The Waiting Game

Between countless DJ gigs, shows, and beat production for everyone from platinum-selling rappers to your favorite local MC, Madison producer-turntablist DJ Pain 1 stays extremely busy. So it makes sense that he hadn’t dropped his own album, despite the eager anticipation. But now the wait is over, and The Waiting Game is here.

Jam-packed but not overfull, Pain’s first foray into the realm of solo projects is composed largely of posse cuts, giving it a mix-tape feel, but without the jumbled, smashed-together production and the inevitable air-horn hangover.

Instead, what comes on this 19-track album (without a single skit, thankfully) is a look into 27-year-old Pain’s preferences, mainly for his beats and his hand-selected MCs spitting over them. Crisp and clean throughout, the album steps out on a strong foot with tales of enduring struggle told over an R&B hook and subtle, low drums on “Reach For It” (featuring Five and J. Stills) and the synth-heavy hustler anthem “Hold Up” (featuring Yung Trap and Brisco).

New York MC AZ and North Carolina’s Rain are paired up on “The Calm Pt. 2,” which features a dusty soul sample loop over steady drums and escalating horns. Pain’s DJ skills finally make an appearance on “Roots” (featuring Smokes, Joell Ortiz, and Rain), cutting and scratching through Biggie Smalls samples and mentions of Brett Favre.

Save for some Gucci Stans, “Trunk Full” (featuring Shyne and Gucci Mane) is the one track on The Waiting Game that’s not worth sitting through. Though nothing is at fault with the quick-tempo production of this cut, the work by the MCs on it doesn’t flow as evenly as the slower, storytelling styles of others on the album. The rapid, stuttered drum loops and guitar riffs beneath the slow drawl of I-20 on “Still Grinding” bring the album back into step.

Pain keeps the guests coming, like Jim Jones, Lil Chuckee of Young Money, Nipsey Hussle, Yo Gotti, and locals DJ Sixteen & Big Poppi, Gutta Foundation, and others. Saving the best for last, though, he piles five MCs onto “Now You Know”: Tek of Smif-N-Wessun, Money B of Digital Underground, Scott Knoxx, Grand Daddy I.U., and MC Starr (who’s Pain’s counterpart in the group the Fall Guys). With deft scratches intertwining aggressive rap samples over some piano, synths, and other loops, this one is a battle rap purist’s dream.

Overall, DJ Pain 1’s production skills as demonstrated on The Waiting Game are proof of why he’s in such high demand these days. Here’s hoping that his next fully Pain-produced project isn’t so many years in the making, because folks are sick of waiting.

DJ Pain 1 will be celebrating the album’s release (and giving away free copies) May 7 at Scott’s Urban Wear, and again later May 7 at Segredo.