Weekly Fix #24

The mainstream has slowed down significantly these past few weeks, and that’ll probably maintain till the top of 2020. The underground knows no such rules, and still roars on strong to finish out 2019 with the goal of making me question my top 10 as much as possible. I wish these people would drop stopping such amazing projects; give me room to breathe guys jeez… 😉

I also want to show a little bit of love towards my Facebook gang with the announcement that my group, Drake’s Hidden Children, is now public! For those of you not in the loop, DHC has been a group I’ve been running for about a year now where random shit is posted; news, polls, random good songs, etc. Everything from Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen is also posted there, so go and join Drake’s Hidden Children on Facebook, and like/follow the TSDK Facebook page while you’re at it. It’s suuuuuuper appreciated!

Last week is the final week of my 2019! So that means that starting on December 16th, I’ll start giving out my Top 10 albums of the year a day at a time, ending out with #1 right before the new year. It’ll start over the beginning of next year with the Top 10 of the Decade (it’s been awesome going back to some of these albums again), so stay tuned.

Here’s a link to the Week #24 Playlist for y’all

-----PROJECTS-----

The Alchemist & Action Bronson – Lamb Over Rice
While White Bronco felt like Bronson going through the motions of releasing music, this new project feels like there’s so much passion behind it, and that is clearly due to the fact that Bronson is feeling these instrumentals way more. The Alchemist tailors this experience for him with some of the warmest production he’s done this year. I’ve read that these are older tracks that the two never got around to releasing; they definitely fooled me, because this album flows so well that it feels like it’s one smoke-session turned booth-session that is super cohesive.

Recommended if you like: jazz rap, Madlib, well sequenced albums, hilarious and irreverent bars, Riff Raff, smooth instrumentation, live instruments, J Dilla, very short but cohesive projects

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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DJ Muggs & Tha God Fahim – Dump Assassins

Far and away the best Fahim project this year, and one of the better DJ Muggs projects. The beats are hazier, more low-fi, and have a Middle Eastern slant with the woodwinds and samples. Fahim even takes time to pen some more compelling bars and hooks. The aesthetic of the project is so spot on for a collaboration between these two, and serves as an excellent cap in a magnificent year from Muggs, as well as a good benchmark for the potential of Fahim.

Recommended if you like: dusty boom-bap, conspiratorial and religious lyrics, samples from the far east, solid flows, strong motif, short listens

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Elcamino  – Elcamino 2
As a standalone Elcamino project, I think it’s ok; there have been a few projects from the man that I’ve liked more. But as a sequel to his original self-titled mixtape, it’s a little disappointing. It feels shorter than it is, some of the beats are a little non-descript, and there isn’t really a Prodigy-level feature on here (but the rest of BSF really bring it on their features to be fair). Elcamino 2 isn’t bad by any means, but after Santa Muerte,a dn especially Where’s My Pyrex?, I may have been a little too hyped.

Recommended if you like: spacey and dark vibes, Styles P, strong deliveries, faint melodic rapping, potent lyrics, fantastic features, short listens, Griselda

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Mozzy & Tsu Surf – Blood Cuzzins
I think Tsu Surf’s album from last year was one of the worst projects of 2018, but I think with Mozzy his shortcomings are minimized by being with a much better artist. With the general spread of West-Coast sounds on here, it sound like Tsu is a feature on every single track, but that is for the best to shine on Mozzy and the features. The lyrics are still personal and reflective, and I think from Mozzy’s perspective I like it more than his project with Gunplay.

Recommended if you like: emotionally venerable music, street tales, Tupac, Bay Area, solid lyrics, collaborations with chemistry, gangbanging with heart, west-coast production

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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03 Greedo & Kenny Beats – Netflix & Deal
The production on this bitch is phenomenal, with some really crazy instrumental melodies and sharp and innovative trap drums. Each beat is good in it’s own right, and Kenny Beats is becoming one of my go-to producers for great talent. Greedo, despite being in prison, was able to bless us with his presence on here, and the results are positive. He can come up with some catchy melodies, but some of his lyrics are a little so-so. The features are good, except for Vince Staples; seriously, what the *fuck* happened to that dude?

