Week #47 ('21) 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.
——————————
Freddie Gibbs (Feat. Jadakiss) – Black Illuminati
We’re looking at a new album from Gibbs here before too long, one that I think he’s calling SSS but I’m not entirely sure. Hopefully it’s gonna be a 2021 release, because I don’t know if I can safely wait for that shit after listening to this single right here. Enormous verses from both Gibbs and Kiss, with more quotables than I can keep straight in my mind. Freddie is flowing like a motherfucker on this song man, and just when you think it’s over he just keeps going. Bizness Boi did the beat for this one, a hauntingly deep trap beat, but he’s only going to be scratching the surface of this new record from Gibbs: we’re looking at Alchemist, DJ Paul, Madlib, Pharrell, and Tay Keith, among many, many others, providing beats for SSS. Listen to this feat of rap acrobatics, and get ready for the new album.
————————————————
Seed of 6ix (Feat. DJ Paul, Yelawolf, & Lord Infamous) – Mafia Family
We’re finally entering an age in hip-hop where the sons and daughters of these 90’s OGs can really step up and usher in a new generation of older acts. We’re seeing it with what the guys over at 2nd Generation Wu are doing (see below for a couple new tracks from them), and we can now enjoy some modern-day Three Six Mafia with these Seed of 6ix boys right here. Locodunit and Lil Infamous, the nephew and son of the late, great, and legendary Lord Infamous, make up this duo, and the resemblance is absolutely spot on to Scarecrow’s off-putting singing and rushed syllables. DJ Paul’s beat here sounds like something that would come off a Koopsta tape; I love how the hooks repeats, a throwback to those old Memphis beat tape days. Every verse on here is smoking, crazy flows and horrifying bars everywhere. I need to know what these two can bring in the 2020’s, ‘cause I really be missing Infamous sometimes.
————————————————
Your Old Droog (Feat. Lil Ugly Mane & billy woods) – Meteor Man
I had high expectations for this track, but I should have known it would be better than I anticipated. Three unbelievable verses over a disgustingly depraved boom-bap beat? This is pretty much par for the course for Droog at this point, a man that hasn’t missed a single time in over two years, who seems to be dropping future classic after future classic like it’s nothing. And he has ANOTHER album coming out next week, Space Bar, which this single places on, not letting 2021 go without the last word. If you want genius level bars full of wit, humor, and reality, I would put no one above Your Old Droog right now. Listen to this single if you like the whole hip-hop thing. Also go back and listen to his album Time from the beginning of the year while you’re at it.
————————————————
Drakeo the Ruler – Touchable Freestyle
I’ve missed all of the Remble hype over the past few months, but this freestyle had me take a little trip down that piece of 2021 history. I love that fuckin dude for many of the same reasons I like Drakeo here, the borderline whispering and intelligent wordplay being some baselines for both artists’ styles, so it makes sense that Drakeo would want to associate with the dude. Utilizing Remble’s Touchable beat (which is so fire with those dark church bells looping in the background, all with barely any drums at that), the Ruler goes to town with one charismatic bar after another, with seriously every line on here being either hilarious or way too hard to contain. This is some menacing-ass shit right here; I recommend anyone who wants to know the potential in the modern Bay Area scene to give this a listen. It’s a YouTube only track for right now, so be sure to use that link below if you don’t listen to the YouTube playlists.
————————————————
Tory Lanez – Lady Of Namek
God dammit if this man isn’t just capable of making anything sound good. I’m not *opposed* to the cheese that the 80’s often came up with, but I’m not gonna be out here bumping Breakfast Club music any time soon. Tory Lanez takes this amazingly analogue groove (complete with those banging drum machine breakdowns), puts this cool layer of fuzz over his voice to make it sound authentically 40 years old, and goes all in with the High School dance theme. Everything about this track is so incredibly catchy: the excellent hook, the melodrama in the lyrics, and Tory’s stellar vocal performance, hitting both the highs and the lows with emotion and power. I just can’t say enough about this song right here, a stroke of nostalgic genius that I didn’t think I could see in hip-hop (although this might place more firmly in pop music or even… new wave. A new-new wave song in 2021… what a time to be alive). I also *highly* recommend the music video that goes along with this: it takes everything I just said and applies it to the visual medium and it’s just as enlightened. Tory has a new album coming on December 1st, Alone at Prom, and let me tell you I’m excited as a motherfucker for this one y’all.
