Week #48 ('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.

——————————

D Double E (Feat. Skepta) – DON

I wasn’t expecting a song from this guy so soon after he dropped his last album Double Or Nothing, which seems like it came out just a few weeks ago. Maybe there’s a deluxe version on the way? If that theory is true, then he definitely saved the best material for that version, because this new collab with Skepta would have been one of the best on the album if it was included. It’s a Grime banger down to the bones, Skepta killing it with the flows and ferocity, and D Double E doing… what he does… very well. I really can’t explain D very well to the uninitiated, just go listen to this shit.

————————————————

SAINt JHN (Feat. Kanye West) – Smack DVD

Again, another artist dropping a track after their album comes out, this time mere DAYS after JHN dropped his long awaited While the World was Burning album. I would say with like 95% certainty there’s going to be a deluxe to this album as well, and, much like DON above, this track would be one of the best on said album if it was included. There is a great mix of JHN’s melodic and rapping abilities here, with a club-ready hook and a banging beat, a sort of playful darkness that takes over the senses with drunken trap tones. The real treat here is the Kanye West feature, arguably his best appearance on anything in 2020, full of energy, commendable lyricism (at least in the face of all of the faux-religious stuff), and some real power behind his vocals that remind me of, and excuse the cliché, the “Old Kanye”. Let’s get this deluxe out to the people JHN: we need it.

————————————————

Che Noir (Feat. The Musalini) – Cruise Control

Noir has a self-produced album called After 12 coming out on December 4th, and she’s leading it off with this impressive single that showcases three very important things about where she is going; her lyricism (which is absolutely on point), her production skills (which are also on point; an unexpected but welcome development), and leaning on her Trust Gang family at appropriate times (The Musalini does a fantastic job on the hook here). Noir really has it all going for her right now, an underground emcee to watch right now, already securing one of the highest-profile releases of this year with …As God Intended (an Apollo Brown project). If you’ve been looking for those real streetwise lyrics (and you fuck with 38 Spesh), this will 100% be up your alley.

————————————————

Cordae – The Parables

Loving the layered and dinky trap instrumental on this one, very kooky and feisty. The beat allows Cordae (formerly of YBN fame, guess he decided the affiliation was more of a drawback) to tap into a harder side of his rapping persona, spitting with more venom than he usually exhibits. The beat is a slower one, but the slower flows give this great sense of effortlessness on Cordae’s part, picking apart the beat like a well-oiled metal bird. It’s been well over a year since The Lost Boy came out, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s gearing up for another album; stay frosty.

————————————————

AK the Savior (Feat. Chuck Strangers, Erick the Architect, & Issa Gold) – Ups & Down

Here’s a face that I haven’t seen so prominent in a while. For those of y’all who don’t know AK, maybe you know Beast Coast, a collective of artists who have been dropping heat out of New York (Brooklyn mainly) for nearly a decade now. A huge part of that scene (especially in it’s earliest days) was a duo called The Underachievers, AK and Issa Gold, who really brought the whole “third-eye, pineal gland, astral projection” stuff into woke-raps mainstream. The extremities of everyone in the collective has mellowed out of the years, and in AK’s case this manifests into a more of a cloud rap sound on this new single. The beat is lethargic and laid back, simple kicks and synth drones drawling behind lasers, punctuated by this chopped and screwed hook. This weeded out astral ride sees AK waxing about getting high, Pro Era’s Chuck Strangers offering up a chorus and meditative bars, and the Flatbush ZOMBiES’ own Erick the Architect making a rare featured appearance. I am a LITTLE disappointed that Issa is credited here despite only speaking on the final minute of the track, but I’m still excited for a solo project from AK.

————————————————

Sir Michael Rocks – Home Improvement

This beat is some West-Coast sweetness for real. I love the flowery synths and crisp drums on this cut, laid down at a steady tempo that keeps the track moving along excellently. Mikey Rocks has the flow down to a SCIENCE on this motherfucker, with a hook that’s slick as hell, far from overstaying it’s welcome. His verses are fire too, coming with his nasally flow and irreverent lyrics he’s so well known for at this point as a member of The Cool Kids. He dropped an album at the top of the years that I don’t remember much about, but I think this new track is a great intro to the new project that The Cool Kids have coming; I read somewhere it’s going to be a Speakerboxxx/The Love Below situation with Chuck and Michael getting their own discs, which should be interesting.

————————————————

Tobe Nwigwe (Feat. Big K.R.I.T.) – BOZOS

Very Southern and triumphant feel on this cut, one of the many singles Tobe has dropped from his upcoming Cincoriginals album he has coming up soon. He positions himself as a more technical and ‘woke’ emcee, but he can still get down with a more danceable flow, and even coming through with solid pop hooks like on this track. I can definitely hear this track on the radio, probably his most radio-friendly cut I’ve heard from him so far. My favorite part, however, is Big K.R.I.T., a voice that I’ve been missing in hip-hop here recently; his feature here is astute and flows as well as he ever could. I’m very interested to hear how Tobe’s new album is going to sound, and whether it will be aiming for more of a commercial success.

————————————————

The Musalini & Planet Asia – Jack Frost

The Trust Gang collective has been on a fucking RUN this year, dropping more projects than most people can keep up with. Moo$e and friends dropped a ton of projects at the top of the year, many of them produced by 38 Spesh, but Musalini himself has dropped his own spread of projects this year, from the killer Return of the Oro to his collab project with G4 JAG, Scriptures in the Sky. This time, The Musalini is teaming up with Planet Asia to come with a full length project, Pharaoh Chain, releasing on the 18th of December. This lead single is slick as hell too, with a great bassline that sounds like some of that real old-school funk shit. There’s the vinyl scratching on the instrumental that makes this sound vintage as hell too, like it could have come straight from a 70’s movie soundtrack. Asia comes with a great hook, and the chemistry between both Asia and Mus is strange to be sure, but it works on “young man coming together with an old veteran” level. Definitely looking forward to the new project.

————————————————

The Game (Feat. Lil Wayne) – A.I. with the Braids

I thought this dude retired? An important part of retiring, something that a lot of these dudes seems to forget after a year, is the whole “retiring” part, like not actually doing music anymore. I guess I shouldn’t really be complaining since the music here is actually pretty good; the beat is a bit lazy with the looped keyboards and simplistic drums, but it still works well enough. The Game has also been sharper in the past, but I think some of his more aggressive moments on the track are worthy of praise, and his consistency in the whole Allen Iverson/Basketball theme takes some effort to pull off. Lil Wayne is the clear highlight on the song, hitting the middle section with a grimy and gremlin-ish verse. Maybe The Game wants to drop another album? We’ll wait and see, but at least this track (and a couple of the features he’s put out recently) show he’s still got it.

————————————————

Young Scooter & Zaytoven (Feat. 2 Chainz & Rick Ross) – Dope Boys & Trap Gods

It seems like Scooter and Zay have a project coming in the future, with this single being the second they’ve released in the past few weeks. This song is some classic ATL, both in the trap-boy lyrical subjects and the quintessential Zaytoven production backing it; there really isn’t that much “spice” to it like a lot of modern trap has these days, being a simple keyboard and 808 loop, but it has that street salt that gives it this realism, like some old-school Gucci or Waka Flocka. All three emcees here do well on the beat, with Scooter holding his own in the face of the two legends that join him. Chainz comes with those crazy bars like he always does, a very satisfying feature, while Ross is really flowing it up on this track, relentless in his cold-blooded delivery. Whatever project this is attached to will definitely be playing in Atlanta whenever it comes out.