What's Stanfield Been Bumping? (TOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2021 SO FAR)

Started by Sav Stanfield, Oct 3, 2020, in Music Add to Reading List

  1. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 2, 2020
    Hoodlum - Breathe


    Now here's some weird a--- s---. A vicious NY-like growl meets a spaced-out Georgia-like flow meets a maximum mean mugging music video over a sparse, anxious bass-heavy instrumental that sounds like it was coated in lean before being left to bake in 100-degree Texas heat. You feel woozy just listening to it. "I got addys, oxys, weed,... hold up I can't breathe" Southside Hoodlum mumble growls while stumbles back and forth amid a sea of automatics waving in all directions. The song barely lasts a minute before its over and transitions into another cut, but it feels like you've been listening to it for months.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  2. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 2, 2020
    $NOT - Beautiful Havoc

    Since X’s death, the whole South Florida’s scene bit on a downward spiral. Pump and Purpp’s short-lived hype is all but over. Wifi and Ski Mask have faded off into the background and the incarcerations of Kodak and Melly put heavy dents in an already battered looking scene. Sure we’ve still got Denzel. Plus Rod Wave and 9lokknine seem like they’re gearing up to build solid careers, but that excitement that was bubbling back in 2016-17 is long gone.

    $NOT has given me a new perspective though. I initially wrote him off as a generic Juice-WRLD ripoff/industry plant type figure, but to be fair never really gave him a fair chance. His second album of the year - Beautiful Havoc - which dropped this Friday has completely changed my mind. This kid is good. I especially like the way he pulls all these south-Floridian sounds together into a cohesive one of his own; the confessional raps of --- and Wifi, the energetic animation of Denzel or Ski Mask, the brashness of Kodak and the weird melodic crooning of someone like Melly. He melds all of these together on album opener Watch Out, (and adds a SGP-esque Triple 6 sample in the mix for good measure), but the entire album follows suit.



    Juice WRLD is clearly a strong influence, but he never lets the crooning become overbearing. Between every Cole Bennett-y Revenge (which has grown on me like a b----, I gotta say), there’s jaunts out into threat-laden s--- talking and hard-as-nails collaborations with Denzel Curry.




    I don’t know who the producers are on this album but props where they’re due: the thrashy, bass-heavy home-made sounds that Ronnie J and his ilk popularised 3-4 years back are out in full force here, and $not gives each its due, alternating between baritone rumbling chants all the way to RapCaviar/Lyrical Lemonade fodder.




    At some point I’mma have to go back and check out his previous music but glad I gave this chance. He’s one to watch out for. And adds some much needed new blood coming out of the Sunshine State.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  3. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 3, 2020
    Deniro Farrar - Wu-Tang


    ... is forever. From the beat to the rapping to video, this is paying homage done right.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  4. Chrollo
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    Chrollo ♱ كرولو

    Nov 3, 2020
    That new $not album was crazy. For whatever reason 4 bangs the hardest
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  5. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 4, 2020
    645AR - Yoga


    There've been some great music videos this year, but theres no way you'll find one that better summarises 2020 than the squeakiest rapper alive's Yoga.
     
    Last edited: Nov 4, 2020
    Mar 28, 2024
  6. Fire Squad
    Posts: 7,544
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    Fire Squad Boss Don Biggavel

    Nov 4, 2020
    I don't even need to go to other websites for new music anymore, this and @awhellno the plugs :wow5:
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  7. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 5, 2020
    Drakeo the Ruler - Pippy Long Stockin ft. Ketchy the Great & Ralfy the Plug


    It only feels right to post Drakeo today. TYFUGTL was a tremendous accomplishment, but Cold Devil remains one of the weirdest, most entertaining albums to come out of the last decade imo. This song is one of the best reasons why. Can't wait to hear what Drakeo cooks up once he's back in the studio.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  8. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 7, 2020
    King Von - Armed & Dangerous


    You already know. Full album on repeat today. Another one gone too soon. RIP VON.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  9. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 8, 2020
    NAV & Wheezy - Emergency Tsunami

    First NAV drops one of the best songs of the year, and now this. If you told me last year I’d be constantly hitting repeat on an album by the brown boy with the bowl cut, I’d have called you insane. Look, Nav isn’t a very good rapper. He’s a terrible rapper actually, with an inability make anything he says interesting (“whole click like dried out toothpaste…. they’re solid.”). But with the maestro that is Wheezy at his side (and keeping it to a very commendable 33 minutes) Nav suddenly becomes…. good? To an extent. He plays to his strengths (his drip, his women, his shooters/ops, uh…. he mentions lean quite a lot too). Nav’s exasperation at how people don’t recognise the extent his drip became a somewhat funny meme and think (?) he’s self-aware enough to use that to his advantage.


