On Christmas Day of 2025, Atlanta rapper Che released a deluxe version for his previous album “REST IN BASS”, titled “REST IN BASS: ENCORE.” It contains 32 total songs, 14 of which are new songs, all following the rage sound that Che had taken up in “REST IN BASS,” with the other 18 being the tracks on the original “REST IN BASS.” So far, it has amassed over 60 million streams on Spotify since its 3.6 million on release
Che initially rose to fame in 2021 after remixing Yeat’s “Off Tha Lot,” and his single “Agenda,” which gained popularity on TikTok. While he formerly went by murkio! and CheRomani+ at earlier points in his career, the rapper settled on Che as his stage name in 2023. Since 2023, he has released 5 albums, and 10 singles.
“ENCORE” maintains the same rage sound heard in “REST IN BASS.” However, Che explores different auto-tuned voices throughout the album, which adds appreciated variety. He also has more production variety on this album. For example, “MAKE OUT WITH MY CHOPPA” sounds less like music and more like a jumble of alarm sounds. Another track like this is “UAV,” which has an insane amount of bass to where you can’t make out what the song sounds like. Che continues to skillfully pick great openers for his albums; “KING OF ROCK’s” distortion and makes the track sounds like a twin to “REST IN BASS’s” opener “SLAM PUNK.”
The song that takes the cake as best on the album, however, is 100% “DIE HARD.” A reference to the popular 1988 holiday action movie classic, the high energy and high concentration of sound, accompanied by a captivating beat switch makes the song stand out. The fast paced beat, contrasted with Che rapping at a slower pace, then switches to a slower beat with faster paced rapping. Both beats on this song are amazing, but I’ll always take the second half of this song over the first. This song, most importantly, sounds unique to him, in contrast to other songs on this album, which model Playboi Carti’s sound and style. While I like most of Che’s Carti inspired songs, I see it as a better look when most of an artist’s songs sound unique to them.
Just as he did with “REST IN BASS,” Che has again perfected his beat switches in multiple songs throughout this album. Alongside “DIE HARD,” “MONSTER” and “DIRTY SPRITE” also have beat switches. “MONSTER” is one of the most distorted songs on this album, where Che uses a deep voice reminiscent of his voice on older projects like “Creuger” or “Sayso Says.” This is in contrast to his higher pitched voice present on the rest of the album. “DIRTY SPRITE,” however, displays both Che’s low and high voice over two beats. This, combined with some clear Carti influence in Che’s vocal styles, makes the song high energy and fast-paced like a motorcycle engine. Fans first heard “DIRTY SPRITE” after Che teased the first half on an Instagram story prior to release. Fortunately, he kept the song’s beat switch a secret. Its second half is another unreleased song, nicknamed “designer shoes.” With its higher voice and beat, “designer shoes” outdoes the first part of the song by miles and is a highlight of the album.
When it comes to features from other artists, this album has downsized since the last one. The only feature track of “ENCORE’s” new tracks, “WHIPPIN,” features rising artist and frequent collaborator OsamaSon. Both artists flow well on the beat, with both their styles working well together, making a well-polished song and leaving me wanting more collaborations from the two of them.
After letting the album simmer for a bit, I can confidently say it’s a solid album. Ranked, the best three tracks for me are “DIE HARD,” “DIRTY SPRITE,” and “UAV.” In contrast, some tracks, like “CUTTHROAT” and “WHATS LOVE” don’t really do it for me, and sound like rage songs I have heard from artists like 2slimey. It had a great intro and outro, the album’s closing track “IM SORRY,” had an ethereal, fantastical sound different from the rage sound that dominated the album. The production on the album was great as well, and proved that producers Rokonthetrack, Gyro, Azure and CXO won’t be going out of style anytime soon. Now that Che has dropped two rage albums in one year, I hope he will explore a new sound with his next album, or else he’ll devolve into another Ken Carson and keep the same sound for years to come.
FINAL RANKING: 7.5/10