Recommended if you like: T-Pain, heavy autotune, pop culture references, Young Thug, hooks with good and catchy melodies, Young Nudy, inventive and unorthodox trap beats, solid track concepts, YNW Melly

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Flashius Clayton & DirtyDiggs – Fronto Fever Dream
DirtyDiggs is one of the most aggressive samplers out right now, with most of his beats featuring in-your-face sample loops of loud horns, sharp vocal clips, and vintage soundtrack bites. It can be a little grating sometimes (mixing can be an issue occasionally), but I grew to love his bold production style. Flashius is an emcee you need your ears on; his flow and changing rhyme schemes remind me of the Gold Chain Militia members put together, but there’s nothing inherently wrong with wearing your influences on your sleeves.

Recommended if you like: bold and boisterous vintage sampling, Gold Chain Militia, psychedelic and strange instrumentals, left-field boom-bap, Oh No, solid and well-rounded emcee, TriState

YouTube/Bandcamp

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Eto & Mil Beats – Front Row
Eto is appropriately grimy on this one; it almost seems like he’s rapping *even more* about the crack game. But there’s a lot of downtime on this short project, with several times of instrumental and no rapping for some reason, even though the beat is fire as hell. The beats are good, I just wish it was filled out more by Eto (or maybe some guests on here? where is Flee Lord?) Also, DJ Djaz on this album on three of the tracks is phenomenal in adding that extra layer of grit.

Recommended if you like: super spooky beats, sparse and echoing sampled production, strong rapper/producer chemistry, lyrics about selling crack, pianos, top-shelf DJ scratching

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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D.I.T.C. – D.I.T.C. Studios Vol. 2
For just a compilation of random studio sessions, it does what it’s supposed to do. It’s loose, and DITC brings in some guests to make up for some of the lyrical shortcomings, but I think it’s a solid effort. The beats are appropriately dusty, but there’s some modern flare in there with some of the drums and instruments. The age of the original members are starting to show however, since people like Cory Gunz and Papoose are by far the best parts of the record.

Recommended if you like: mid 90’s production, old school legends mixed with new talent, Big L, Fat Joe, New York City, underdogs, dusty boom-bap

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Trippie Redd  – A Love Letter to You 4
I’m not even gonna lie and say I didn’t hate a majority of this project, but it has a couple of really good tracks. When he gets more energetic and experimental in his trap shit, I like it. But more often than not, it’s acoustic guitar backed trap ballads, which just isn’t my thing at all. It’s also so fucking long; you could have cut 10 tracks off of this and nothing would have been lost. The back-end of the album is much better than the first, so listen accordingly.

Recommended if you like: amateur singing, autotuned vocalizing, Juice WRLD, acoustic guitar, emo music in general, overdramatic lyrics, Evanescence or something, Travis Scott, super mainstream trap

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Flipp Dinero – LOVE FOR GUALA
There’s this husky, smoky quality to this dudes voice that I’m really vibing with. Most dudes out there would drown this voice out in autotune, but this dude just goes in full force every time, amateur singing voice and all; it had this endearing quality about it. Besides that, we have banging trap beats from some names like Tay Keith, so you know it slaps.

Recommended if you like: internet age trap beats, MadeinTYO, melodic rap without much autotune, very catchy hooks, Tory Lanez, solid instrumental melodies, Smokepurpp

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Casey Veggies – Organic (Deluxe)
This is a rerelease of Casey’s album that came out earlier this year. It adds 5 tracks onto the backend, with two features from Iamsu! and Larry June. I thought the original album was fantastic whenever it came out, and while there new tracks may not be 100% necessary, they’re enjoyable enough to recommend this new version of the album, at the very least to get people to listen to the original run.

Recommended if you like: softer west-coast music, G-funk, good hooks, Bay Area, Snoop Dogg, sharp synths, Meek Mill, underdogs, The Game

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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-------SINGLES-------

Method Man & Streetlife (Feat. Havoc) – Squad Up
I’m loving this low-key instrumental, and how Meth and Street use the opportunity to flex their skills at creating crazy rhyme schemes and wordplay. Street hold his own like he always has, but Method Man missed a single fuckin note in twenty five years, and he only seems to be getting better as he gets older. Simply incredible. Havoc was a nice addition to the track to show some respect to the late Prodigy (the whole “squads thing”), but his verse could have flowed a bit better.

Recommended if you like: smooth flows, excellent rhyme schemes, Wu-Tang Clan, Method Man & Redman, quick and thoughtful boom-bap, lyrical exercise

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Pounds (Feat. Roc Marciano) – The Garden
I love this dude’s vocal quality; the dudes that sound like they need a drink of water are somehow always the best rappers I don’t know why. The gutterness mixed with the soul of the instrumental is an excellent split, and with Roc Marciano on the backend brings that smoothness to create a well rounded track. I’m gonna keep my eye out for Pounds.

