Dec 17, 2020

Amine - Limbo (Deluxe)



The Deluxe album trend that has taken off this year has been a gift and a curse. On one hand, deluxe editions give artists the opportunity to showcase those B-Sides and leftovers that didn’t fit on the original album but should still be heard (see LUV vs. the World 2). On the other there’s also the inevitable dump of half-baked/leftover music they had lying around in attempt to boost streaming numbers - often the stuff that probably should’ve been left in the vault. Either way I’ve found its also often been a surprisingly positive push to revisit an album I’ve already forgotten about in the never-ending ether of album releases - give it another spin, discover something you missed. This is especially effective when the deluxe is short and sweet - a couple of bonus tracks bundled up at the end.



For example, I’ve completely rediscovered Amine’s excellent sophomore Limbo album, with a short and sweet 7 track deluxe version that dropped a few weeks back now. Somehow the original version passed me by - a few quick listens and on to the next one. And that’s a shame because Limbo is actually an incredibly well-made, deeply personal and entertaining album, with some of the best music Amine’s made in his short but promising career. Amine’s always worn his pop-rap influences (Kanye, Drake) on his sleeve - I mean the man had a song with Nelly on his debut album. He still does, but sounds a lot more focused now, using interludes throughout the album to reflect on the profound impact Kobe’s death had on him - a realisation and maturation from an event so distant but so close to his heart. And its all reflected in the music (Deluxe included), weird and fun, but with stabs of wistful memories and regrets and doubts, as he raps and sings his way across the track-list.

 

Dec 6, 2020

BLXST - No Love Lost (Deluxe)

I know I just recently posted about Blxst, the South Central rapper/singer who’s career has started gaining some serious traction, following a number of sensational guest appearances, a debut album and a voice that sounds like a reincarnated Nate Dogg meets Ty modern day Ty Dolla $ign. Well s---, I’m posting about him again. The Deluxe version of his aforementioned debut album No Love Lost dropped this past Friday and pads out what was previously a short EP-like introduction into a full album that spirals into what is quickly turning into one of my favourite albums of the year. This album feels like a journey through LA hip hop history. Blxst himself is well aware of the Nate and Ty comparisons, but he ties and folds their influences into his own soulful sound and style that draws not only on the 2 legendary crooners, but on the entire pantheon of LA greats: from the futuristic, banging flows and rhythms of the Aftermath era to the jazzy free-flowing sounds and styles of TDE, you can hear it all. It comes together beautifully, not a carbon copy, but a rebirth. Blxst is a naturally gifted vocalist, a sharp writer and evocative storyteller. His voice floats, measured, commanding your attention but never overbearing as he takes you through his trials and tribulations. If there’s one album you should check out this week, make it this one.

 

Nov 28, 2020

d---, im just glad someones reading these! Ive been listening to so much I just feel like I gotta write at least some of it down or i'll forget lol. Glad you enjoyed that Deniro song, he's got a full album dropping next week iirc. Plus the project he dropped earlier this year was fantastic, definitley check it out if you havent already.

 

Nov 24, 2020

Megan Thee Stallion - Shots Fired


Megan x old school 90s sample = pure crack. Shots Fired is the opener to Thee Stallion's official debut album which dropped this past Friday and even though I'm still not sure how to feel about the full project (I'm leaning towards being somewhat disappointed), it does start off with a b---. This time its the aptly sampled Who Shot Ya that gets the Megan treatment, where she opens up about the infamous Tory Lanez incident. But this is more than just a reflection on what happened, this is straight up all-guns-blazing diss track, of the type we rarely get these days. Has a female rapper ever eviscerated a male rapper on a track like this? I don't think so. This is some real hot girl s---.

 

Nov 23, 2020

French Montana - Phenomenon ft. Max B


French's music is always hit or miss for me. Thats pretty much how I feel about this entire new CB5 tape, but there are a few gems scattered throughout the tracklist. Like this collab with Biggavel that sounds like a leftover from Coke Wave 4, which still remains one of my favorite French projects of all time. He can do it when he wants to, d--- it.

 

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.

 

Nov 10, 2020

Thank you for this Sav. Right in my wheel house. I would have never heard this if you didn’t post.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Nov 4, 2020

I don't even need to go to other websites for new music anymore, this and @awhellno the plugs

 

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.

 

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.

 

Oct 31, 2020

Young Nudy - Vice City


Nudy inhabits his own universe; one where he can slot in as feature sounding completely comfortable is his slurry, nasally drawl alongside the Dreamville collective or team up with his cousin 21 Savage for the murderous, trap-booming ice-pick-to-your-brain smash. And then there’s his own world - Nudy Land, if you will. It’s populated with weird, cartoony Pierre Bourne instrumentals that squeak and creak through the bass like strange creatures hiding in the rotten walls of the trap house. Long-time (but no frequent enough!) collaborator Metro does the honours here, doing his best Pierre impression, but with that clinically perfect Metro touch you can’t miss. A playful flute melody that could be Mask Off’s little brother sounds like its drowning, gasping for air in the density of Metro’s somber violin strings, while Nudy vividly describes the parallels between his native EA and the video game violence of Vice City. Oh and this music video is amazing. Its not clear if these latest few singles are building up an album/mixtape (they probably are), but if so, this is fast becoming one of my most anticipated projects of the year.

