Cashus King & Big O – Water to Wine (Album Review)

Cashus King and Big O have a new 14-track rap concept record, Water to Wine. The song titles are crafted around water and wine, with the artist info saying that water ‘is the foundation of life’.

Up first is ‘Barry Water’, a song that falls under two minutes, serving as an introduction due to its length and mood overall: the instrumentation – a couple of piano stabs – don’t really progress, instead giving you a start-stop movement or feel; coupled with that, you get the vocals of Barry White. Here the man doesn’t actually sing or even rap: it’s more of a spoken track. Lyrically, we have the man talk about making up his mind to make a change in his life. It’s a teaser of a song, and one of the innovative things about it is the title’s wordplay: it plays around wine being ‘berry water’ or ‘berry liquid’. I have a feeling the song wasted a good beat and opportunity to rather set things straight from the first second. Why wait for the second track to hear any rapping?

‘LikWid (Big Fish)’ gives us proper rapping, which is what one expected already. Instrumentally, the song is old-schoolish. It isn’t too flashy, but it’s not that laidback either. A teasing balance, if you will. You get a feeling that Cashus King is a fast-punching rapper or fast-flowing storyteller. There’s some energy in his flow, but the beat here – coupled with his deep voice – makes it hard to hear what he’s got to say. In that case, the man has to choose his beats wisely: choose pared down beats is what I’d do. Thematically, it’s a song about water dripping on the flesh, ‘sipping the sickness’.

The third song (‘Precipitation’) is still energetic, kicking off with a really fast flow that then eases up a little. The bass is deep, if not dense. The first few seconds of this dense beat make me feel it’s too thick, and I feel vindicated when Big O comes in with a slightly toned down flow. It’s a song whose concern is slavery, and you also get some spoken word, if not a clip of someone speaking. Well, this makes me think we’re in for a conscious rap kinda style; not a bad thing to spend some time listening. 

‘Cherry Cola’ seems to come across as a bit confident, if not assertive. It sounds like the rapper here, before going to the studio, said, ‘Hey, Mr Reviewer. You think you know your story! But, nah, you don’t!’ Of course, that’s just my imagination running wild! The musician here even managed to chuckle, which is a good thing. Beatwise, the best is still heavy but there’s some jazzy and melodic instrumentation to make things lighter. Even the part from Big O sounds chirpy, like the man’s half-singing. Lyrically, you have Cashus King commenting on the song’s title. ”Cherry Cola” is a metaphor, man. Don’t drink soda, man; drink water. Soda got too much sugar in it. It’s too sweet’, and then linking it with diabetes. It’s a chilled song, though; like the musicians are enjoying themselves. The rap flow is also chirpy, and this moves the listener’s body. 

‘Streams’ come in, and beatwise it’s pared down when the song starts. The flow is spoken-speech style at the beginning. What’s remarkable about the song is that you have some lady providing some singing vocals, which is a change on the album.

‘Drownin” comes up, spoken-speech first up before the best comes in. ”Drownin”, we hear. ‘so deep in the ocean, I can’t see the surface/ I can empathize with those who improvise….’ This part ends with the words, ‘Keep swimming…’, then the best comes in, playing for a while without the rap coming in. When the rapping comes in, you hear talk about why he wrote the song: ”For those who drownin”. The song also touches, indirectly of course, on the importance of writing. It’s a song touching on the troubles of life. 

Up next is ‘Hydration (Reign)’ – another song that speaks to the album’s consciousness. ‘Let it rain until we reign for black dreamers’ we hear at the top. Vocally, you also get some sweet, feminine touch of subtle woman singing. The instrumentation also boasts some flourishes. 

‘Drippin (Soaking Poems)’ comes up next. The beat is thick for my liking. The flow’s heavy and quite fast at some points. It’s not a listener-friendly, if you will. But we hear the rapper speaking about being different and soaking poems getting them dripping. This is also a song that speaks text and writing in a variety of ways.

‘Potions’ comes up next. There’s a mention of ‘West Coast’,and this make me view the beat as a West Coastbeat. ‘Sipping potions’, we hear, the song also mentioning some RIPs.

‘Swimmin’ plays next. The beat comes in a little bit late, the beat more trap than anything. And you have some chanting in the song. Lyrically, the song seems to have ditched the album’s trademark storytelling. 

Then there’s ‘Holy Water’, a song that unnecessarily takes long to build up. What also holds the song back is its thick bass. However, the song has some redeeming moments when the flow stops trying to be too serious. Lyrically, however, the themes are serious. We have a man grappling with a life gone wrong: he’s pushed family and friends away. We have a lyrical persona who identifies themselves as Troy and describes themselves as a themselves as an addict. Strangely, it’s like one of the songs where the lyrics are clear. 

‘Like Lava for Water’ is a chilled-beat song. The flow’s also laidback, although it seems unable to restrain itself after wall. The subject of the song is a women here, ‘a queen in the night’. At one point, the flow sounds like a poetry recitation, a heartfelt song for a mother, and also to a lover.

‘Dark Agua’ plays next. The song’s quite funny in that the flow at one point sounds like the rapper’s crying. The rhyming is tight, especially at the beginning (‘Dark aqua / with sharks and it’s part lava/’), but then the song moves away from the theme of water, touching on health and politics.

‘Wine’ comes up next. Beat has laidback vibes. And the first lines of the song make ‘pond’ and ‘God’ rhyme, the lyrical persona in a desert trying to find a pond, describing their soul as deserted and in the zone trying to find a God. It’s easy to miss the double use of the ‘desert’, showing the artistry for the word has two sentences here. Also I like the fresh part where wine turns into art.  

Score/Excellent: It’s an awesome album. It’s nice to hear conscious rap that’s likeable, but there’s something repetitive about the flow, for instance. There are themes on being Black and also dealing with alcohol and drugs. Overall, the main and featured artists have talent.

[We rank singles, EPs, and albums on a scale of Poor, Mediocre, Good, Excellent, and Outstanding]

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