MF Grimm The Hunt for the Gingerbread Man

• Words: Rico "Superbizzee" Washington
• Label: Class A
• XLR8R Rating: 5/10

As a former financier and partner-in-rhyme to MF Doom, and founder of Day by Day Entertainment (Mudville, Count Bass D), Grimm knows his latest solo effort comes with some pretty high expectations. So a concept album that features the MC spitting murderous tales from the perspective of a gun-toting, real-life gingerbread man seems more laughable than laudable. Rife with confectionary references (“Half Baked”) and nursery-rhyme interpretations (“The Fox,” “My House”) over tepid beats, the album plays like a stale batch of underground demos from the mid-’90s. Although Grimm attempts to create a sinister, ominous caricature parallel to that of Doom’s, with admittedly clever wordplay, this cookie unfortunately crumbles harder than Master P’s failed “Cookie Money” comeback.