Weekly Fix #42 ('20)

Welcome to the Weekly Fix, where I go over everything that I’ve listened to that has come out within the past week. I’ll give a little blurb about the project/single with my feelings on it thrown in there, throw some descriptors and other artists names to give you an idea what the project/single is like, and link to all applicable streaming services where you can find the music. The bottom section will be devoted to projects that have Bandcamp or online webstore links, to give a greater highlight to those artists who you can support directly. Click here to see a list of previous Fixes.

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Alright so let’s talk about all of the mistakes I made this week, as well as explain a bit of how I listen to my music throughout the week.

Whenever I listen to a project, I put the songs I like into a playlist, like many people do, commonly known as “The Rotation”. I try to keep up with it, and make sure that every project that I put into my library gets some space on here so I can try and get acclimated to it before I can write about it. However, sometimes whenever I’m going through all of the madness that happens on Friday night, I forget to put certain projects on this playlists, and I might not notice until I’m most of the way through the week, which leads to me not having the right exposure to comfortable write about something.

This was the case for an album called Fendi Don by Ru$h… as well as Gucci’s new compilation project… and T.I.’s newest album. I don’t know what happened but like the last three projects didn’t make it on the playlist this week, but you damn well know I’ll be writing about those on Week 43 next week. My apologies for the error, ima fix this shit.

As for stuff my dumb ass actually remembered to listen to, we have a great amount left over: Benny the Butcher (not even going to go into this one, Griselda is full of gods), Frisco, Napoleon Da Legend, and Nolan The Ninja are all on a list of projects that RULED this week, among others. A huge number of singles too, so make sure you go and check out that list too for some more fire.

As for next week, we’re looking at another solid week: Grime doesn’t seem to be letting up at all, cause D Double E is dropping his album. Elcamino has another album on the way with 38 Spesh (fuck the piece of shit who leaked his unfinished project with Camoflauge Monk), clipping has their next album tee’d up for the Halloween season, and Ty Dolla has a whole album of collabs on the way.

Thank all of you for sticking around with me here on Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen: I imagine it hasn’t always been the most consistent of rides from a readers perspective, but I do try very hard to make sure shit is quality here, and I hope y’all have found some cool music while here. I’ll see you all next week.

Here’s a link to the Week #42 (’20) Playlists

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Here’s a link to the Week #42 (‘20) Singles

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Here’s a link to the Week #42 (’20) Art Appreciation post

-----STREAMING PROJECTS-----

Benny the Butcher – Burden of Proof

Cover Artist: ral_duke

So remember when I said that Conway the Machine’s From a King to a God was a sort of turning point that represented a mesh of popular hip-hop and Griselda’s characteristic dusty sound? Well Benny has come along with an album here that goes even farther in that direction, to the point that it almost doesn’t sound like a Griselda album anymore; the intense lyricism, dogged delivery, and features from the other two Griselda boys and Freddie Gibbs have not changed a lick from The Plus I Met, and ground me in that reality that this is a stellar GxFR release (a long overdue album from the Butcher, one that comes while the other members have dropped 3+ albums). But the SOUND of this album is unlike anything we’ve heard from Benny pretty much ever, as you’d have to go back years and years to hear Benny over production like this. It’s very clean, the drums are much denser and computerized, the synths are brighter and more positive, which gives Benny a similar vibe to guys like Meek Mill or Nipsey Hussle on this record. Hit-Boy does all of the beats on here, having just come off of that full LP with Nas, and while I love everything found on here from a production standpoint, anyone getting into this needs to know that this is not The Plugs I Met or Tana Talk: this is Benny reaching to get that household-name status. It’s a great length, has a great spread of features (surprises like Queen Naija and Lil Wayne kill their performances, and mesh with the Butcher beautifully), and features some of Benny’s most personal lyrics to date. A must listen, for anyone that values hip-hop, underground or mainstream.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Serial Killers (Xzibit, B-Real, & Demrick) – Summer of Sam

Cover Artist: [Unknown]

It was bound to happen, so here it is: the COVID concept album has arrived. Each of the three guys involved in this little clique is a killer rapper, bringing humor and character in spades across the entire LP, but with the added focus that pretty much every bar and reference is about things like the lockdown, white riots, and just the general insanity that this pandemic has brought into every aspect of our lives. At some points it seems like they’re saying the pandemic is a hoax, and some others it seems like they’re bashing people who don’t take it seriously, so it’s difficult to tell exactly the message these three are trying to get across, but if you take in on a surface level rap-fest with stunningly consistent performances you will love what you find here. X is raw and untethered on this one, hitting you over the head with just some of the clearly ridiculous shit that has happened over the past few months (“how the fuck they gon find out a tiger in a zoo got this fuckin’ COVID 19 virus before you?”), B-Real is grimy as hell with crazy lyrics, and Demrick is by far the most technical rapper out of the three, coming with some insane wordplay that leaves me wondering why this guy isn’t bigger. The beats can get hard and apocalyptic, but there is an undercurrent of west-coast funk. I’ve also got to give special props to the features: Busta Rhymes is great, Snoop is appropriate, and I am so happy to see DJ Quik on another features as the dude murders his verse. If you like funny, conspiratorial, political, and confrontational hip-hop, then this album will be everything you’ve ever wanted.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Frisco – The Familiar Stranger

