Two things make Meyhem Lauren's Table For One unusual before a note of it plays: there isn't a single guest verse on it, and it's the first release on his own label. Eleven tracks, a rapper who has spent his career trading bars with half the underground, and nobody else in the booth. "Radikon" is the DJ Muggs track, and Muggs gives him exactly the right frame a slow, freighted loop with the low end sitting heavy and the drums placed so that Meyhem's drawl has somewhere to sit. It's a beat that rewards a rapper who doesn't hurry, and Meyhem has never hurried. He opens on wine and air ("Let the warm air out, it tastes better"), then moves through inventory: "We got flavors. More packs than Newports stocked at Apple Vegas." The chorus is two words and a thirst "Crack the Radikon, lord, I feel thirsty" and it repeats just often enough. What's interesting is how little he does with the space. No second verse to show range, no guest to break the monotony, no hook built to travel. Just a rapper in a pocket, moving from Vegas to Queens to Cali to Miami, closing on gold medals and Tonys. It's a flex record with the flexing turned down, which is more effective than the loud version. The rest of the album's production comes from The Alchemist, Buckwild, Daringer, IceRocks, Ghost Dave, Real Bad Man, Ern Dogg and Don D, and the track titles "Win Son," "The Centurion Lounge," "Jerk Turkey Wings," "Deadstock Pasta" suggest a record about eating well alone. Gusto Gold Productions shot the video. Eleven tracks, no features, one voice. That's a statement whether or not it was intended as one.
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