Dec 22, 2020

Big Mali - Outro


I know absolutely nothing about Big Mali and havent heard any of her music but my GOD this goes

 

Dec 21, 2020

this is great Sav!!

 

Dec 21, 2020

Man, this is great! Seriously appreciate the hook up!

 

Dec 21, 2020

thanks man, I wouldn't think Medhane would be up your alley much, but I have a feeling you'd love some of the previous s--- I posted - check out the posts for Blxst and Hotboii, let me know what you think!

 

Dec 15, 2020

Hotboii - Double O Baby




Its good to be proved wrong sometimes. Just a short while ago while reviewing $NOT’s Beautiful Havoc, I wrote about how the once flourishing Florida scene felt like it was on life support. Orlando’s Hotboii’s been making noise for a minute now but his second album of the year - Double O Baby - has given me serious doubts about my previous take on the state of Sunshine State rap. Hotboii’s sound is sun-soaked, sprawled out on a beach but a cold-, steadily beating heart beneath. He shifts from dead-serious to playful, all delivered in a moody, Melly-like melodic croon, with the slurred Kodakish pronunciation that captures that regional sound so well. It’s a little padded out around the edges, but there are some serious, genuine all time hits on this record. Even mores than $NOT, Hotboii is malleable and it doesn’t seem like there’s al limit to where he could next. I see big things ahead. And its not just that hairstyle.

 

Dec 6, 2020

one of the best new artists I've come across recently, hands down. Yeah the Ty and Bino features are amazing. Apparently he's did a whole project with Bino a while back, I'mma need to check that out

 

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.

 

Oct 29, 2020

Sauce Twinz - Big Drip Squad ft. Sauce Gohan & Sada Baby


There was a stage when Sauce Twinz first exploded on the scene where I actually thought they might just reach Migos levels of fame. That never happened but they've released a catalog of incredible music anyway. This ones a big highlight off their Lost in the Sauce tape from earlier this year. Its one of those 'alien-spaceship-touches-down-in-the-trap' instrumentals, punctuated by those classic Sauce adlibs. Everyone kills it - Sada's verse is especially great - but Sauce Walka completely dominates when he pops up mid-way through the song with enough energy to tranquilize a buffalo. OOWEEEEEEEE

 

Oct 28, 2020

WEEKDAY b-----r


With flows that pivot from his Lil Peep/Gnar-eque emo trap connects to the weird patterns and intricacies of fellow Atlantans like JID and Kenny Mason and a selection of instrumentals that could be ripped directly from a $UICIDEBOY$ album (they're frequent collaborators), Cookies is a highlight off Germ's short and sweet HIJINX album released earlier this year.

 

Oct 25, 2020

Weekly roundup: 23rd October

I've decided to push back the albums round up. 48 hours isn't enough to form coherent opinions on full albums, especially with the amount that drops these days. But I'll keep the singles wrap-up going. This week was - yet again - stacked:

Future - Gucci Bucket Hat ft. Pap Chenl & Heroin Young

I have no idea who Pap Chanel and Heroin Young are but it doesn’t matter because I’ve been waiting on this for god knows how long and its everything I wanted (Fewtch repeating ‘Gucci bucket hat’ with such gleefu, reckless abandon til its seared into your brain for eternity’)

Sada Baby - Not Regular ft. Lil Yachty

Another week, another episode in the the increasingly great Yachty-Michigan show. This time Sada Baby gets yet another Yachty special, building on their previous 2 (or is it 3? 4? I’ve lost count) collars this year alone. Might have to do a more detailed write up on this soon….

Youngboy NBA - story of o.j. (Top Version)

I’ve decided I don’t really fw Youngboy’s music that much. I can’t lie he’s made some great songs in his time (Until Death Calls My Name remains his best work so far), but they get lost in the sea of his never-ending mixtapes and singles that over time all tend to blend into one another. This one stuck out though, and its not just the instrumental, its the focus and purpose in Youngboy’s rapping - for once it doesn’t sound like he’s just riffing whatever melodies come into his head, this sounds thought-out, this sounds like rapper we know he’s capable of being. More like this please.

