2022 via Drumwork / Griselda / Shady / Interscope
Reviewed March 8, 2022
Top tracks (based on community voting)
Stressed (73%), God Don’t Make Mistakes (65%), John Woo Flick (42%)
A year after the release of La Maquina, Conway keeps on making progress in the lyrics department while producing one of the most distinctive efforts of his career. With every release, he fulfills more of the promise he showed on “The Cow,” which is not only his best performance, but one of the greatest rap verses ever. The man, rather than the machine, is most prevalent in what can easily be considered his most personal album yet. He is very open about struggles with depression, alcoholism, and his image as a rapper. Furthermore, Conway cuts out a lot of the attempts to hop on trends, arguably the most glaring flaw of La Maquina. While the credits still primarily read the names of Beat Butcha and Daringer, it breaks the mold of traditional Griselda releases by experimenting with new beats. God Don’t Make Mistakes is definitely Conway’s magnum opus…so far. – Alan (8.1/10)
Life is ugly, yet there is beauty in every struggle; on God Don’t Make Mistakes, Conway the Machine makes his masterpiece from the shattered pieces of his reality. When this album isn’t in a gritty mix of concrete bars and grimy subject matter, the Griselda co-founder is simply trying to make meaning in the dark history of his lifetime. It is not exactly a totally new temperament for Conway in songwriting and production, but there is a laser focus to his craft that intensifies with each passing record. “The Machine” is so appropriately suffixed into his alias, as just about every word is spit with computer-like precision. No matter the subject, there’s a pen bleeding itself into every verse on this record. – DeVán (8/10)
Griselda has been at the top of the game for a handful of years now and we are still getting some of their best projects yet. Conway has always been the best rapper in the crew, but a lot of his albums didn’t fully reflect that level of quality; that is, until now. God Don’t Make Mistakes finds Conway in top form, guided along by the best instrumental set of his career yet. It always seemed that he would tone down the rapping to fit on a more digestible beat, but here we see him being completely comfortable on some unforgettable beats. The Machine is just that on here, a wildly technical robot that can fire out densely layered bars one after the other like light work. Even though these guys rap about the most core subjects, the way they flip the lines is truly what makes it impressive. The feature list is a laundry list of talent from the usuals like Gunn and Benny, to legends like Jill Scott and Lil Wayne, with everyone fitting extremely well on their respective tracks. Conway has finally dropped a project that fully reflects his talent as an artist. Hopefully it is only up from here. – Jared (8/10)
Alan: 8.1/10 | Ben (Synth): 8/10 | Cam: 8/10 | DeVán: 8/10
Jared: 8/10 | Pax: 7.8/10 | Dominick: 7.5/10
