Lay Lanskey is a rapper’s rapper. Sorry So Long is a great collection of songs spanning various styles of hip hop and showcasing the MC’s ability to switch up his flows and bars to match whatever beat he’s attacking. While most artists stay in one lane, Lay isn’t afraid to step up and create a diverse project which will have something for everyone. Hyped up tracks, weed anthems, reflective tracks, and simplistic southern style tracks round out this very solid project.

On a great introduction, Lay proves his ability to flow and spit bars on a familiarly sampled beat. Continuing of the use of recognizable sounds, “Silence” is a solid track including a welcomed feature from Pittsburgh great “Boaz” as Lay goes in over the same beat sample used on Troy Ave’s “Peace and Love (Swish)”. Not taking any time off, next up is “365” which is a solid anthem with a pounding beat and an infectious hook. From infectious to blunted, “All I Do” is a great weed anthem and displays how Lay goes from style to style without ever losing a step. “Lip Service” is one of those tracks you’re either gonna love or it, personally I loved it as the truly unique simple beat is extremely effective and Lay flows brilliantly over it and showcases his skill at crafting humorous metaphors like “like to do it with no hands, call it bluetooh brain”. “All or Nothin’” is a throwback to Jeezy’s classic “Go Crazy” and the honesty conveyed in this track is amazing. “Gametime” is an epic stadium status anthem which boasts great guest appearances and is easily one of the highlights of the album. “Da Corner” has a jazzy feel to it and is heavy on the keys and a great bass line, with a solid feature from Phat Maxx, this is another highlight of the album, with the only complaint being that it ended too early.

One of the downfalls of the album is “Sour, Piff & 50” which is exactly what the title sounds like, an homage to “Beamer, Benz or Bentley”. It’s not bad, but honestly, after the countless remixes of that song, while this is a variation of the beat, it’s still just another song that makes you wanna listen to the original Banks/Santana instead. It seems like the only thing this album suffers from is too many songs that rely on familiar samples, and while it’s not as bad as just rhyming over other peoples’ beats, it still creates a desire to hear the track of influence rather than continue to enjoy the song that’s currently on. This also happens on “Decisions”, which is actually a really sick flip of Kanye’s “Heard Em Say”, and is perhaps the best example of recreating a familiar song with a new twist.

Lay Lanskey has crafted a complete project with Sorry So Long, whether it be southern rap, weed tracks, heady jazz tracks, or whatever else he pulls out of his bag of tracks. Lay has a variety of lyrical styles and a very mature flow, he’s confident which helps in the delivery of his bars. Although perhaps a bit too heavy on throwback samples from other artists, I have no problem with being influenced, but as I mentioned, if you can’t top the original, then it’s probably not worth relying on the familiarity of a beat. I would definitely recommend this album for fans of diversity and just overall great music, it’s not without faults but it’s certainly a solid tape that deserves a good listen.