BfB da Packman - Honeypack


“she wanna lick my a---? hmmm ugh, don’t mind it.”

I’m loving the attention BfB da Packman’s getting recently. This one isn’t hitting as hard as some of his previous songs (Free Joe Exotic still a strong contender for SOTY) but this music video is something else. He’s fat, he’s vulgar and he never misses an opportunity to take his shirt off. Whats not to love?

JID - Cludder Freestyle

The more I listen to JID the more I like him. He’s at his best on songs like this, just letting loose with ridiculously intricate tongue twisters, flow climbing across the walls like chameleons on speed (i don’t know what the f--- that simile means but thats what I imagine when I hear this lol).

Flip Dinero - No No No ft. A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie

Flip Dinero’s gifted man. That voice is so f---ing smooth. I kinda wish A Boogie wasn’t even on this, his high-pitch takes away from what is otherwise an amazing song.

Teejayx6 - Parents

Every single Teejayx6 song sounds the exact same but I can’t get enough of it lol. His flow is completely off-kilter, he frequently just rhymes the exact bars again and again, but says the most outrageous, outlandish dumb s--- imaginable that you can’t help but be enraptured every time his voice comes through the speakers. This song came out ages ago but the video just dropped this week.
My uncle almost stabbed my auntie coz she had a MISCARRIAGE

pure art.

Night Lovell - Alone

Night Lovell's music sounds like you’ve walked into a smoke-filled drug den with pentagrams drawn on the wall while Three 6 Mafia blares in the background. This song is one of a trio of singles he’s dropped this year, and the crazy thing is this is the weakest of the 3.

Jack Harlow - Tyler Herro

The white boy of the moment chases a follow up hit to Whats Poppin. Has he got it with this one? Sounds like he might. I wonder where he’ll eventually land up on the Asher Roth - Lil Dicky scale.

YN Jay - AHHHHH

Wrapping up this week with one the most of the most entertaining rappers around right now, with yet another video featuring an astounding volume of a---, complemented by what are without question the most satisfactory adlibs you’ve heard since Jeezy was ‘yeeeeeeeeaaaah’ing back in 05.

 

Oct 25, 2020

ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: QUIN NFN

If you haven’t figured it out by now, that Southern-based rapid-fire, s----talking, base-heavy, bouncy trend of music coming primarily out of the South is the s--- that I am on at the moment. Pretty much what DaBaby and JetsonMade helped popularise, but what the likes of 30 Deep Grimeyy and Lil Loaded have taken and made their made their own.

Hailing from Austin, Texas, Quin NFN is another of these, and probably my favourite of the three. A lot of that has to do with the producers he works with with (CioMadeTheTrack, in particular), who excel in creating that club-ready bounce, tinged with a hint of menace bubbling beneath the surface. Thats what Quin’s rapping sounds like too - its breathless and lively and energetic, never straying too far from the staples of threats, boasts and ‘look at me nows’, but sprinkled with enough clever punchlines so that it never seems to get stale.

Quin’s only 19 years old and dropped his first EP back in 2018 but only really hit his stride following the release of two major singles uploaded to his YouTube later that same year - Straight Thru and Talkin My s---, the latter of which became the opening track of on his big debut mixtape 4Nun - released almost exactly a year ago.



With features from NLE Choppa (the man is everywhere), and PnB Rock, 4Nun gave Quincho his big break, but he only entered my radar following an absolutely ferocious feature on Brooklyn rapper 22Gz FN & Blixkys, which is just a straight up debauch of glizzys and blickys that will has you lifting your shirt up to check for bulletwounds every time it comes through the speakers.


