Smoke DZA is quietly one of the most consistent rappers on hiphop’s current “street album” underground. Starting with the awesomely titled George Kush da Button, DZA has rocked a string of free, album-quality releases high on, well, high subject matter (hence the loose #Jets affiliation). Maybe owing to his preferred state, he’s subtle, not as boisterous or playful as contemporaries Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y, which has probably kept him from sharing their level of popularity.
His upcoming project Rolling Stoned aims at “real” album status with an iTunes release, and first single “4 Loko” is sure to turn heads, and not the Linda Blair way the beverage does (especially the fire hydrant vomiting). Yes, it borrows the Houston sound of odes to codeine over intoxicating/ed sonics, and yes, these days DZA and hook man ASAP Rocky have more in common with Mr. Mike than Ma$e, but this one is screwed in the realest sense of the word: twisting deeper into darkness, blackout incoming with any sense of orientation dimming. Compromised minor chords and uneasy guitar shrills give a gritty feeling of abandon only heightened by the video. DZA looks sloppy in his polo; ASAP’s shirt is on, then it’s off; 4 Loko seeps from a man’s mouth before more goes in; an ATV bucks in the Harlem streets. A BMW suddenly looks less luxurious. A creepy drug haze as thick as syrup prevails, all rolls slowed while wading through drab dopeness.
In part inspired by Sean Palmer’s 10 Young Rap Projects That Deserve More Attention over at SSG Music (which schooled the hell out of me, good lookin) here are some recent slappers of note. Unlike that list, mine is not so ambitious, because not only does it feature less than 10 laudatory listings (half in fact), it also covers songs and not whole projects, for the most part.
Before we get into it, be sure you already have Danny Brown’s XXX. I dig it very much and a full album review shall be forthcoming.
The latest leak off Numbers is so awesomely moody, a gorgeously numb tune about abandonment and mistrust that climaxes in a moment of unity found through shared pain. This shit is grown, especially Left Brain’s beat, a clatter in the void that grows into something soulful in step with Hodgy’s verses.
Another kind of grown courtesy of SK (whose Late Arrival Mixtape is worth a DL) and John Crown (whose Coffee & Beatsneeds to come out soon). Maintaining the spirit of the Tony Starks original, both rappers spit serious about fatherhood’s beauty. Mr. Crown takes it further, sprinkling the complications and anxieties of daddy-dom with papa pride. John is one of the best cats doing it out there right now, and if he can find more time to focus on music, he has the makings of an underground favorite.
Have to admit, I’m really not feeling most of P. Duke’sEasy Money 3: Celebrations & Tribulations. Too often dude is like an overly earnest ST 2 Lettaz boasting about things Chris Rock would say you’re supposed to do, like paying off college loans. Not to take anything away from that accomplishment — lord knows it’s worthy of celebration — but it doesn’t always make for the most interesting subject matter, especially when coupled with fairly run-of-the-mill red state rattlers. But then there’s “My Bitch & My Burner,” a banger that makes me wish for a car, and a stereo, and a summer, all three of which have not appeared together at the same moment anytime in the near past. KD (whose criminally slept on and excellent G-Fluid is now available for however much you want to pay, so go get it) slays yet another guest verse with no-filler Bama talk.
(via) Gangsta Gibbs and the Snowman rhyme tough over another Lil Lody production that will be off The Real is Back 2. Freddie is the most ferocious rapper alive and sounds good over Jeezy’s typically grandiose trappings (pun intended). This inclusion mostly serves to openly declare my indecision regarding which I am more excited for: the pair’s September 2 show at the Showbox or Gibbs’ Cold Day in Hell.
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Also on that Jeezy/Gibbs bill — Avatar Young Blaze, who just dropped The Iron Curtain street album and through the course of his career has learned a thing or two from Jeezy’s slow-flow. Though I prefer his last mixtape, Danny Darko, for its depictions of a hard-scrabble soul finding the good life while always aware of his capacity to come unhinged, this release has plenty moments all its own, including and especially the lyrical knuckle-cracking that is “No Zzz’s” and the suave bad girl tune “Hollywood Star.”
Based on track-listing alone I was most intrigued by “Green Gotham,” billed to feature none other than Biggavelli himself. Aside from shouts on the intro and a slyly slurring half-sung chorus, the waviness is kept to a minimum, but unlike pretty much every other hook-for-hire piggyback this cut is dope. Young Avatar gets in some pointed jabs: “diesel like my old bitches, hella sour.”
In an inspiring bit of our interview (which was fun as fuck) that didn’t make the article, Nacho wistfully reminisces about his first tattoos.
