Weekly Fix #1 ('21)
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.
——————————
I’m feeling better this week guys…
Shit got pretty crazy over the holidays, I won’t lie, and while I’m still not out of the woods yet given that my Album of the Year process starts next week, the biggest obstacles of the years’ end are behind me now.
Oh yeah, speaking of which MY ALBUM OF THE YEAR PROCESS STARTS NEXT WEEK. If y’all were around last year you remember I started my list at the beginning of December; that was dumb of me, so this time I’m going through the entire year, but this time will be a little different because I’m also going to have to include albums from December 2019 in there as well, so don’t be surprised if you see some choices that aren’t 2020. Next year will be entirely 2021, so we just got to make it through this time around then things will be normal.
There will be one post every day next week for my #10 - #6 picks starting on Monday, then it will pick up again on the following Monday for my #5 - #1. I’m still considering whether or not to post an Honorable Mentions list this weekend, because there are so many more albums I want to be able to shoutout now that the year is over… We’ll see what happens.
As for this week, we’ve got a little room to breathe here around the New Year. I’ve only got four projects for you down below, and y’all already saw I had about the same number of Singles. CRIMEAPPLE, Pounds, Observe Since ’98, and Uncle Murda are what we got this week, leaving us a great opportunity to dig into the nuances of some of the artists (and the cover artists) involved with more time than we usually have. Like I mentioned, those Singles are not to be ignored either, with a small field of talent packed with quality.
Next week… I don’t see anything. I’ll be honest and say I’ve been lacking on my social media information-gathering sessions, but the only project that I know is coming next week is a promotional tape for Griselda’s new movie called Conflicted, a compilation album with a bunch of the Griselda members and their affiliates. I also only have a couple of things beyond that point on my radar; maybe we’re looking at a light January? Check out the Upcoming Heat page to see the things I got on my radar.
I’d like to thank everyone who has taken the time to see what I have done here on Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen. I wasn’t feeling up to task last week but I’ll make up for it right now; I feel more accomplished on this platform than I have ever before (and this is coming from someone who created a whole-ass Pokemon cult as a teenager… don’t ask…), and it’s profile is only getting bigger as people are looking for a steady and concise place to find their hip-hop music. I provide for all of you listeners out there as best as I can, and I give all of the praises up to the artists who make all of this happen, the material that keeps this machine going EVERY. SINGLE. WEEK. A lot of people out there who are just “getting into music” are often surprised by how much comes out every week, a magical ecosystem that we’re inhabiting right now where literally every week we can get something incredible, and I will be here to help guide you to the things that I’m listening to.
Long story short: thank you all. The readers, listeners, artists, illustrators, painters, sound-engineers, A&Rs, managers, fellow writers, legends, and heroes: all of you are responsible for this here, and I’m gonna take that energy and run with it in 2021 as well.
Here’s a link to the Week #1 (’21) Playlists
&
Here’s a link to the Week #1 (‘21) Singles
&
Here’s a link to the Week #1 (’21) Art Appreciation post
-----STREAMING PROJECTS-----
CRIMEAPPLE – Mátalos Con Más Éxitos
Cover Artist: le_daltonien_
Produced entirely by Buck Dudley, who has devoted almost his entire career to CRIMEAPPLE projects, Mátalos Con Más Éxitos is the Hackensack emcees strongest project since his amazing showing with DJ Muggs in 2019. I liked Jaguar on Palisade and If I Don’t See you in Paradise, but I felt like they were quite spur of the moment, feeling a lot like EPs meant to hold us over for the main course. I’m not saying Mátalos Con Más Éxitos is the main course persay, but it feels a lot more substantial and meaty than those two releases, and I think a lot of the appeal in this one is going to come down to two things: Buck Dudley on the boards exclusively (much like CRIME’s Viridi Panem EP he dropped shortly after Medallo), and there actually being a couple of features on this project. Since the dude hit the scene, CRIMEAPPLE has only had a handful of features on his tracks, with many of his projects having none at all; we’re blessed to get a couple from guys like RLX (who I recently started fucking with heavy), Sonnyjim, and Da Fly Hooligan, a bit of unexpected breath of British air on the project. None of this is to say that CRIME isn’t capable of holding his own on a track (there’s a reason why he’s going solo on most of his material), coming with his trademark jumble of words and high-life flexes, even dabbling a few times into some endearing melodies on this one, but bringing on some outside talent really spices up the album a bit, and with the 8 track/29 minute runtime you feel like you’re getting a full-serving rather than B-sides. If you’re looking for airy, floaty, and excellently sampled hip-hop taken advantage of by a multilingual (you get a healthy dose of English and Spanish on this one) master of flow, then get your ears to digesting this shit expeditiously.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
————————————————
Uncle Murda – Don’t Come Outside, Vol. 3
Cover Artist: Dunne08
