Unfinished Business

For his fourth studio album, Fredo offers an uncompromising dispatch with no room for sentiment—or guest rappers. For context to the brooding, darkened bars featured on this set, look to his 2021 run that spawned *Money Can’t Buy Happiness* and *Independence Day* in eight months. Bubbling away in the background, and hinted at by their titles, the albums marked the fulfillment of a major label deal he’d held since 2018. Chart-friendly crossover attempts and big-name collaborations headlined this period—to varying degrees of success—and Fredo leads without restraint when reviewing this period of his professional life. “Don’t hate the player, hate the game/I came for pay, a lot of rappers really came to play,” he declares on “Trash.” Liberated here, Fredo sets a dark, wintry tone this summertime release. He offers no remorse to his reflections, and even less hesitation to his flow on epic, near-10-minute opener “My Story,” as he interrogates his past exploits and future ambitions. There’s another big switchup here: You’ll find no club-friendly hits. Instead, Fredo unleashes sinister trap anthem “Scoreboard,” backed by a soaring hook from Tiggs Da Author, while Eric IV holds down “Quarter Past 3”—its title and sultry sample lifted from Donell Jones’ 1999 hit “Shorty (Got Her Eyes on Me).” As things stand, *Unfinished Business* has no spiritual predecessor across his discography—time will indeed tell if Fredo has launched a new era with these 15 tracks, or settled for a rhyme-heavy palate cleanser before a fresh dive back into the mainstream.

Fredo is ready to speak his whole truth. The rapper shot to fame, gaining plaudits for some wicked features, and a knack for a killer hook. If anything,

John Lydon and his band of post-punk agitators are at their most approachable, while rapper Fredo is torn between his past and his future