————————————————
The Cool Kids & Larry June – All or Nothing
I’m not even quite sure what to make of this shit right here: you can call it some west-coast riding music, but it’s damn-near industrial with the overwhelming sub-bass and ungodly hard synths. I dare anyone to turn this shit up in your car and watch your shit rattle like crazy, ‘cause this one will crack the frame. While the instrumental is a lot of the appeal here (and the emcees can kind of get drowned out in it at times), you still gotta give a listen to these dudes based on the funny shit they say. The Cool Kids have been known to be in circles like these, tongue-in-cheek and jokey throughout their careers, this is only scratching the surface of their hilarity. But Larry June is newer, more serious, so seeing him here is like seeing a dramatic actor doing SNL, unique to see them out of their normal wheelhouse. Not sure what project this is attached to, but I can get behind this kind of wild production any day of the week.
————————————————
Morray & Benny the Butcher – Never Fail
J. Cole keeps finding these North Carolina gems, and I’m all here for it. The one any only time I had heard Morray before this was on Cole’s album from earlier this year, a feature that he killed in supreme fashion with the vocals. So going into this I was expecting a slow-burning R&B cut with an out-of-place Benny feature, but what you’re really gonna get is brutal, white-hot flows from *both* the Butcher and Morray. It’s got this Meek Mill kind of vibe to it, bloodthirsty underdogs who have a lot to prove, something that is seen in both the nimbly-crafted verses and the slick hook (spit in, like, triple time at that). I wasn’t expecting this level of aggression and hunger from this guy, and I think everyone here should give this a listen as well to give yourselves a nice surprise.
————————————————
JoogSzn (Feat. Ralfy The Plug & Petty Petty) – KSubi
Short little track from Joog, the producer who rose to prominence in my mind from the jail mixtape that he recorded with Drakeo the Ruler last year while he was locked up. I wouldn’t say that Joog does anything that you haven’t necessarily heard before, especially when it comes to this modern Bay movement we got going on, but I think he’s unique in how consistent he has been across the past few years. Every beat I’ve heard from him is fire because he understands what the Bay is trying to do right now with the minimal instruments and the dark synths; it’s an easy formula to copy, but difficult to master like he has. Giving some solid performances we have both Ralfy The Plug and Petty Petty, two rappers with close ties to Drakeo personally and who seem willing to take a lot of creative inspiration from the Ruler in their raps: they are quiet and ruthless, but are decidedly less cold/calculating and more reckless/sloshed on the microphone. Joog really needs to sit down and get one of those producer albums together, ‘cause I’d love to hear some other guys like DaBoii and Nef the Pharoah on some of his beats. If you need some Bay shit this week, give that Drakeo the Ruler freestyle a listen, then pop over to this one.
————————————————
Earl Sweatshirt – 2010
There has been an uptick in Earl Sweatshirt appearances out in the wild since he dropped his Some Rap Songs project a few years ago. 2020 and 2021 have had more features from the dude than I’ve ever seen (which is still small, but the presence is felt), so I knew he was building to something. 2010 is that something, and it is a pretty heavy departure from what you would expect from Earl. Sweatshirt’s vocals are relatively clear and legible, he’s quicker and more structured in his flow, and there are DRUMS, my dude is rapping over DRUMS again and it’s magnificent. In fact, the drums and the colder digital beats are much more modern than anything I’ve heard Earl spit over, an indication that we might be looking at a different kind of Earl Sweatshirt in the future. Who knows when this dude will drop, but we’ll be waiting. Patiently.
————————————————
2nd Generation Wu (Feat. R.A. the Rugged Man) – Know The Gospel (Remix)
The talented son of the legend himself U-God, iNTeLL dropped a project called Computers For The Hood over the summer that included this little song right here. The original version of the track also included R.A., so the only new verses we’re getting is from the other members of the 2nd Generation Wu (sans Young Dirty Bastard). PXWER and Sun God, Method Man and Ghostface Killah’s sons respectively, both bring some real energy and grit to a track that previously only had smoothness and intense lyricism. The lineup here is impressive, another showcase to the talents that the 2nd Generation can bring to the game; to show that talent can move down the family tree is something that will be incredibly important to maintaining the hip-hop lineage over the next few decades. Listen to this shit if you want some street shit, grimy shit, and bombastic lyrical shit all rolled up into one bomb single.
