The arrogance and flashy style of Bricks makes “Based on a True Story” that album you blast as you’re getting ready to head to the club on a Friday night. From start to finish this album oozes the club life, with a little bit of on-the-corner work thrown in for extra flavor. The result is a powerful mixtape that will have anyone who enjoys getting out and living for the city raising their fist and bobbing their head. This is that baller music.

Right out the gate, “Can’t Tell Me” is a statement that you can’t fuck with Bricks, and he sells it well, with a smooth opener beat, and menacing lyrics from this beast. Then he steps it up on “Fast Lane” with a nice hook from Mona The Songstress and more boasting verses from the King. And speaking of kings, “Kingpin” is the highlight of the first half of this album, with an infectious hook and beat that is just so damn easy to chant along to. “Loud” pushes the production in a much more full direction and once again Bricks flows with such ease and expertise. His unapologetic style is part of what makes this album so great, he’s not bragging, he’s just spitting what he knows. Bricks enlists the help of Fresh Millz for “Got Paper” and the result is a fun track, with a bit of unorthodox production but it works, and Millz kills it.  It’s not all about that work on this album as “Body Language” has Bricks spitting game to the shorties and with a smoothed-out sexy hook, this is one solid R&B track. “Real Life” finds Bricks digging deep inside his soul and allows it to breathe a minute, which makes for a powerful introspective track, proof that this MC is not one-dimensional. But after “Real Life”, Bricks picks right back up on the epic “Life Is Amazing” which is as celebratory as you can get. This album is also well-rounded as the closeout track “Hold U Down” might be the hottest joint on the whole tape, with Mona The Songstress yet again blessing the funky beat with her beautiful voice.

Unfortunately some efforts, like “I’m On”, just didn’t do it for me, whether it was the spacey beat, or the drawl on the hook, the track just stood out for all the wrong reasons. The real missteps on this album are when Bricks includes more than he needs to, as the aforementioned “Body Language” is a solid bump-and-grind track, however “Let It Go” might have a dope hook from Mona The Songstress but the song itself is just unnecessary. A track like “Is U Rollin” would probably be nice on another album, but by the time you get to it on “Based on a True Story”, the idea of it is tired and so it might be spin-worthy over time but at first it just comes off as another generic baller track.

All together this album is for those cats who love to stay out til 4am and for that crowd I’d definitely recommend “Based on a True Story”. Big production, loud verses, and infectious hooks are all included in this project, and while a little lengthy, this is perfect for those who take a solid hour to get ready to hit the club. So ride out, roll the windows down, and pump this as hard as Bricks pumps out work. 3/5

*This album has not yet been released. Stay tuned for more info.