Enlisting Hiero’s Pep Love & Casual and Zumbi from Zion I for features, San Jose rapper Rey Res has been eagerly awaiting the Jan. 27 release of his Heart of the City album. “What I really wanted to do with this album is ignore the hype and what’s hot and fully be creative,” Rey Res told the San Jose Metro in their cover story feature that ran earlier this month, where in addition to talking about his musical background he discussed his work teaching chess classes, where his students call him “Chessmaster Rey.”
Similar to playing chess, Rey Res applies a methodical approach to his music. While his depth delves as deep as other West Coast lyricists, Okayplayer states in their premiere post that Heart of the City “plays like an homage to Cali’s celebrated G-Funk era.” The forthcoming album release follows several video singles, “Let It Bang”, “Duck Down”, and “The World”, in addition to The Mixtape Before the Album that he shared a couple weeks ago.