Action Bronson Cocodrillo Turbo

Broken glass, revving engines, barking dogs, burnt rubber and roaring guitar riffs open Action Bronson’s seventh album, Cocodrillo Turbo, making it feel like the listener’s been plopped in the middle of some ‘70s B-movie chase scene rather than a rap album. The grindhouse vibe fits the NYC rapper’s preposterous action sequences and punchlines; one imagines he finds equal inspiration in Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal as in oft-cited influence Ghostface Killah. Case in point: On the opening “Hound Dog”, Bronson runs 100 miles in a downpour with six giraffes on his back. Elsewhere on the album—over colourful loops from Daringer, The Alchemist and Roc Marciano—he somersaults out of a jet plane (“Jaguar”), tosses someone off a bridge in the style of wrestler Razor Ramon (“Estaciones”) and tear-gasses a room while rocking a Jheri curl (“Subzero”). As always, Bronson balances the comic violence and luxury with hilarious humility: On “Storm Of The Century”, he admits that driving his speedboat gives him tendinitis. Over a decade into his career, he remains one of hip-hop’s most entertaining lyricists.