Week #41 ('20) Singles
Welcome to my Singles post, where I go over all of the loose songs released over the past week so. These are songs that are not currently attached to projects, and may either be promotional singles for an upcoming project or songs dropped at the random whim of the artist. I’ll show you the single, where to find it out in the wild, and a little blurb about it for my thoughts/further context. Click here to see previous Singles posts.
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lil ricefield (Feat. Seiji Oda, DaBoii, & Cash Kidd) – Trapanese (Remix)
I saw DaBoii and Cash Kidd and thought “well this can’t be that bad”. From the beginning “ramen noodles on my dick while I’m clappin’ cheeks”, I knew this song was going to be a classic. The beat is a trap banger with that Japanese martial arts montage bliss behind the madness, way harder than it had any right to be. Every person on here kills their performances: I didn’t know how well the west-coast killers Boii and Kidd would do on here, but once they hit the beat it made perfect sense. Their verses are so fucking hard, with crazy one-liners that they always come with on their features. The cartoon and pop-culture references are on point, the humor isn’t too over the top but it’s still front and center, and the flows are actually fire. I really can’t think of anything that separates this from legit West-Coast trap besides the dude being called lil ricefield, which might be a bit too much edginess. Absolute banger.
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Chip – Flowers
This is the first of a crazy amount of London content that came at us this week, from the singles on up to the projects. This here is a diss track that Chip has put out in response to Stormzy showing up at Chip’s apartment (while he wasn’t there… and while his family was there… and had to be escorted out by the police) unannounced. If you want a rundown of the beef here… I don’t have one, because I honestly didn’t know that these two were beefing like that. Kind of disappointing that all of these huge figures in the Grime scene are no longer getting along like that, from Wiley to Stormzy, but it all seems to boil down to “how far from the Grime sound have you strayed” at the end of the day. This diss track is fantastic, taking apart superficially a lot of Stormzy’s façade and actions, all with good wordlplay and convicted delivery, and I’ll be interested to see how Stormzy responds to the send (and if he’ll do it on wax or if he’ll pull up again on some weirdo shit).
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Ghetts (Feat. Skepta) – IC3
This is actually a very special moment for Grime fans, as the bonds between Ghetts and Boy Better Know (which is the record label founded by Skepta and JME, and a loose terms for other affiliates like Frisco and Jammer) have not been very amicable this past decade. Various sneak disses and sends have been commonplace between the two camps, but this seems like the end of that feud, which can only be positive for people who want more Grime music. IC3 takes it back to what these two dudes to best: spit hot bars. The instrumental isn’t very flashy or explosive, but it makes more room for Ghetts and Skepta to flex their lyrical muscles with wordplay and humor that only the best of Grime emcees can pull off. It’s pretty long too, so you’ll get your fill of the London-style on this one. Hopefully this means a Ghetts LP soon, cause it’s been a minute.
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D Double E (Feat. P-Money, Frisco, Backroad Gee, & Novelist) – Tell Me A Ting (Remix)
I like the original track a lot, and I wish Kano could have been kept on this cut, but overall I love this new remix a lot more. The guests on here run across a lot of different styles of rapping found in the Grime scene: nasty deliveries, lyrical wordplay, brute force attitudes. I’ve got to give special attention to Backroad Gee, who, on paper, was clearly the loser, but he has by far my favorite verse on here; it’s cartoonishly over-the-top and in your face, with the low voice and harsh yelling being a real treat. Huge theatrical grime beat, catchy and memorable hook, gauntlet of emcees: what more do you want?
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Jay NiCE, Ru$h, & Tha God Fahim – Grandiose
The last project that Jay and Ru$h came with, the fantastic Fly Art with Roc Marciano and Willie the Kid, is in my top projects of the year for sure, and this track here scratches that same itch for high-class underground music. I’m loving how slow and patient their tracks are, with the content of the lyrics and confidence of their delivery taking center stage. Fahim is always a welcome face with anyone from the Delaware scene, with Grandiose being the lead single for a joint album between the three coming out in the next few weeks. If you like your hip-hop with a little bit of luxury, you cannot go wrong with these guys.
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King Von (Feat. Fivio Foreign) – I Am What I Am
Chicago and Brooklyn have been having a field day over the past few months together, with crazy collaborations between people like King Von, Pop Smoke, Calboy, and Sheff G. Fivio has emerged as the face of the Drill movement in New York (which might be outdated information by the time I release this given his recent assault charges), and his appearance here is just as fiery as any of his other recent features. I cannot get enough of this guy’s flow, so weird and creative, and the mix with Von is as perfect as a collab between the two could have been. King Von is one of the most violent emcees from Chicago in a while, rivalling voices like G Herbo and Chief Keef for sure. Solid banger, and a solid combination of the old Drill and new Drill worlds.