I’ve always wanted tattoos. I got my first tattoo in 7th grade. Did it myself, jail style. Got in trouble, got caught. I don’t want to even explain how I did it because I don’t want no fucking kids to get bad ideas. I’m lucky I didn’t get ink poisoning and shit infected.
It stayed there until about tenth grade and then I met this dude, a hitchhiker, man. We gave this dude a ride, we were high and shit, and he had a little bag. We were like, “What you got?” And he was like, “Oh, it’s my tattoo equipment.” So we were like, man! ‘Cause we’re all in high school and can’t go to the tattoo place. We would pay this guy anything to have all night tattoo parties at our house. We would give this guy fucking sherms, money, coke – whatever he fucking wanted, and he would tat all of us up until the morning.
Fice won the readers’ vote for Best Hip-Hop Artist in Weekly Volcano’s Super Best of Tacoma 2011 and I profiled him. Can’t find it on the Volcano’s website, but please catch it over at Fice’s spot.
Soft-spoken but eager to share, humble yet self-assured, Fice and I talked for nearly two hours about “Two Five Three,” the song’s backlash (he is clearly frustrated with it), and plans for his long-awaited album to finally drop. Surprisingly, he also displayed an impressive knowledge of early-to-mid 90s Bay Area rap, the shit I nerd out over and to which I dedicated my late-night college radio show, The Yellow Bus aka The Hella Hyphy Hour, a favorite among the incarcerated (no joke – we got hella fan mail from the state pen). Or maybe it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise — “In the Kitchen” samples the same bass line Nicky and Lynch made into classics.
In a brief part of our conversation that will probably only interest myself, Fice schooled me on Bay shit. Interview after the jump, slaps after the interview.
Like most everybody in the American listening public who decided to pay attention, I discovered grime with Run The Road and Boy In Da Corner almost exclusively to like something difficult and badger my friends with it — both with the music itself and my holier than thou hiphop head snobbery. The UK street music’s atonal glitches and densely accented lyrics were an immediate turn-off to my small circle, who adored Brotha Lynch and Little Brother on equal footing but could not understand why in God’s name I insisted Tynchy Stryder was so dope.
Flash forward 5 or 6 years and grime found the same fate as that era’s other personal institutions, like keeping Febreeze in car, locker, and backpack — it worked at the time but was ultimately outgrown when one day I just didn’t care anymore. Mostly that’s because Run The Road 2 (minus “Sick 2 Def”) fell flat and Dizzee Rascal got a bit too ravey.
“Bluku! Bluku!” sees Rascawitz returning somewhat to form (at least Calvin Harris had nothing to do with it) on a song that is either really awesome or really mediocre, I can’t tell. It does the mash-out music thing a whole lot better than anything on the Waka Flocka hero worship that is Giggs’ latest mixtape, in a menacing NYC Timb-strapped kind of way. The song gets me because I’m a sucker for:
- Repetitive, simple, but ginormous beat
- Barely intelligible rappers who sound equal parts hard/endearing (“Oh mai gwaad”)
So glad this dropped. The unquestionable personal highlight of Saturday’s Members Only 2 Year Party, aka the 206′s best annual local hiphop gathering, was TH3RDZ‘s performance of “WylOut.” On the summer’s most painfully gorgeous day (I say so because of the promise it gave this summer of gloom, hopefully one soon to be permanently brightened by the sun’s gracious obliteration of the overbearing marine air game-killing our city) Oldominion vets JFK, Candidt, and XPerience made a rooftop packed with day-drinking fools lose their collective shit by wholeheartedly doing what the song demanded. The energy emanating from HG Lodge’s sun deck during those three and a half minutes made an already great weekend exponentially better and peaked this writer’s music-induced high, which lasted until my exhausted ass passed out at 8:30 on Sunday night, and woke up the next morning to see January, again.
Though none of the MCs match the energy of their live performance, the recorded “WylOut” puts in focus BeanOne’s contribution, a beat that quickly builds one component at a time, growing with a snare slap here and then with bouncing horn blaps there.
TH3RDZ are a project for the rap nerds, for those who just want to hear their favorite rappers get together and go the fuck off. JFK’s nasal urgency, Candidt’s oscillating pitches and rhythms, and XP’s punchlines with vocals falling somewhere in the middle make for a tightly constructed trio. Their previously released track with 10.4 Rog, “Therapy,” bumps on a more reserved tip. Based off those distinct offerings, it’s hard to tell what This, That, & TH3RDZ will sound like, except dope.
