Equilibrium between the dynamic bookends that drive hip-hop’s ongoing lineage, Femdot has always been a master of balance, but here is his greatest display. Rhthym and poetry, the party and the pen, each and every track on Not For Sale is a dynamic display of hip-hop’s rangy auditory aesthetic in constant flux with a study of its foundational pillars.

 

There are tracks driven by bass-heavy, high-energy production hand-in-hand with a newfound Femdot delivery, distressed and on the constant edge of running out of breath through the outpouring of prose, poeticism, and intensity. As if Baby Keem and Kendrick’s juxtaposing sounds on Family Ties were merged into one that blended the hype and the intention, Femdot starts off his project with vibrance in his words and violence in the way those words are delivered. Digits comes first, already defined here as a banger. Sacrilegious comes next with the kind of run-on bar marathon that only Femdot, himself has proven capable of through tracks like Snuck To Matty’s from his 2019 album, 94 Camry Music. In a long-winded explosion of the pen, Femdot continues delivering his renowned lyricism with the balance between the high-energy and the high-minded.

 

‘Praying over bottles we sipping, and God bless the nights that we get into for the liquor and women

Half the bottle gone, damn, thinkin' God I'm forgiven

Woke up, no hangover, I'm thanking God for the feelin'

On the cusp of damn near feelin' sacrilegious

So I pray for more vision, to see through false opinions

Pray to understand the cost of living, more than that of material

More in the lighter the man, rather thoughts that's cynical

And that love is plentiful, and not only for imbeciles

And at the pinnacle of a man is when he shows that he cares

And not by the power that's show whenever he's feared

Choose to be the truth whether sober or you impaired

Pray equity and to be fair.’

 

A snippet from his three-minute verse breathes of Femdot’s lyrical dynamism, and his ability to transcend both ends of the hip-hop spectrum, while the deep, immersive vocal register with which he delivers the verse grants it even more weight. Through the entire first half of the album, really, that’s the balancing act on display. What’s said verses how it’s said; the pen verses the microphone; the mind verses the matter. Femdot has truly curated his own unique way of bringing the best of both, instead of – as has been historically and is presently commonplace in rap – choosing one side of the hip-hop coin over the other.

 

With and after Not For Sale’s Funds/broke[n]interlude, the stylistically fluid Chicago emcee changes it up and puts on an exhibition of further genre-defying range. The interlude itself is a well-written love poem delineating the struggles to buy the object of Femdot’s affection anything through empty pockets, elongated into verse and backed by some silky guitar riffs running through its length. Unleaded/love calls continues the romantically inclined direction, subduing the intensity that defined the first half of the project, and replacing it with the meditative, introspective, and oft-vocally driven nuance that has defined Femdot’s career at length. And really, that bread and butter comes to define the rest of the album, too, allowing Femdot to find even more balance in an album that was already brimming with it. Emotional evocation and thought provocation find their sweet spot at the album’s closer, Mueen / Pray Pt 2, where Femdot’s socially charged lyrical ferocity pleads to anyone listening who has dealt with a gamut of issues, personal and social, that Femdot can relate to. He is always speaking from experience, it would seem.

 

‘Funny that the same ones that hang around to get status up

I see it on your eyes, you done prioritized addin' up

How ironic, you makin' all of these happy songs, but really just be sad as fuck

N****s talkin' like they understand me

Your daddy ever drive taxis to afford Nissans and Camrys?

Ever had someone who had murder all in his family?

Help a friend off Xannys get home 'cause he got some trouble standing

And he takin' pills 'cause they numb his damage

Know n****s who move Grammys helped feed your dreams of Grammy's

Ever wish you spent more time with your granny?

Even though you spent more time then your whole family?

But instead of askin' questions and gettin' stories

'Bout your history and all the things happened before me.’

 

Dynamic verse, raps stretched into vocal chorus, thought-provoking lyricism, hard-hitting bass, and a whole lot of immersive hip-hop display at large makes the 25-minute project feel much longer than it really is. That’s the power when a transcendent and wide-ranging sound meets a lyricist hellbent on talking about real life. And that’s the prose that Femdot is able to bring to a hip-hop game that could learn a thing or two about not taking shortcuts and instead, exploring with depth the endless possibility when the high-energy and the high-minded are married through honesty. But of course, that kind of skillset is Not For Sale.