Recommended if you like: Vinnie Paz, Big Pun, smooth and cinematic instrumentals, soulful sampled hooks, low-fi New York Underground, cutthroat drug rap, syllables and jammed rhyme schemes

YouTube

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Statik Selektah & Paul Wall (Feat. Benny the Butcher) – Overcame
Statik just loves Houston doesn’t he? After a full length project with Bun B this year (that they made entirely on livestream over 24 hours), Statik is back again for a Thanksgiving album with Paul Wall. This lead single is more upbeat, more “thankful”, and the bars on it more positive and soul-soothing. While I don’t think Benny fits the style of the track 100%, I won’t turn down another verse from The Butcher. Statik’s production is the best part, with his warm samples with great vocal clips.

Recommended if you like: gospel music, fantastic sampling, Houston legends, Griselda, positive music, Jesus Is King, sharp vocal samples

YouTube

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RJ Payne (Feat. Eto & Flee Lord) – SUICIDE SQUAD
This is sooooo much better than anything off of Leatherface 2, and it honestly sounds like something that would have fit snugly on the original Leatherface, or maybe off of a Griselda release (it sounds like a Daringer beat for sure).  I love the cold-ass murder bars that Eto and Flee bring to the track (again, better than a lot of the material on Rocamerikkka), and RJ closing out the track is so brutal and in your face is crazy. His punchlines are so insane and delivered with such; like a modern day DMX or some shit.

Recommended if you like: aggressive and explosive punchline rap, DMX, battle rap, latino rappers, Benny the Butcher, spooky music, slow-burning instrumentals, Big Pun, Griselda

YouTube/Apple Music

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Summer Walker (Feat. London on da Track & Chris Brown – Something Real
Has a lot more funk and groove than a lot of material off of Summer’s last project. She’s also showing that SZA influence way more in this song. I like the danceable beat brought from London, with the punchy bassline and the minimal drums. I feel like Chris Brown tries a little too hard with the vibrato and the layered vocal processing on the track, but I appreciate his input. It’s just alright overall; there are way better tracks on Over It that I would listen to over this.

Recommended if you like: sensual and funky R&B, great basslines, SZA, good vocal performances, Ty Dolla $ign, things you hear on the radio

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Smokepurpp (Feat. Lil Skies) – Dirty Dirty
As a single, it doesn’t get my as hyped as Stevie did for his upcoming project (which I hope is Deadstar 2). This one sounds trite and slightly overproduced on the vocals front. It works for Lil Skies because that’s like his whole schtick, but I wanted a little more dirt from Purpp. The beat is busy and entertaining; I definitely like it.

Recommended if you like: autotune, soundcloud/ cloud rap, melodic trap, Nav

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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PARTYNEXTDOOR (Feat. Drake) – Loyal
It’s nice music to throw on in the background, but there’s nothing truly ear-grabbing about it to me. Party has a nice voice but it never seems like he does anything too risky with it. And Drake could have been cool, but he kept stopping the flow. I don’t know, it sounds like something they recorded in 2016 and has been sitting in the vault for a minute; maybe for good reason.

Recommended if you like: music for the radio, background music, dancehall, Burna Boy, Views-era Drake, extended melodic lyrics, borderline simp music

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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XXXTENTACION (Feat. PnB Rock & Trippie Redd) – Bad Vibes Forever
I like this track. It sweetly serenades you with its stripped back acoustics and the great vocal performances from the three singers. PnB Rock fits the vibe perfectly, X is great on the hook with his emotional delivery, and and Trippie Redd is tolerable on here. Didn’t think I’d like an X track this much, but here we are.

Recommended if you like: indie/folk/trap/soundcloud fusion, acoustic guitar, Post Malone, autotune, heavy melody, emo lyrics, Lil Skies,

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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Blac Youngsta (Feat. Yo Gotti & Moneybagg Yo) – Goodbye
The hook is bad. But besides this, I like all the verses here. They are aggressive, arrogant, and have some pretty funny lines in there. Moneybagg Yo in particular is a standout feature here, which makes me wonder where is this wordplay on his own tracks? Blac Youngsta isn’t the best rapper ever, but his charisma is admirable and, most importantly, listenable. The beat is an off-kilter banger too.

Recommended if you like: so-bad-it’s-good hooks, Playboi Carti, Gunna, Atlanta accents, punchy sub-bass, ethereal but hard-hitting beats, good features,

Spotify/YouTube/Apple Music

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