————————————————
Che Noir – Praises
Something that has been amazing to see in Che Noir’s career is the progression you can see on every single project. From her early tapes where the potential was palpable, to her heavy connections with 38 Spesh’s Trust Gang for some heavily stylized underground hip-hop, and culminating in the deeply mature project she dropped with Apollo Brown last year, we’re seeing a top-tier emcee taking shape before our eyes. Now that she’s reached a point where the recognition brings her industry-wide attention, Che takes some time here to reflect on her achievements. The verses, beat, and especially that hook are all expertly crafted in that spacy boom-bap headspace. Noir has a new album coming out, Food For Thought, on December 17th, and with this track we’re looking at something special.
————————————————
Payroll Giovanni & Helluva – Can’t Stop The Rain Freestyle
Sampling a classic piece of 80’s R&B, Helluva had created this high-energy banger for Detroit’s Payroll Giovanni to do his damn thing over in style. The beginning crawl of the sample is a bit of false advertising because the track immediately ups the BPM to something faster than brisk, a quick track that provides narrow pockets for Payroll to attack. Whenever you’re looking at rappers from Detroit who can rap their asses off, there is a sort of city pedigree that rappers have to overcome when looking to make a name for themselves, and I think Giovanni is able to surpass that bar with his flows and intelligent wordplay. I doubt this track will place on any sort of project, but it’s got me on the lookout for a new project from Giovanni regardless.
————————————————
Stu Bangas (Feat. Ill Bill & Vinnie Paz) – So What You Wanna Do
The master beatsmith Stu Bangas has a new album coming out here very soon (tomorrow actually), and to get us excited he’s dropped a track with two of his most frequent collaborators, Ill Bill and Vinnie Paz. Stu has a penchant for working with these kinds of deadly verbal assaulters, and when you associate with these kinds rappers the result is always some deadly shit; Bill is the grime to Paz’s shotgun to the face, dark and menacing over this classically hardcore boom-bap cut. I love the mixtures of sharp horns, strings, and especially the tasteful record scratches that Bangas utilizes on this one, sounding like some shit M.O.P. would jump on back in the 90’s. I have all of the faith in the world that Stu’s new album, Deathwish, will be an underground powerhouse with tracks like these on it.
————————————————
iNTeLL (Feat. Lou From Paradise) – Endangered Species
A short track, but one that feels like a real collaboration between two artists that have a lot of stylistic similarities. Both iNTeLL (who we’ve already looked at once this week up above) and Lou From Paradise (Staten Island emcee that I’ve been seeing pop up a lot lately) are very succinct and direct with both their lyrics and accents; you can hear the New York in there, but they’re much more subdued in the ways they present that accent, going for a more neutral approach in their tones. It reminds me of early rappers from the early 90’s, but with a beat that, while still harder than most things you’d find back then, sparse enough to not ruffle your feathers. Listen if you want to hear some great rap exercises over a solid beat.
————————————————
Styles P & Havoc – Nightmares 2 Dreams
Now here’s one that has me excited as hell: Styles P, the legendary LOX member, and super-producer/rapper Havoc, of Mobb infamy, are coming together for a collaborative album next month, and we’ve got this newest single here to keep our appetites at bay. They’re spitting that cold murder shit over a mystical boom-bap cut, a bit more mysterious of a beat than I was expecting from Havoc but it works for Styles’ whole ghost persona he’s got going for him. Wreckage Manner is the name of that album, dropping right at the top of next month for all of you New York fans out there. Yonkers and Queensbridge represent.
————————————————
OT The Real & DJ Green Lantern (Feat. Millyz) – Go To War
A hidden gem from out of Philadelphia, OT The Real has been a voice of the streets that has gone criminally overlooked over the past couple years. He has this husky and powerful voice, but with the distinct bite of that underdog; he’s mostly on that drug kingpin tip, but you get some more traditional Wayne-esque punchline play that will have you running this track back a few times. This guy Millyz on the front end of this thing (and who goes back and forth with OT near the end) is a great infusion of that street grime, with a great presence on here. We’re looking at a new album from OT here on the 12th of next month, a project called Broken Glass (which might be a DJ Green Lantern collab? I’m not sure).
————————————————
NLE Choppa – I.Y.B.
Didn’t we just cover this guy’s single from like a week ago? Choppa is about to drop this entire album in singles at this point, the dude has got to stop this. The track is literally 90 seconds, like you couldn’t have waited a few more weeks for this one bro?? I’m fucking around (mostly), cause this track is definitely hard as bricks; the beat hits your soul like herbal medicine, and NLE’s flow is bonkers, like the dude is literally attacking the microphone in anger. This kid is the real deal when it comes to Memphis murder music; get on this shit, and get ready for his new album, Me vs. Me, out soon.
————————————————