 

Oct 20, 2020

WEEKDAY b-----r

Rah Swish - Treeshin'



"You know when you killing that s--- and her leg get to shakin?" Well s---, Rah Swish turned it into a dance craze. Only in Brooklyn. The neurotic instrumental builds into high-powered drop that slaps you in the face like a freight train as Pop Smoke’s right-hand man piles on the bare-faced vulgarity with the glee of a kid in a candy store. This song sounds like an action movie, like you're in a speeding car racing across the streets at nights while never-ending NY skyscrapers loom overhead, crowding you into a manic, bright-flashing-lights drill spectacle. Its a rush.

 

Oct 13, 2020

WEEKDAY b-----r

Glockboyz Teejaee & OnFully - Wack Jumper ft. The Godfather & BandGang Lonnie Bandz


aaaaand we're back in Detroit for one of my favorite songs of the year so far. When you hear that E-E-E-EENERGY MADE THIS ONE you know its gonna be heat. And that violin on this one is just molten lava.

 

Oct 11, 2020

Thanks I came here for papoosism

 

Oct 10, 2020

Artist spotlight:

30 Deep Grimmeyy

"We ain't been hot since Nelly n'em," 30 Deep Grimeyy accuralety reflects on the NLE Choppa collab off his debut album Grimeyy 2 Society, which dropped back in July of this year. That's about where the similarities with Nelly end. Grimmeyy sounds more like he comes outta Choppa's neck of the woods, with a vicious, measured grimey (sorry) flow that punctuates every beat in the instrumental.


I haven't heard much of Grimeyy outside of this album, but he first got his claim to fame in collaboration with fellow St Louis 6-2 East Coast Crip, NWM Cee Murdaa on the collab project Splash Brothers, which dropped late last year. NoCap - the project's anchor point and opening track, was the result of Grimeyy and Cee Murdaa linking up for the first time over a beat they found on YouTube.


The collab album is amateruishly put together but clearly shows the potential. Grimeyy's much bigger budget solo album however, is a huge step forward. It's split almost exactly in half: the first portion stuffed to the brim with violent, gun-toting bangers, and the second - perhaps more interesting half - turns down the intensity, as Grimeyy starts spilling on his heart. Bando for example, is one of the most traumatic, Polo G-esuqe songs on the album, where the chest-thumping of the earlier songs of the album come back to haunt him. Maxo Kream drops in for a verse of his own reflecting on the recent death of his own brother "phone call to my mother had to tell her that somebody killed my brother was the hardest thing / up at night could hardly sleep". This in direct contrast to the Drill Lessons Grimeyy drops on us earlier on, ticking off the ways to slide as methodically as Teejayx6 will instruct you on how to scam. On another album highlight Loose Screws, Grimeyy links up with Atlanta and Detroit's (Baby and Helluva, respectively) finest for another mega-number-ofyoutube-views smash that could only happen in 2020.




Grimeyy's come-up is so typical of 2020. A kid uploads a video on Youtube over a stolen beat; overnight fame and fortune. I'm looking forward to seeing what Grimeyy does next. The future of St. Louis looks bright.

 

Oct 7, 2020

Weekday b-----r:

18Veno - Cops & Robbers ft. PG RA


There's legions of incredibly talented emcees coming out the Carolinas right now. DaBaby and JetsonMade may have brought the Carolina's to the mainstream, but it wont be long before new challengers for the crown emerge. 18veno and Neeko might just be the duo to do it, once they've settled more comfortably into their own sound and style. Veno's not even 20 yet but already raps with the ferocity of a vet, and sounds hungry on everything he touches. His (first? second?) mixtape Pablo dropped just 2 weeks ago and is the perfect showcase of his and Neeko's gifts, this one over a haunting piano-driven instrumental complete with that crunchy, focused aggression and energy that DaBaby and Jetson do so well.

 

Oct 6, 2020

Weekday b-----r:

GRIP - Finessin ft. Mick Jenkins


GRIP hails from the same Atlantan school of TDE/OutKast style-meshing that the new wave of Dreamville affiliates (Jid, EarthGang) have taken to in recent years. Grip's debut Snubnose album, released almost exactly a year ago now is the same extended metaphor Nas used on I Gave You Power; channeling his perspective into that of a gun as it passes through dilapidated Georgian streets. Finessin is a highlight off that album, also featuring a blistering verse from Mick Jenkins. Fans of JID and Kenny Mason definitley check this out.

 

Oct 5, 2020

absolutely. and I agree with you on the EP's highlights
42 Dugg is like Detroit's very own Lil Boosie and I've been listening almost daily to Young and Turnt 2 for weeks. not a huge fan of lbs kee'vin's parts on the song you posted, but the track still goes

I'm also loving ALLBLACK's "running to the bag", another great song I would have never stumbled into without ya m8!