Weekly Fix #43 ('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 next 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. The final section will be for projects that have had a Hot Deal-type release, but have recently come to streaming. Click here to see a list of previous Fixes.
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Well. I’m back.
Hello everybody, and welcome to my first Weekly Fix in well over six months.
My last Fix was on Week #8, and now we’re looking at Week #43 (which is more than six months but I’m not gonna do the math there), an enormous stretch of time in which much happened. I went into a little detail over in my post last week, Initializing Reboot: TSDK 2.0; check it out of you want a little story. What y’all need to know is that, for a long time, I didn’t listen to anything new. I didn’t have the willpower and time to do it, and I hope that everyone who was looking for me to deliver some dope music into your ears can forgive me.
But that’s all in the past now. I came back because, at the end of the day, this music shit, whether it’s TSDK, getting into discussions, talking to some of my favorite artists, or spreading the news of these projects that I think deserve listens with that little extra bit of context, is the most important thing to me. I came back because this is the thing in my life that I was probably meant to do.
So here we are, I’m back and things are going back to the way that they were… or are they? Let me tell you a little bit about where we are going: I have equipment, people, and with some planning I will have time to engage in some forms of content that I hope will be able to shine the light on artists even more in the coming months, and all of this starts with a space to work. I have been working on a new workstation, totally converting my garage into a place where people can meet, where audio content can be recorded, and, eventually, where artists themselves can come and make their own music. This means I can get the Podcast rolling again (for those that remember those good ol’ days), get some real local artists into the studio, and I’m even looking into some more live forms of entertainment; I *really* want to get some form of radio going. All of these things are going to happen, it’s just a matter of work on my part, and I’ll be letting you know how shit is going.
For now, I’m definitely going to be getting the Playlists, Singles, and the Fixes out to you so you can get this new music running through your ears every week. The Art Appreciations, like the Write-Ups before them, have to go to the backburner for right now, a decision that hurts me given how much I love engaging with those artists. The time just isn’t there, but like it said, it *will* be. One day.
The biggest thing I’ve done in the past few weeks to prepare for this new chapter is the creation of my Discord server, called Tha Soupcord. I’ve already had some great conversations on there, had great recommendations get thrown around, and gotten to know some of you guys who read my content regularly. I cannot stress enough how much I love this kind of interaction with y’all, so go get in on this madness by joining Tha Soupcord, which I’ll link here and in a bigass link down below. It’s probably up on the website banner too, fuck it.
THE MUSIC THO, let’s not forget about the music y’all. We got some great projects from the likes of Maxo Kream, Fashawn, Willie the Kid, and JPEGMAFIA to dig into this week, a great welcome after being gone for so long. I’m glad this week gave me few projects (relative to some of my busier weeks back in the day) to listen to, giving me a bit of time to refamiliarize myself with the writing and posting process; as pathetic as it sounds I kind of forgot all the little shortcuts (and SquareSpace had an update it seems) I had, so I’m having to learn all this shit again. Bear with me, I’ll get it done.
And there’s a fuckin’ novel for y’all to chew on. I’m back; I have ideas and ways to go to get them realized, but the most important thing is that I’M BACK. The excitement is real, the drive is real, and the music will as real as it always has been. Make sure that you all go out to support these artists as much as you support me, because at the end of the day we are all here ‘cause of them. Peace, and I’ll see y’all next week.
