Sy ShacklefordRemember how the AMC television network aired the first season of the series “Breaking Bad” with just seven episodes? They were starting off small in case things went south. The fact that it continued for fifty-five more episodes (along with both prequel and epilogic spin-offs) testifies to its success. Buffalo emcee Ché Noir started the year 2024 with a four-track EP titled “The Color Chocolate, Vol. 1” just to test out the waters. Over a year later, she returns with a sequel EP containing double the content. Mostly produced by Ché herself, the concept of “The Color Chocolate 2” has less to do with the candy connotations of its predecessor and more to do with the coloring itself.
“Painting Class” kicks things off with a violin sample loop courtesy of C-For. Ché boasts that her cadence can be heard even if she’s muted. Conveying the album’s loose color theme, she raps “Paint a picture of my words through my love for artists / My pen’s a paintbrush, my words came out the color chocolate.” Ché’s been one of the most consistent rappers for the past few years and expands on her pen game here. On the self-produced “Buy vs. Sell”, she spins a third-person narrative about a female drug addict whose lifestyle results in a tragic ending. “Who’s the Greatest?” has Ché teaming up with Detroit’s eLZhi over a trippy, bouncy beat. Heralded as underground rap champions, both emcees on the same track is like hearing Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward in rapped form:
She reunites with longtime collaborator 7xvethegenius on “Show & Tell”, with the latter having a higher voice than Ché and countering her verse with a longer one over the synth/bass-heavy production from Drew Down. “Where to Go” is laced by C-For, with both productions from him here being reminiscent of Roc Marciano’s: Simply finding and looping a vintage sample without adding drums. The Evidence-produced “Blink Twice” has Ché rapping about how she’s built herself up from where she started. Over the melancholic sample, Ché raps “Penny for my thoughts, all intellect when I spit these rhymes / It gave me that IT factor, thought I was Pennywise”:
Producing the last two tracks, Ché begins the end of this EP with “Stories”. Coming off as autobiographical, Ché raps about her struggles and insecurities with a bottle of liquor being her sole comfort. The Son Little-assisted “New Beginning” is a lyrical homegoing for a fallen friend. With this being her ninth EP, Ché Noir continues to challenge her own game, both with a pen and from behind the boards. “The Color Chocolate 2” excels above its predecessor by having more to offer, both in raps and tracks. Though released a day after Juneteenth, Ché’s boast on this EP about how “it takes intellect to read my verses” isn’t an idle one.