His guests pick up the slack, but the features often highlight their own skill, rather than complementing Valee’s. 03 Greedo continues his dazzling post-carceral run with a verse that raises the stakes from mere flexing to life and death (“How am I supposed to feel about my n****s getting killed/While I was out of town and doing time for doing deals?”). Longtime Fraud collaborator Action Bronson sounds right at home on “Vibrant”; eschewing the exotics that Valee favors, he raps about lifting Ford F-150s and getting sideways in Mazda Miatas. If you had to identify Valee’s exact stylistic opposite, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better fit than fellow Chicagoan Twista, who pops up on “WTF,” charging in with his beloved chopper flow before pulling back to a bouncy, old-school cadence.
Virtuoso’s most interesting feature comes from someone you probably wouldn’t imagine on a track with Valee and Harry Fraud: RXK Nephew, the relentless weirdo known for his stream-of-consciousness YouTube dumps, lack of allegiance to any style, and rambling conspiracy theories. Nephew has a tendency to invent new flows on the spot, and here he adopts Valee’s deadpan, but pairs it with a clenched enunciation that makes it sound like he’s spitting through the wire. His delivery starts out flat, but he becomes more forceful as his verses build momentum, eventually punctuating his bars with yelps. Like Valee’s rapping, RXK Nephew’s verse draws power from restraint—but it also feels menacing, inventive, and exciting in a way that Valee doesn’t.
Overall, Virtuoso is a breezy listen: The songs are short, the beats are sturdily built, and the features are well-curated. But as a showcase of Valee’s talent and songwriting, it often falls short. On a technical level, the rapping here is nowhere near the best of his career, and the hooks are often forgettable. While Harry Fraud’s production pairs well with the Chicago rapper’s form, Valee doesn’t show up with many new tricks to take advantage of these beats. The man is a dexterous, sophisticated rapper, but after nearly a decade in the game, it still feels like he has yet to realize his full potential. Even virtuosos need to continually refine their skills in order to stay relevant.