==> LINK TO THA SOUPCORD <==
Here’s a link to the Week #43 (’21) Playlists
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Here’s a link to the Week #43 (‘21) Singles
-----STREAMING PROJECTS-----
Maxo Kream – WEIGHT OF THE WORLD
Cover Artist: [Unknown]
So the last time I tapped into what Maxo Kream had going on we got his Brandon Banks album, one that, back in 2019, I didn’t have a very favorable first impression of. I felt like, and still kind of feel like, Maxo’s voice is a bit one note, but with WEIGHT OF THE WORLD I think this problem has been sidestepped with a great bit of variety. I think if I went back and listened to Brandon Banks today (which I should probably do anyway…), I would find more of an appreciation of it, because Maxo’s voice and flow does not bother me nearly as much as it did. There are bangers, there are emotional tracks, storytelling tracks, and very topically focused tracks, and all of those comes together into a whole that overcomes some of the grumblings I’ve had with him in the past. Again, the man raps damn near exactly the same as he did on his earlier projects, but it’s the focus of the individual songs that has finally unlocked the understanding in my mind. Be me: give this album a chance, and hear how far Maxo has come in a few short years. I’ll also throw out there that the features on here are fantastic: we got Freddie Gibbs flowing it up, Tyler being weird (and ungodly hype), and A$AP Rocky giving out one of his best features in a long time.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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Fashawn & Sir Veterano – All Hail the King
Cover Artist: Liquor Store Mike
There is a group of top-tier lyricists that I never see mentioned in all these lists that the Twitter people throw around, and Fashawn is a great example of one. Sitting in the good graces of rappers like Nas and Elzhi means something in hip-hop, and his lyrical talents are reflective of the respect that he receives, talents that he bounces off of the refreshingly simple yet nostalgic beats provided by Sir Veterano. There are a lot of booms in these baps, head-nodders utilizing a great spread of samples and instruments in a way that those familiar with guys like DJ Premier will welcome. The styles provided are perfect for Fashawn to wax over, structuring his bars and song topics with as much attention to detail that the beats receive, complete with solid punchlines and serviceable wordplay. The whole theme of the album, the struggles of a “king” or leader in life, are constantly referenced in both self-serious (like spitting game to the young ones on To Be King) and the slightly tongue-in-cheek (Castle, with the cheesy overdramatic hook from Aloe Blacc), a great showcase of Fashawn’s ability to stick to topics while also being a very playful and unpredictable emcee. It’s a rather short project, but there are a lot of great lyrical moments worth a close listen, and a spread of beats that fills your heart with those warm hip-hop feelings.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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Willie the Kid & V Don – Catch Me If You Can
Cover Artist: artbyshk
Coming in at only ten minutes, this is an easy project to slip into the vibes of, running through it many times before you realize it’s started over. There is something so entrancing about the beats V Don comes up with on the regular; it’s not quite true-blue New York, but not quite the brand of hands-off dreariness of guys like Griselda (Daringer specifically). Out of everything, what I hear the most in V Don’s work is some middle-career Alchemist, back whenever his beats were dense with ambiance and flat samples. There is no… excitement, in these beats, instead almost a dread or an uneasiness listening to them loop. You don’t want them to stop because they’re so intriguing, but it can sometimes seem like something like this isn’t meant to be rapped over. Well, Willie the Kid isn’t you’re normal kind of rapper, being a sort of laissez faire lyricist that lets the beat have it’s moments and it’s pockets. Rather than attacking the beat, Willie waltzes with it, telling the stories of his lavish lifestyles with the beat at his side, much in the same way that someone like Roc Marciano would. Much like Fashawn’s album this week, we’re looking at a very short project, so there isn’t much to talk about, but what you do get is a perfect morsel of sound from the duo that has provided some amazing work together in their careers; check out the Deutsche Marks series for more of this kind of dark-yet-flashy hip-hop.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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Culture Jam – Kawhi Leonard Presents: Culture Jam (Vol. 1)
Cover Artist: MOONBASE
Full disclosure: I have no idea who Kawhi Leonard is and why he’s important in both his game (I mean I know the dude plays basketball but that’s as far as we go) and in this game, the rap game. But here’s what I can gather: the man is clearly important, because the solid majority of the artists involved do not phone in their appearances on here. What we have here is a compilation tape, think of a producer bringing together a ton of artists they like and mashing them all together on a single tape (but without actually being a producer). Think of DJ Khaled without any of the negative connotations you’re thinking of right now. It’s dope that Leonard fucks with all of these great artists, and those artists fuck with him enough to give him great content to make a surprisingly good spread of songs. To name a few, we get great verses from A Boogie wit da Hoodie, NLE Choppa, NBA YoungBoy, Gunna, Rod Wave, and Polo G. But I think the coolest discovery to be found here is this group BlueBucksClan, who’s coming through with a great piece of Bay-inspired rap that is fire as shit on the last track; I’ve never heard of these guys, but they are now on my radar for sure. If you like pop rap, melodic trap, or basically anything mainstream in hip-hop today, there are some great songs to add to your playlists on this one, an end result that was most likely Kawhi Leonard’s exact intentions.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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Pouya – Blood Was Never As Thick As Water
Cover Artist: [Unknown]
