New Rap Music
Gucci Mane – “Gucci Girl”
from Texaco Shawty (Mixtape, 2009)
Gucci is in fun mode off his new split tape with OJ. Airy beat that reminds me of the type of pop records that were coming out in the early 00ts before everything went all post-Timbaland dark or hyper snap simplistic. It almost seems like the type of record Shade Sheist or some other west coaster could have rapped over this back then and gotten some Rap City play off. Bonus points for Kilo Ali & Sleepy Brown name drops. Could someone closer to Atlanta and/or “that streetz” explain the “Texaco” premise to an up north square such as myself?
XVII f/ Pimp C & Too Short – “Where It’s At“
from The Reason (Major, 2009)
XVII (pronounced “seventeen”) was signed to Pimp C’s UGK records before he passed. It’s hard to say what the state of that label is right now considering they weren’t releasing a whole lot of music in the first place, but here XVII returns with this underground. The raps on his last album, Certified was certainly informed by Pimp, but the hero worship here is just too blatant. The CDBaby bio is almost exclusively about Pimp and I’m wondering if this isn’t some attempt at a tribute album like those In The Style of Dilla albums that no name producers are always emailing me about. I suppose it’s a respectable outing if that was what he was shooting for – he’s got Chad’s intonation down but is obviously lacking a lot of the tact and passion. This track features Pimp and Short rocking bounce chants over that classic Dennis Edwards/”Paid In Full” loop so, you know, it’d be incredible even if it wasn’t. The album is at least worth a listen on account of the vintage country rap production as well as cameos from Pastor Troy and the always underrated Bohagon.
Lil Boosie – f/ Pimp C – “Life Of Crime“
from Various – Trappin Hard Servin Fenes (Internet, 2009)
One day Boosie is going to drop his Blueprint of all really pandering emotional personal raps over soulful production and it is going to spark a creepy revisionist obsession by everyone who hated “Wipe Me Down” the same way Jay won over all the “Hard Knock Life” mocking purists by just being like “oh I love my mom even though I sell crack and my producer has Bobby Byrd records.” Or he will continue to drop great undergrounds like this and the narcoleptic elitists can continue to sleep. Either way it’s nice that these Pimp cuts are starting to see release. He’s behind the boards here as well.
Daddy-O – “Go In”
Daddy-O “Techno Daddy“
from Superweird (Mixtape, 2009)
For those not paying attention Philly’s Daddy-O may be the the only new school weirdo (read: h*p*t*r?) rapper to value great rapping more than being a great weirdo. Might it has something to do with the fact that he lives in one of the last cities where lyrically lyrical rhyming is still the most relevant form of underground hip hop? His latest tape Superweird is a little all over the place as far as construction and beat selection but the rapping is pretty much uniformly excellent. This guy should probably have B.O.B.’s deal if B.O.B. insists on not rapping. And yes I just posted a song entitled “Techno Daddy” on this blog.
Lil Flip f/ Essay Potna – “What A Job“
from 28 Days Of Flip (Internet, 2009)
It’s fashionable to act like Flip is not and was never a good rapper but that is a lie. Sure I can’t quite remember a career so quickly deservedly decimated by the one two punch of Tip and “Sunshine” but it is nice rap again. Quiet as kept he has been doing one of these release a song a day projects all month. Nobody emailed me about it. Here him and Essay Potna resurrect this future classic Devin beat, which is also nice to hear again. I’m about to revisit Waitin’ To Inhale, as suggested.
Fabo – “Super Good“
from ??? (2009)
Every Fabo record seems closer to recapturing that energy he had on that first D4L record but still falls just slightly short. This is probably the best he’s put out since the group splintered and still nobody is paying attention. I am going to keep posting them until he finally drops the hit he has in him.
Lil Ru f/ Gorilla Zoe – “Nasty Song (Remix)“
from ??? (2009)
A not so new rap song. This has been around for months and Ru is supposedly huge in South Carolina right now. I was reminded of this when Burnone posted the original mix a few days ago. Zoe was right to throw on the remix as it seems a little like “Lost” except with generic strip club signifiers in place of ideas and emotions. Which means it will inevitably be a bigger hit than “Lost.”
Max B f/ Mack Mustard – “All My Life“
from Quarantine (Mixtape, 2009)
I have perhaps unfairly written Biggaveli off as a third tier Diplomat bottom feeder. This whole tape is great forgettable and fun sing song rap in the way that Kid Cudi’s publicist would probably throw around those words, except for real. (It’s probably not new either in the sense that Max might have dropped six tapes since.) Here Max and one of his weed carriers from straight out the Roy Rogers Fixins Bar float around on this ethereal track. It’s like something the Block Beataz would whip up had they grown up on the Heatmakers instead of Mannie Fresh. This is my token New York rap record for the week. What else am I sleeping on?
The new Cam songs are crazy as well (surprisingly? nah), but you already know that.
February 28th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
yep “waitin to inhale” is not to be dismissed
February 28th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
mayn dat boosie/pimp track has me sayin MAYN HOL UP!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:16 am
Glad to see someone acknowledging the existence of Max B with something besides aloof disdain.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:49 am
the same way Jay won over all the “Hard Knock Life” purists by just being like “oh I love my mom even though I sell crack and my producer has Bobby Byrd records.”
