Oak Lonetree hemorrhages more discs than Kool Keith — which, for those who don't know, is a bootyload. I rarely catch the party-hearty Waltham MC downtown without his shoving a new album in my chest, whether it's his late 2007 joint The One, last year's Stuff in the Basement, or the recent project from his go-to producer, Egadz.
Although abundant, Oak's efforts aren't lazily scrapped mixtapes; for the most part he rips well-thought witty writtens over backdrops that are more often than not well-hung. Lava is by far his sweetest heater yet; Lonetree and regular affiliates including the Rhyminal (Ballcklub), Dese (the Camp) and XL (the Kreators) still lace keg-happy hoorah, but they do so with cunning flows and linguistic (albeit potty-mouthed) aptitude.
The upper-deckers here are the anthemic title track, the Steinway-tapped "Mehfecka" with Dese, and the jazz-smoked concept cut "3 Hour Rhyme Difference" with Speks (the Greater Good) and MC Exposition (Audible Mainframe). Like all of Oak's projects, Lava is a super-hard soft release, so be sure to cop a copy soon, before his next shit drops.