I’ve got to come out first with a question with Pouya: what’s up with the underwear thing man? If I put a picture of me in my underwear at the beginning of my Fixes y’all would log out like a motherfucker. Anyways, the last time I checked in with this guy was The South Got Something to Say, an album that had some great moments mixed with some admirable attempts at pop/melodic songs (there were also a handful of singles he’d dropped since then that I really fucked with, none of which appear on this project sadly). Blood Was Never As Thick As Water is largely a similar affair, mixing some of the harder banger tracks you’d expect from fast-rapping south Floridians (with a little bit of that Memphis flair thrown in there) with some borderline emo-trap, complete with the aesthetic and subject matter of maybe a lil peep. It’s short enough to not overstay the welcome, and even whenever I wasn’t feeling some of the more melodic cuts I was contented by his more familiar music. I think some of the biggest level-ups from his previous projects, even on those pop-centric tracks, was the production on here, with some genuinely solid beats on tracks like Out the Mud and Stuck In Admiration. You’ll fuck with this if you fuck with Denzel Curry, Ski Mask, X, and the $UICIDEBOY$.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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Wale – Folarin II
Cover Artist: [Unknown]
I feel bad for Wale man, for real. I can’t think of a single respectable artist in the industry that doesn’t fuck with this dude on a personal level, well liked by all who go through the grind of releasing commercial albums. But, for whatever reason, every time this dude drops you have legions of people on the internet saying this dude is corny and asking him to stop making music. It reminds me of the hate-train J. Cole had following him for years, but Wale’s has stuck with him for much longer. On one hand, I understand it: Wale makes much more uplifting and positive music that many of his contemporaries, playing it safe in a sense by not bowing as much to the “drug/clothes/violence” narrative of many rappers (not that there is anything at all wrong with that). But, on the other hand, Wale serves as a very important rapper in my mind because of the bridges that he builds between genres and demographics; as much as a lot of hip-hop purists like to deny it, Wale is popular for a reason, and that’s because he’s accessible for people who don’t live and breathe this genre. Folarin II is an album that *can* be enjoyed by everyone in hip-hop, both the dire-hards and the casual listeners, and for that reason I think it’s quite a good album. Much like Pouya’s album above, while I may not personally appreciate the singing tracks, the entire album package is still solid. Wale can be introspective, compassionate, and down-to-earth, but he can also engage with us who need that hip-hop umph with flashier and aggressive lyrics when he needs to. The versatility is why I love him, and this album is another in a line of projects that demonstrate this. Stop hating and just enjoy the music y’all.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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-------SOUP’S HOT DEALS-------
JPEGMAFIA – LP!
Investment: NAME YOUR PRICE
Cover Artist: [Unknown]
If y’all can remember, JPEGMAFIA’s last album was one of my favorite albums of the year for 2019 (Jesus Christ… feels like it dropped yesterday…). All My Heroes are Cornballs is a work of genius in my mind, undoubtedly, but one that I knew back then would be incredibly difficult to top. It was the perfect blend of accessible and cryptic, soft and hard, rap and melody, that represented a complete view of Peggy as an artist unique in this field of hip-hop. LP! is more of that. I wish that I could come up with more to say about it but, for better or for worse, the album is very similar to the material you would find on All My Heroes are Cornballs. The main difference here is that I think the accessibility is much more of a focus this time around: many of these songs, despite still being odd and totally unique, feel much more self-contained and straight forward (relatively at least). The bangers bang and get people hype, the production is still cutting edge, and the lyrics can be as outlandish as the samples. But I can’t help but feel like there is an album-wide cohesion that I’m missing coming from his last album. Something magical about his previous work is how it blends together, a collage of sounds that feels like one 45 minute chamber of sound broken up merely for legibility. LP! is JPEGMAFIA in spirit, a totally welcome album that scratches that itch for boundary-pushing hip-hop music, but I don’t feel like it’s… important, if that makes any sense. I also need to point out that there are in fact two versions of this album: on Bandcamp you get the “offline” version, which contains the full project complete with unclearable samples. However, if you go onto streaming websites, you’ll get what’s called the “online” version, which does not have a good number of tracks, but it adds that BALD! track with Denzel Curry to make up for it. If you asking me, go and get the offline version. PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS, I beg of y’all because I’m not trying to shit on this man and the music is still amazing. I’m just analyzing the context from project to project here. Also, it’s Name Your Price on Bandcamp right now; give what you can and support this project.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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Rahiem Supreme – Rahiem is a Alien?
Investment: NAME YOUR PRICE
Cover Artist: [Unknown]
Rahiem Supreme is one of the most uniquely strange emcees you’ll listen to in your life, I can promise you that. It goes beyond the oddity of lyrics, the complete showcase of modern art that is his flow, or even the aimless lethargy of the beats; Rahiem as a character is crass, juvenile, and borderline insane, and everything about his music reflect this. His lyrics are odd, sometimes being completely topical, sometimes just a stream of non-sequiturs and random references. His flow is just a river of words, rarely ever finding a tangible pocket, but this can often be attributed to the beats, which, on Rahiem is a Alien? in particular is a hodgepodge of loops and sampled blurts of instruments and sound effects. Besides an introductory track that goes on about 3 minutes too long (I firmly believe this is to weed out people who wouldn’t have the… patience for a work like this), I don’t have anything negative about this project to say; it’s completely bonkers, and a great projects for the fans of people like al.divino and Tha God Fahim. All that being said, I can see this being a difficult listen for some people, so go into this if you are really looking for some left-field shit. It’s Name Your Price, so consider dropping some money to support the man.
Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music
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