Cover Artist: [Unknown]

All of the sudden artists from the UK started dropping their shit at once, it’s insane. We had Headie One the other day, BBK’s Frisco is here this week with this ridiculously good LP, and next week D Double E is lining up to drop another banger. Those latter two are some of the biggest names in Grime music today, and Frisco seems to understand the responsibility that comes with that title by making The Familiar Stranger exactly what Grime fans are looking for. There are some trendier sounds on here, sure, but he makes sure that those true-blue Grime tracks are one for the ages: That Guy literally sounds a decade old, Normal is another great throwback, and Red Card is yet another track to put on that gilded wall of legendary BBK posse cuts. The dancehall tracks and slightly trappy-er cuts are appreciated, but whenever you feel like Frisco is in his comfort zone is whenever the album really shines. I have particular love and respect for the final track on here, Black Man, which is as the title suggests about his views of the world as a black individual, with a beautiful beat backing some really profound and moving lyrics. A well-rounded emcee that shows both growth and mastery of the art of Grime, great for anyone looking for a varied-yet-true album.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Black Thought – Streams of Thought Vol. 3: Cane & Abel

Cover Artist: Khari Turner

The first two volumes of the Streams of Thought series are fire, bars upon bars upon bars, but Volume 3 shakes things up a bit with a more complete album experience, focusing more on building out tracks with concepts and melodic guest artists. I could listen to Thought rap random shit all day long, but it doesn’t seem like that’s what Black Thought wanted this album to be; sure, there are a couple of tracks on here that are pretty much just sick rapping, but most of the others are meant to be more friendly and pop-rap centric (at least as pop-rap as someone of Tarik’s caliber can be) musical statements. Tons of appearances from Portugal The Man and The Last Artful, Dodgr on here, bordering on too many, but it makes the album sound much more dramatic and substantial with regard to tone. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of the Hamilton mixtape, with these important-sounding beats and inspirational bars. In that way, if you’re just looking for more Black Thought freestyles over old-sounding beats, go back to the previous two installments of the series. But if you want to hear what Black Thought wants a full-blown solo album from himself to sound, then come and see how one of the best lyricists… pretty much ever… has to say.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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UnoTheActivist & Travis Barker – Might Not Make It

Cover Artist: [Unknown]

Imagine Young Thug rapping in borderline whisper. I mean, no disrespect to Uno because I love this project a lot, but it’s pretty much just Young Thug croak-rap across this whole thing, which exists in front of celestial and crystalline trap beats (which are provided by Travis Barker of all people?). There’s even a track on here that features Thugger himself, and, honest to God, I have trouble telling the two apart. Still, it doesn’t detract from how much I enjoy the music on here, because for drugged out trap this is some of the better I’ve heard this year. Many of these hooks are absolutely on point, the features lock in the vibes perfectly, and the beats are actually quite good despite my initial reservations about who produces them. There’s only 20 minutes of material here, so it comes and goes rather quickly, leaving a great impression on anyone invested in this scene. Uno has been around for a minute, but I think people will start paying attention to him more after this solid outing right here. Listen if you fuck with guys like Gunna and SahBabii.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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-------SOUP’S HOT DEALS-------

Nolan The Ninja – TALK SOON

Investment: $9.99

Cover Artist: [Unknown]

I had heard of Nolan before, but I had never taken the time to sit down with a full album of his until this point. My impression of him from various appearances and features was that he was an older soul who utilized older-styled beats in ways that a lot of underground artists from Detroit typically do. But this album right here is completely different from anything I would have figured from Nolan The Ninja, let alone an artist who places firmly in underground circles. This album sounds like they took Pharrell and told him to make beats that knock as hard as possible, EXCEPT you can only use drums and a couple synths. These beats SLAP, and they do so with very little actual instrumentation: there are huge kicks, big sub-bass hits, and some robotic and sci-fi buzzes and zips, but besides that this album has cavernous spaces that let these larger-than-life instruments breathe. What makes it even better is that Nolan isn’t exactly a powerhouse of an emcee when it comes to presence on the track, so these beats dwarf the vocals in a way that doesn’t detract from them but rather add to their hardness, like despite the rough and harsh instruments this little ol Ninja is still spitting his shit. The entire album is like this, a tonal consistency that no album this week can match, and for something that seems like a one-off idea from a usually more textured and layered producer (Nolan does all of his own beats by the way) the execution on this could not have been better. Go and support this killer shit.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Napoleon Da Legend – Dragon Ball G