    But really this album is all about the atmosphere, the ambience. Its all about that drip. And like he did for Gunna earlier this year, Wheezy creates an aquatic universe of crashing tidal waves, torrential downpour, emergency tsunamis. Its absolutely gorgeous. Like you’re clad in scuba gear exploring shipwrecks in the ocean while VVS-encrusted schools of tropical fish dart in and out of your vision.


    Nav is really just there as an instrument in Wheezy’s orchestra, and to his credit, he’s developed an ability to write some incredibly catchy hooks and refrains, albeit all still delivered in that nasally Siri-like moan. Thankfully, you couldn’t ask for a better or more suitable selection of guests on here that add just enough extra flavour to keep things interesting, but at the same time stay submerged beneath Nav and Wheezy’s world. Gunna, Baby, Thugger, Keed and even hip hop’s most reclusive zoologist/culinary artist Sahbabbi all show up to take a dip, all of them k--- it.


    As I keep having to remind myself, the entire album - front-to-back - is great, but nothing quite reaches the tidal monstrosity that is Friends & Family, the album’s opening and best song. Wheezy’s instrumental is so ostentatious, so arrogant and self-important you can’t help but get caught up in the wave as it comes crashing through the speakers so forcefully, just like the classically poor-taste Nav-ish tsunami visuals in the album visuals.


    Say what you will about Navraj but f--- it, this whole thing slaps. Young Wheezy is indeed the wave, and on Emergency Tsunami, Nav is right there with him.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  10. Chrollo
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    Chrollo ♱ كرولو

    Nov 8, 2020
    First Nav project I enjoyed and where I'm not mad that a producer wasted his beats on him, like I was with Perfect Timing
     
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  11. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 8, 2020
    still can't get over how well this all came together, and its actually made me want to go back and check out his older s--- again, although I know I'm probably gonna be disappointed lol. What I really want now is more fully Wheezy produced albums, the man is a demon. Wheezy x Sahbabii would be crazy.
     
    #71
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  12. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 9, 2020
    Peso Peso - Trappin & Killin


    “i’m the plug, I came up from a crumb-husta”
    Peso Peso, aka The Hardest Ese Ever (also the title of his breakout 2019 mixtape) is a Mexian-American, Texas-based The Sauce Factory affiliate. Like label-mates the Sauce Twinz, Peso's all about splashing and dripping in the most animated, ad-lib heavy way possible. Peso's clearly inspired by the Texan legends before him - namely, South Park Mexican, who's whispery flow he channels into his own, this time over a typically bouncy Jeston/Cash-MoneyAP instrumental. I havent heard much outside of a few singles, but this has convinced me to some digging into Peso's catalog.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  13. Chrollo
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    Chrollo ♱ كرولو

    Nov 9, 2020
    Are those light up balenciagas lmaoooo. Hard song tho
     
    #73
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  14. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 10, 2020
    Grip - 3:16 ft. JID & Kenny Mason


    I havent listened to the full Proboscidea EP, which is Grip's second of the year and is for reasons unknown to me named for the group of mammals that have trunks, including elephants and mammoths. But with Kenny Mason and JID (who channels Young Thug's Check) in tow, Grip more than makes up for weird project titles.
     
    Chrollo, Ordinary Joel and Fire Squad like this.
    Mar 28, 2024
  15. Buddha
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    Nov 10, 2020
    Thank you for this Sav. Right in my wheel house. I would have never heard this if you didn’t post.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  16. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 11, 2020
    Doe Boy & Southside - Demons R Us
    Doe Boy is a rapper from Cleveland, Ohio, currently signed to Future’s Free Bandz imprint and who has carved out an interesting little niche for himself over the past year or so. In an interview following the release of his late 2019 Streetz Need Me 2, Doe Boy revealed Pluto’s advice to him - to embrace the NWA comparisons that fans had brought up - “you gotta make the project sound like that old school Eazy E and Ice Cube,” Future apparently told him.