Filthy, filthy, filthy. Bad Ass Yellow Boy Nacho Picasso links up with Noir instrumentalists Blue Sky Black Death for “Numbnuts,” the first leak off the Cloud Nice MC’s upcoming For The Glory. BSBD’s past rap collaborations have included Hell Razah and Jean Grae but mostly lean towards the Babygrande crew, which makes sense — their instrumentals are morosely melodic, chill dipping into chilling.
Here, they give the Tat in the Hat a lush and moody number to do what he did on Ziploc Hip-hop‘s best moments: exquisitely say very little. I mean that in the very best way possible, nor is it meant as a back-handed compliment; Picasso, when he is on one, excels at refreshingly detailing tried-and-true trap-rap tropes. “Numbnuts” is a constant stream of grin-inducing one-liners and shows off impressive writing chops. This right here is a verse by a rapper’s rapper:
Pistol on my nightstand, puffin’ on a night cap
Selling Barbara Streisand, my car look like ice and (???)
Bitch I am a bad guy, no I’m not a nice man
But I’m always shinin’, hang around and get a nice tan
I’m blowin’ money killin’ bills, black mamba
I’m a monsta, Nacho the Chupacabra
You a coon, I’m hakuna matata
My boo be in Prada with brand new tatas
Picasso is considerably laid-back and his steez of imagery and wordplay above all else makes comparison to Curren$y easy, but his rhymes are very methodical and his flow follows a strict talk-rap pattern. Still, his sense of humor really stands out: “If I had a job I would take a long lunch.” “Numbnuts” is like an extended mid-day break, small talk stimulating a lingering afternoon haze. It’s fairly delirious, a sublime combination of Nacho’s deliberate and funny street raps with BSBD’s dense, melancholy electronics.
I’ve been posted up elsewhere a lot more lately, but will be spending more time here soon. I promise. To prove I haven’t been slacking and so that the first thing people see when they visit isn’t a story about the time I threw up on a wall, here are some rap writings I did for other people.
- I romped around in John Crown’s Trailblazer for an afternoon and made a story out of it for Weekly Volcano. I heard Coffee & Beats too, and it made me even more impatient for its release.
- I reviewed Shabazz Palaces’ rightly celebrated love letter to H.E.R., Black Up, over at Members Only.
- Wikipedia described in detail the fascinating story of Mary Mallon, which in turn became an SSG album review for Aesop Rock and Rob Sonic’s new side project and their LP Are You Gonna Eat That?
- The swoopy-haired kids with lip rings love Grieves and Budo and I saw their inspiring positivity and uninhibited enjoyment of live rap firsthand for SSG.
- Lil Jon and Beat Connection got love over at DList.
One fine fall evening several years ago I might have been finishing my second Anglish of the night while talking at what was surely a kind-hearted young lady. A degenerate Idahoan approached with a bottle of act bad and decidedly forced upon this writer a Herculean pull entirely against his will. Mulleted merrymaker appeased, I returned my attention to the mark of my macking, undoubtedly strong, as 40 water and errclurrr commenced a raging but short-lived battle that would end in a mid-sentence massacre onto a nearby wall. Skirmish over, I put the wounded soldier out of its misery, wiped away the remaining refuse from the night’s recent carnage with my sleeve, and finished my sentence. The utterly enraptured female hung on every word, mouth agape, eyes wide, reeling such from the knowledge just dropped that her only response was, “Are you OK?”
That One Show know how it goes. Snag “Awkward” and “Get Off My Tip” above to hear Ripynt’s faded faux paus involving Tommy Lee’s… tip.
Posted in the Parking Lot’s favorite teenage mic terrors Kung Foo Grip are inching closer to their next project Capitalize. In the meantime they’ve dropped another couple loosies to appease the public with “Weakdays” and “She Will, He Will,” following the tight triply .lower.case exclusive back in February.
I gushed about the improvement and sonic expansion shown in that release, and I’ll do it again here: Greg Cypher and Eff Is H continue to push their artistry on “Weakdays,” going for their least Kung Foo Grip-y cut yet. Taysean’s airy and glossy production is a sharp left turn from their previous boom-bap choices, even the more fleshed-out ones of .lower.case, but the boys Foo sound at home on the Cloud Niceness.
“Weakdays” is about never having one, and so far, Kung Foo Grip have not recorded an off day. Their rapid improvement, obvious talent, and exceptional live shows have Capitalize high on this summer’s most wanted list. Be sure to catch them at the Capitol Hill Block Party holding down the Vera stage with cannabisseur cousins BFA.