That convinced me to check out Quin’s follow up EP - QUINCHO, released in March this year, which is exactly what you would expect, only with a glossier sheen of production and audio quality that makes it Quin’s best work to date. He’s been busy since, gearing up to the release of Quincho Deluxe (which leaked in its entirety last week) and presumably, his debut album. I’m not sure where the singles that have dropped so far for either of these projects will land up but they have all been tremendous, including the haunting Sewed Up, featuring Lil 2z, which I think is probably Quin’s best song so far:


Like most artists in this lane, Quin's definitely pretty limited in his sound, style, content and beat selection but like those other artists there's undeniable potential here. Another artist I'll be following closely to see what he does next. If you liked any of the previous similar s--- then check this out.

 

Oct 18, 2020

Woah, this was a STACKED week. Haven’t listened to it all yet, but these are initial thoughts on everything that what I’ve heard so far:

Black Thought - Streams of Thought 3: Cane & Able
The viral 2018 10 minute Funk Flex freestyle, followed by two solid solo EPs and a handful of show-stealing guest appearances have bought renewed attention the lyrical behemoth that is Tariq Trotter, but Thought’s been a beast since The Roots first started putting on for Illadelph in the early 90s. That lyrical prowess is a gift and a curse though and SoT3 makes that painfully evident. There some big highlights here - most notably when Thought has a guest’s energy to bounce off of, but there are moments on here (Nature of the Beast) that make me feel like I’m listening to Eminem syllable cramming for the sake of it. Disappointed tbh.


Benny the Butcher - Burden of Proof
Another incredibly gifted emcee, this time teaming up with the go-to-producer of the year, Hit-Boy. On first impressions I don’t think this has come off as well as the Nas album, and I don’t think its beating out Tana Talk 3 for the best Benny album, nor FKTAG for best Griselda album of the year, but still a decent listen . One Way Flight, War Paint and Legend are the big standouts for me so far.


T.I. - The L.I.B.R.A.
Need more time for this to sink but on first few listens this is good. Great even. Its too long and has some unnecessary filler but Tip hasn’t sounded this alive and engaged in years. T.I. albums often feel overloaded with unnecessary features but holy s---, almost everyone on here killed it (Killer Mike especially)


Gucci Mane & The New 1017 - So Icy g---, Vol. 1
I’m writing a little something else for this. Coming soon…


Singles:

IDK - King Alfred

I’ll admit it, I’m a huge IDK fan. His full-length albums don’t always work out, but when he lets himself loose on his EPs and singles he’s one of the best and most exciting rappers in the game right now. Its the energy, the weird, sing-songy flows and punchlines and sneaky interpolations that make every song he drops sound like a major event. This ones no exception.

Kanye West - Nah Nah Nah

Kanye sounds unhinged on this, I love it. But difficult to imagine this being anything other than a random loosie.

Rio da Yung OG - 1v1 ft. Lil Yachty

Say what you will about Boat’s solo music but ever since linking up with Tee Grizzley back in 2017, his feature game has been immaculate. This one's yet another top notch D-to-the-A collab, this time around with Rio da Yung OG.

Young Nudy - Never

Sli’merre remains Nudy's opus, but Anyways, which dropped earlier this isn’t far behind. It seems like another one’s on the way soon - this is the second single he’s released in the last few weeks - and by far the stronger of the two.

D Smoke - Rapture

D Smoke has my attention. The bilingual Inglewood emcee has been building a strong momentum this year, starting off with his debut album, then following it up with a collab single with his TDE affiliated cousin SiR. Always a bit on the overly serious side, but this song hits.

Pop Smoke - Iced Out Audemars (Remix) ft. Lil Wayne

Pop’s music has a whole new dimension for me nowadays. There’s that inevitable adrenaline rush, but there’s also a wave of sadness. I don’t think I’ll ever get over the lost potential. Iced Out Audemars was one of the stronger cuts from the lacklustre deluxe edition of s---t for the Stars, this remix featuring yet another blistering verse from Wayne

 

Oct 14, 2020

WEEKDAY b-----r:

Pa Salieu - My Family ft. BackRoad Gee


HYPNOTIC music video. And that flute melody! I'm not familiar with Pa Salieu's music but this has definitley got me checking out for his name.