This is a strange one, a project that I know I like but I’m not quite sure how it really works that well. Uncle Murda is a dude who’s been around for a while, like a decade or more type while, only sticking with a style as long as it’s the cream of the New York mainstreams’ crop. He started out with music in the vein of G-Unit, going so far as to even get signed on to 50’s record label here around 4 or 5 years ago, and his music up until a point was very much in the style of someone like Tony Yayo trying to keep it fresh in the 2020’s. Murda is willing to go into any sound on this project right here, diving into to pop-trap, a couple of older-school hits, and even a few heavy-Drill instrumentals, leading to a project that feels very mixtape-ish in its bones, a smattering of styles to try to appeal to as many people as possible. Luckily for Mr. Uncle, I like all of these styles, but I don’t fault anyone for thinking he can sound a bit out of place or goofy, especially on the melodic cuts. I will say, the guy is surprisingly competent on those Drill tracks; there’s just something about the recklessness of his voice that lends itself nicely to the intense nature of the subgenre, a sort of crass and unkempt yell. The other part to this is that he brings on some quality guests to spit on these tracks: you get the two monsters Benny and Conway on this thing, but the twist here is that they aren’t even my favorite performers. I don’t know who this Que Banz dude is, but he kills the multiple features he has one here, inspiring me to go out and check out some of his other material. Lil Tjay, Mysonne, and Rich Starz also give their performances the Rockstar treatment as well, not skimping out one bit on the quality. If you fuck with those really street-level New York guys like Maino and Vado (as well as newer dudes like Fivio), then this will be right up your alley.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
————————————————
-------SOUP’S HOT DEALS-------
Observe Since ‘98 – Le Dernier Royaume
Investment: $9.99
Cover Artist: RDRB
An album that I returned to often last year, one whose very distinct gothic and high-class hip-hop feel stuck with me for months and months after I heard it, was Observe Since ‘98’s Royaume Du Sauvage. The beats were on a whole other level to my ears, and it was probably the project where I was most impressed by the use of obscure samples. Whenever artists are going for an ‘obscure’ sound, they usually travel internationally to more exotic sounds from a western perspective: Middle Eastern, African, and Asian samples reign supreme. But Observe came through with an album that was just as fresh with samples dug from the more European spheres of music, a feat that I’m sure took a surprising amount of digging to find something discomforting/weird/unorthodox enough for our ears. He continues this style of production on this latest effort, with each beat being carefully crafted to be the most standout it can be, a perfect tracklist in my mind for showcasing his talents of not-only master sampling, but also the understanding of various time periods in the hip-hop genre. Observe isn’t a rapper: he is a label owner, with Loretta Records being his bread and butter in the underground scene, banking hard on his distinct aesthetic, so he has to bring in rapping talent to fill out the songs with killer rhymes. He hit it out of the park last time with names like Hus Kingpin, SmooVth, Tha God Fahim, and Elcamino, but this time he’s back with a whole new spread of emcees: Planet Asia, Knowledge the Pirate, M.A.V., Pounds, and Napoleon Da Legend (who fits into that 18th Century French shit perfectly) join some Loretta veterans like Jay NiCE, Sullynomad, and Unorthodocks (who I would say has the best verse on this entire project) for an action-packed and thematically consistent listen. If you want underground darkness operating at the highest level, this is the project you don’t want to miss on this first week of 2021.
Cover Artist: Tony Caves
I feel like it was just yesterday that Pounds released his last project, There Is No Mafia, which was by far my favorite Pounds project to date. I loved the way that album incorporated themes from shows like The Sopranos… while also putting is snippets and references to the actual show The Sopranos (the title of the record being a quote from the show itself), as well as tying in very personal and graphic details from Pounds’ own life. Long story short, it’s unfair to judge Die Enormous in relation to this last project because that last one was just so phenomenal, but I think all of the strengths that make a good Pounds project are still to be found here in any case. The spooky and atmospheric raw underground instrumentals, like listening to a cassette tape in room full of cigar smoke, bring the cinema and storytelling to life on this project, with Pounds projecting himself to be a big-time mafia boss that is both a ruthless warlord and a compassionate figure worthy of our sympathy. His voice is a clear draw here, a gravelly and downright horrid voice that can be comparable to someone like Vinnie Paz, but Pounds takes it to another level in my opinion, his delivery being a straight-up chainsaw on some of these beats, massacring with the slow and lumbering flows. With the great features on here from guys like Daniel Son and Flee Lord, we’re blessed to be able to hear from Pounds again so quickly after his last project, especially one that feels as thought out as this one. Check this out of you like that real mobster music; I don’t mean that Jay-Z champagne flutes and Rolls Royce music, I mean like that street-level sicario “we murder everything we see” music.
————————————————