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Juicy J (Feat. NLE Choppa) – Load It Up
You can never trust when Juicy is giving out release date info, but with singles actually dropping it’s hard to not be excited for a possible release from one of my favorite emcees. Juicy J is hilarious (although recently I’ve learned most of my friends think he’s terrible… y’all are trippin for real), with one-liners for days and days, and a clownish-yet-hard delivery that can have you laughing and fearing for your life. In case you didn’t feel the latter, NLE Choppa is here to give you some real murder talk, clearly taking from that old school Three Six playbook when rapping on a track with one of his key influences. Great track, very excited for an album from the legend (and for another project from NLE for that matter.
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Benny the Butcher (Feat. Lil Wayne & Big Sean) – Timeless
So this track has been making the rounds recently because it’s one of the most un-Griselda-sounding singles the collective has ever put out. Two reasons for this, but the most important is the production from Hit-Boy (who is producing the entirety of Benny’s next project, slated to release this Friday), which is much more clean, inspiring, and pop-appealing than pretty much anything the Butcher has put out in many years. But there are also the features: Lil Wayne is a natural fit in the spitters department, but a lot people don’t see Big Sean and Benny in the same ballpark. Y’all know I love Big Sean over here, so I don’t hold those same opinions, but the prospect of an album with a more friendly sound from the Griselda member is a welcome one, and I hope that his profile in the industry gets even bigger as a result.
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Lil Wayne (Feat. Gudda Gudda & Hoodybaby) – NFL
Speaking of Weezy, he’s dropped a single of his own over here, seemingly in partnership with the actual NFL? I don’t know a damn thing about sports (I watched an NBA game with The Boys™ the other day, and I think it was the first full basketball game I’ve ever seen), so if this actually as some sort of tie-in please excuse me for being ignorant. The track itself is a banger, with all three guys here killing their verses and hook, especially Wayne I mean my god man, he just never runs out of dope shit to say. Gudda Gudda is also criminally underrated, never failing to impress on a Wayne track. Just a great nocturnal banger to jam out to on game day.
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38 Spesh & Elcamino – What I Be On
Spesh and Elcamino have a second project on the way, Sacred Psalms, with this being the lead single for that project. I feel like it’s more energetic and menacing than a lot of Elcamino’s other work, with a rugged flow and dangerous delivery that plays well with Spesh’s more antagonistic and heavier beat. The hook is also sticky as fuck, reminding me of something 50 Cent or G-Unit as a whole could have come up with back in the day. I’ve noticed that Elcamino is finally getting that respect he has been grinding for, and I’m all here for it as one of his biggest fans. Very excited to see what this new project has to offer.
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Karlae (Feat. Young Thug & Gunna) – Jimmy Choo
This track as all of the stylings of other YSL releases of late: the ultra-clean and melodic instrumental and vocal production, the drugs/sex/fashion talk, and the unique and odd natures of the emcees. Thug really knows how to pick ‘em, because Karlae is one of the better emcees in this lane he’s collabed with recently. The hook is alright, maybe slightly too modulated, but the verses are all fire. The verses are pretty substantial, feeling more like a true collaborative track rather than one-off featured verses, so I appreciate that. If Karlae has an album on the way, I’ll give it a shot.
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SAINt JHN – Gorgeous
I need a new SAINt JHN album, sooner rather than later is preferred. A single like this might not get people onto the JHN wave as much as tracks like Trophies, but it’s a harder and more rap-centric side of the man that shows he has many different talents within the hip-hop R&B sphere. The beat is standard-fare trap, his flows triplet up, and his voice looses a fair amount of melody in favor of this low-pitched growl. I do think it runs a bit too long, but I enjoy listening to Gorgeous for how different it is from his more popular material.
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YRN Lingo & Takeoff – All Time High
Never heard of this Lingo guy before, but from what I’m reading he’s is Takeoff’s actual brother? It would make sense the two would have a track together, but I can’t really tell that the two are related at all, a good thing in that I didn’t want two identical voices on the track, but kind of disappointing given that they really have nothing in common. It seems like Lingo wants to go more for a melodic angle, kind of sounding like Shy Glizzy on the hook, while Takeoff does his normal fiery spit-taking on the track. I like the vibe of the track, and I’d like to see if YRN Lingo can actually use the exposure to create something separate from the Migos legacy and sound.
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