Strictly 4 The Scythe Album Review – Best Tracks and Weak Moments
Hi everyone, it’s Anthony Stirford here from Anthony XO.Music, and today I’m reviewing Strictly 4 The Scythe, the debut album from The Scythe.
If you came into this album expecting a nostalgic Denzel Curry and FERG moment, you might actually stay for something completely different. The real surprise here is the sheer audacity of the younger voices in the room, especially TiaCorine and Bktherula. This album carries a very specific kind of underground energy that you can’t really fake. It feels raw, chaotic, and a little confrontational in the best possible way.
This doesn’t feel like a polished collaboration between generations. It feels like a collision.
Denzel is operating exactly where you expect him to be. His technical precision is still sharp, the bars still land with force, and his delivery keeps the entire project grounded. But the moment TiaCorine enters the mix, the energy shifts immediately. Her flow isn’t just traditional rap delivery. It’s elastic. She stretches across these beats with a playful, almost taunting confidence that constantly pushes against the structure of the songs.
Then you have Bktherula, who brings the opposite kind of presence. Her style feels cold and effortless. She doesn’t sound like she’s trying to dominate the room. She sounds like she already owns it.
The dynamic that forms between these voices is fascinating. Instead of the veterans comfortably guiding the new generation, it often feels like the younger artists are forcing the entire project into a more unpredictable direction. I’ve seen plenty of “passing the torch” narratives in hip hop over the years, but this doesn’t really feel like that.
It feels closer to a hostile takeover.
Strictly 4 The Scythe actually works best when it embraces that tension. The album almost feels like Denzel Curry deliberately stepping away from the polished, high-concept territory he’s explored in some of his recent work. By surrounding himself with raw, unpredictable energy, he’s essentially throwing himself back into the chaos.
And honestly, that chaos is what makes this project exciting.
The production plays a massive role in shaping that atmosphere. BNYX approaches these beats less like a traditional producer and more like an architect building sonic environments. The sound palette here feels deeply rooted in Southern rap history, but it’s filtered through a very modern lens.
Listening to this album sometimes feels like someone took a worn-out Memphis cassette tape from the mid-90s and ran it through a futuristic machine. The bass is thick and distorted. The low frequencies feel heavy and physical. The sound design has that woozy, melting quality that defined a lot of early Memphis rap recordings.
But none of it feels accidental.
The distortion is incredibly controlled. The beats hit hard without ever collapsing into pure noise. You can hear a clear lineage connecting the Memphis phonk underground to the rage rap explosion that artists like XXXTentacion and Playboi Carti helped push into the mainstream.
BNYX understands something important about distortion. The best chaos in music is never random. It’s engineered.
For the first half of the album, that formula works incredibly well.
Where things start to get complicated is the back end of the project.
And honestly, the most frustrating part of this entire listening experience is the runtime. Strictly 4 The Scythe is only eight tracks long. With a lineup this stacked, walking away after eight songs feels like someone abruptly ended the party just when it was getting interesting.
But before getting to that frustration, let’s walk through the album itself.
The opening track THE SCYTHE is exactly how you want a project like this to begin. The beat immediately leans into that blown-out Southern rap energy, and the chemistry between the artists is strong from the first seconds. Denzel, FERG, and TiaCorine slide into the pocket effortlessly. There’s no awkward settling period like you sometimes hear on collaborative projects.
TiaCorine especially stands out here. Her verse moves with a frantic energy that feels completely controlled at the same time. She establishes herself immediately as one of the most unpredictable voices on the entire project. FERG’s hook also works perfectly in this context. It feels like a cultural handoff between Harlem energy and Florida rap chaos.
Then the album moves into LIT EFFECT, which is easily one of the strongest moments on the record. Bktherula absolutely steals the spotlight with a hook that’s ridiculously infectious. It’s the kind of chorus that gets stuck in your head almost instantly.
At the same time, Denzel’s verse here is incredible. He attacks the beat with a sharp aggression that honestly reminds me of the energy Kendrick Lamar brought to “Like That.” It’s that same top-of-the-mountain confidence where every line feels like a statement. If anyone questioned whether Denzel still belongs at the highest level of rap performance, this verse answers that question immediately.
Three tracks in, the album still feels unstoppable.
PHONY takes a slightly different approach but still keeps the momentum alive. The production here clearly pulls from Playboi Carti’s minimalist philosophy where atmosphere matters more than lyrical density. The beat is hypnotic, dark, and incredibly smooth. Instead of overwhelming the listener with complexity, the track builds its power through mood.
It feels like a polished reflection of 2010s Southern hip hop at its most seductive.
Then we reach MUTT THAT BIH, which is the first moment where the energy dips slightly. The song isn’t terrible by any means, but compared to the explosive first three tracks, it feels noticeably less intense. The chaotic spark that made the earlier songs feel essential is missing here.
On a longer album, this might have worked as a breather moment. On an eight-track project, the drop in energy is a lot more noticeable.
Thankfully the album rebounds with HOOPTY, which is one of the most musically interesting tracks on the entire project. TiaCorine sounds completely locked in here. Her delivery feels sharper and more focused than anywhere else on the album.
The production also deserves credit because it does something unusual. It blends gritty Southern rap textures with the cinematic bounce associated with the Dr. Dre era of West Coast production. That combination shouldn’t work as smoothly as it does, but somehow BNYX makes it feel natural.
Then we get YOU AIN’T GOTTA LIE, which might be the most unexpected track on the entire record.
The song leans into a surprisingly danceable groove. The rhythm has a subtle swing that gives the track a lighter feel compared to the chaos surrounding it. What really stands out here is the melodic texture in the vocals. There’s a very specific energy that reminds me of the late-2000s Chris Brown era. That blend of smooth R&B melody with confident rap delivery was everywhere during that time, and you can hear echoes of that formula here.
It’s not the loudest track on the album, but it definitely adds a different flavor.
Then we arrive at TAN, which is easily the most confusing moment on the project.
Up until this point, the album had a clear identity built around distortion and aggressive Southern energy. TAN completely abandons that approach. The beat suddenly shifts into a much more standard trap style that feels heavily inspired by Metro Boomin’s production palette.
The problem is that it sounds imported from a completely different project.
Even more surprising is Denzel’s delivery here. His cadence starts leaning toward a flow that sounds closer to Lil Baby than the artist we just heard dominating LIT EFFECT. The personality disappears a bit, and the song ends up feeling generic in a way the rest of the album never does.
Finally we reach UP, the closing track.
By this point the chaotic energy that defined the beginning of the album has mostly faded away. The hook is solid and Denzel’s verse is definitely stronger than what he delivered on TAN. But as an outro, the track feels softer than it probably should.
This album opens like a riot and ends like the lights just came on in the club.
And that brings me back to my biggest frustration with Strictly 4 The Scythe.
It’s only eight tracks long.
With this much talent gathered in one room, ending the project after eight songs genuinely feels like abandonment. It’s like a meal that was building toward something incredible, only for the chef to walk out of the kitchen before the main course arrives.
The vision is clearly there. The chemistry between the artists is real. And the first half of the album contains some of the most exciting hip hop moments released this year.
But the back half loses the identity the project worked so hard to establish at the start.
Strictly 4 The Scythe is still a very good debut album. The talent is undeniable and the energy is real. But if this group came back with a fourteen-track album that kept the same intensity from start to finish, we might be talking about something genuinely special.
For now, it feels more like a powerful preview than a fully realized statement.
Final Score: 7/10
- Favorite Tracks: THE SCYTHE, LIT EFFECT, PHONEY, HOOPTY
- Least Favorite Tracks: There is no least favorite track honestly
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