Investment: $10.00

Cover Artist: Napoleon Da Legend

This is another album this week where the consistency in beats and raps is just so far above average that you can’t help but marvel at it. Again, like Nolan The Ninja, all of the beats on here are made by the emcee, and Napoleon’s skills on the board cannot be understated. His samples are fresh, his loops are sharp, his drums are quintessential boom-bap, and the variety between more mellow and hard-nosed beats is balanced. He’s able to create the perfect beat that he knows he’s able to destroy on the microphone, and oh boy does he kill it on that mic. NDL is a real rappers-rapper, jumping between topics of wokeness and third-eye talk, on to some standard golden age braggadocio, but he can still make room for some more serious talk about the pitfalls of the music game and the traps that younger artists can often fall into. There is a real wisdom to his voice and his delivery, and the lyrics match up to his persona perfectly. What he flexes on Dragon Ball G more than any other album I’ve heard from him is, predictably, his love of the pop-culture powerhouse Dragonball, naming every song after a character from the show: I’ve seen some of the series from the original to Z, and while there isn’t like a concept going on here in a strong way, the motif adds to the unique quality of the record. Napoleon built this album from the ground-up, a true artist if you ask me, and deserving of every dollar he makes off of this record. Support this shit.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Supreme Cerebral – Ultimate Mind

Investment: $20.00

Cover Artist: Billy Bonks & Banish Habitual

Here’s one that I wanted to give an extra week of listening time to (it came out last week actually), and I’m glad I did because the rhymes are top-notch, and the production hit me so much harder than the other Cerebral projects this year. He’s always has this sort of sci-fi energy and magical/occultish mystery to his beat selection, and I think the spread of beats here grounds it enough in hardcore hip-hop while still maintaining the left-field tone that doesn’t overwhelm. Whenever one of these raw beats hit you, I get a feeling that I would get when listening to some Wu-Tang affiliate music, like Killah Priest or Sunz of Man, with the drums hitting you as particularly late-90’s New York inspired. Speaking of the Wu, Supreme Cerebral takes a lot of influence himself from a few of the Clan’s premier spitters, particularly Ghostface Killah and Masta Killa, and I can hear that reverence in his raps for those legends that came before him. He speaks on violent situations, lamenting on the state of hip-hop today and looking back to the genre’s golden days, presenting an unflinchingly honest vision of what Supreme Cerebral thinks the game should be today. Another huge strength of this album is the large number of features found here: Raphiie Reese, Born Unique, Ill Conscious, Daniel Son, and Jay Royale are all among the many guests found here, and they all bring their best to this project to make it an even most substantial moment for Cerebral. I think this is his best project yet; if you’re looking for hip-hop that has studied the past and remains faithful to the genre’s roots, this is where you need to be this week.

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Homeboy Sandman & Quelle Chris – Don’t Feed The Monster

Investment: $8.99

Cover Artist: Robert P. Cohen & Mitch Lagrow

I’ve got to start this one with a huge endorsement for Quelle Chris as a producer. It wasn’t until the past year that I started looking at him as a rapper/producer (I know this has been going on for much longer, but it never really clicked until I heard some of the beats he did for Your Old Droog), but this album from an instrumental standpoint is goddamn phenomenal. There is a whimsical doofusness to his beats that come through, like a boom-bap carnival rolling through town, a vibe that has found a perfect home in Homeboy Sandman’s incredibly unique delivery and perspective on life. If Quelle comes with the carnival vibes, Homeboy is like the clown, presenting the mundane stories and observations in his life in ways that are oddly compelling and relatable, like the entire track about how long it takes for his girlfriend to put on makeup, or getting into detail how much he hates biters in hip-hop. However, Sandman has always had a couple tracks that get a bit deeper into his real issues, and we get the crown jewel of that side of his craft on the opening track here, Trauma. I wasn’t prepared for how… real this track got, an exceptionally confessional dissertation on why he experiences the anxieties and shames in his adulthood. All of this rolled into one, the beats and the raps, make this the best Homeboy Sandman album I’ve heard to date, and has me more excited than ever to see where Quelle goes in his production career. Check this out if you want a rapper that’s exactly like you: pretty normal.

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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