    Demons R Us, Doe Boy’s collaboration with producer Southside picks up where SNM2 left off (lets pretend the DJ Esco helmed 56 Birds never happened). Given its clear horror-themed production and content, you might be tempted to call it Savage Mode-lite, but there’s more to the Freebandz x 808 Mafia collaboration than meets the eye. First of all, Doe Boy really does sound like Eazy-E. And when Southside channels his inner Dre, like on the 42 Dogg x Babyface Ray collaboration Get in Dere, it all comes together perfectly - “you don’t pull up with a 100 you got leave with zero goons!”


    I often find Southside’s production bland (see Still Swervin, Evil Genius), but he largely manages to avoid that trap (get it?) here, taking a page out of Metro’s book by injecting those swelling horror-themed violin strings, demonic, hellish choral samples and in the middle of the album delving into drill (the Chicago kind) territory that all comes together sounding clinical and polished, but still interesting, especially with a handful of vicious guest appearances who all bring their A-game.



    The album definitely tapers off towards the end, as Southside seems to lose steam but its clear Doe Boy himself put his heart and soul into this project. He sounds energised, he sounds hungry and never runs out of creative and violent ways to threaten his foes.


    It ain’t no Savage Mode II, but Doe Boy and Southside have got something I'll be returning to here. If its anything like this I'd love to hear a Volume 2.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  17. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 11, 2020
    Freddie Gibbs & Alchemist - God Is Perfect


    Ever wondered what Gangsta Gibbs would sound like if he teleported back to 95-96 NY, snuck into a h--- on Earth studio session and spazzed the ever-living f--- out over a filthy, head-stomped-on-the-curb instrumental that sounds like Prodigy would break nose bones over? Unless Al’s got ya back.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  18. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 15, 2020
    Big K.R.I.T. - Mt. Olympus


    The craziest thing about Kendrick's storied Control list is that (almost) none of the rappers he mentioned could actually go toe-to-toe with him. I mean even Jay Elect got washed on the very same song. The man was stating facts. He reigned supreme; king of both coasts. Only one of the inhabitants of the hip hop Mt. Olympus dared stand in his path. Its a pity it took Krit another 3 (almost 4) years until he actually made good on his promise with the epic 4Eva Is A Mighty Long Time, and by then Kendrick had already taken over the world, but the song itself still stands as one of the brightest moments in Krit's career.
     
    Mar 28, 2024
  19. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 17, 2020
    Your Old Droog - Pravda ft. Mach Hommy, El-P, Tha God Fahim & Black Thought


    Droog's come a long way since he first appeared on the scene as a suspected Nas side-project. He dropped two sensational projects last year and is now gearing up for his first drop of 2020 - Dump YOD, due to drop this Friday. On Pravda, Droog assembles the avengers in one of the best posse cuts in recent memory: Mach-Hommy, Tha God Fahim, El-P and Black Thought all go in, in an almost Wu-Tang-like fashion, doing their utmost to out culinary reference each other over one of those minimal looped drumless sampled instrumentals that sound like an old record player that was found in a shelled-out 1940's Soviet bloc basement. Who's got the best verse? Its anyone's game but my money's on Droog himself as he injects snatches of Russian into a verse loaded with clever one-liners and similes. I wouldnt be mad if you said it was Black Thought though - where was this guy on SoT3?
     
    Last edited: Nov 17, 2020
    Mar 28, 2024
  20. Sav Stanfield
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    Nov 18, 2020
    Sheff G - Lights On


    Sheff G is essentially Biggie reincarnated in drill form. Ok well maybe not as dextrous or as gifted a writer as his husky 90s counterpart, but its uncanny how much of Biggie's energy, his presence he emulates when he's in the booth. Following a whirlwind 2019 and 2020 so far, Lights On is the perfect stepping stone to the next chapter in Sheff's book: he's the neighborhood hero, the underdog, "they never loved me then, I got rich and they love me now", but as is the case in a lot of his music (see his classic debut The Unluccy Luccy Kid), he's still the same antisocial, will-revert-to-violence Sheff G he was before he came up. I can't wait to see what he does next.
     
    Mar 28, 2024