^^^^^^^^^
I think you still owe all of us who have been reading your musings on rapz over the past few years your grand analysis of Volume 3 being Mr. Carter’s finest work.
And for the record, I sorta agree with you on that one, maybe not the best, but certainly second favorite after R.D. If I were to condense Volume 3 into a ten track playlist, it would be top five all time favorites for me, easily.
But yeah, hopefully you get to that before he runs out of sequels to capitalize off of and releases Volume 4.
March 1st, 2009 at 7:11 am
I love the “New Rap” posts. You’re always putting me up on some great shit.
March 1st, 2009 at 7:17 am
Man, that new Boosie cut is niiiiiiiiiiiiice. That guy seems to get better every month.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:30 am
Thanks for boosting my fresh.
P E A C E
bw
March 1st, 2009 at 10:00 am
“Could someone closer to Atlanta and/or “that streetz” explain the “Texaco” premise to an up north square such as myself?”
Umm Is there supposed to be a premise? I just assumed it was another typical ‘I’m filthy rich’ reference, this one alluding to oil money. sorta like getting arab money.I’m probably wrong though, coz I’m twice the square you are, and not just because I’m currently residing in Canada i.e Up north squared.
Those boosie & daddy-o tracks are my faves on the list. Anymore info on this daddy-o character? any noteworthy albums or mixtapes released by him yet?
March 1st, 2009 at 11:37 am
Texaco = corner spot. OJ and Gucci sold crack outside a Texaco. Pretty simple.
Max is so wavy.. and the new Cam joints go hard.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:52 am
I am from Eastside Atlanta… there are a lot of Texaco’s in Decatur and there are not that many across the rest of ATL for some reason. Gucci and OJ probably hung out at the Texaco on Bouldercrest near Sun Valley Apartments
March 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
lil’ flippa beasted what a job. he got lazy but he can get back up he’s made some classic material.
March 1st, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Ahhh, great entertainment on a Sunday. Thanks, Noz!
March 1st, 2009 at 1:53 pm
Volume 3 is fucking great, never understood why so many fans hated on it. I don’t think there’s a single song on it I dislike, which is a major rarity for a Jay LP.
March 1st, 2009 at 2:21 pm
The only misses for me are S. Carter, Things That You Do, and Pop 4 Roc.
Otherwise, it’s a album with 11 classic songs on it.
March 1st, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Downloaded that Daddy-O mixtape. Aside from the fact that he should have picked a different name, and that the constant “i’m a weirdo, i’m a weirdo, i’m a weirdo” shit will get him labeled as a gimmick rapper REAL quick, dude is pretty good! He keeps a consistent level of fire throughout the entire thing, which is kind of a rarity for rap mixtapes nowadays.. Will be keeping an eye on dude for sure.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Went to dl that Flipper track and the zshare link had only been downloaded 13 times. damn, nobody’s checking for dude these days.
I kind of dig Max B’s flow but am I the only one who can’t understand wtf dude is saying? Always sounds mad muffled to me.
March 1st, 2009 at 8:45 pm
a lot of Gucci’s music has a west coast feel, specifically a bay area influence
Boosie’s voice is so out there that people either love or hate him, Jay’s is a little more tolerable; I don’t think people are gonna go back proclaim that his Streetz Is Mine mixtape was the modern day Streets Is Watching
even though Boosie is pretty damn awesome
March 1st, 2009 at 8:54 pm
Living in Houston all my life made me think Texaco was a texas only gas station/corner store spot ’til my dude from atlanta rapped about that shit last yr!
March 1st, 2009 at 9:32 pm
These Fabo and Boosie tracks may have just saved rap in ‘09 for me.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:21 pm
“One day Boosie is going to drop his Blueprint of all really pandering emotional personal raps over soulful production and it is going to spark a creepy revisionist obsession by everyone who hated “Wipe Me Down” the same way Jay won over all the “Hard Knock Life” mocking purists….”
Wipe Me Down = Hard Knock Life? See, this is the lazy “hey, people used to hate on Jay and Big then, they hate on certain southern records now, so you see, rap isn’t in decline, it’s just that purists will always hate on the new shit” logic that you see everywhere. Wipe Me Down and Hard Knock Life are similar only in that they both have goofy purist-offending hooks. They are dissimilar, however, in that there’s a ton of great, quotable rapping in between the iterations of Hard Knock Life’s hook, and none, zero, in between the iterations of Wipe Me Down’s. Rather, you’ve got some Hurricane Chris-grade babble about his club attire. Perhaps he’s made some wonderful stuff that’s not Wipe Me Down – I don’t know. But Wipe Me Down itself is a very unexceptional song.
March 1st, 2009 at 10:40 pm
wipe me down is a classic, stfu tray
March 1st, 2009 at 10:41 pm
if folks think its some new thing that boosie has been dropping tracks like this they really need to get up on his older shit w/ concentration camp & his shit with webbie from like ‘04
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:04 am
“They are dissimilar, however, in that there’s a ton of great, quotable rapping in between the iterations of Hard Knock Life’s hook, and none, zero, in between the iterations of Wipe Me Down’s.”
Come on, tray, the remix is f-ing fantastic. observe:
“I pull up at the club VIP gas tank on E but all dranks on me”
“famous like a ninja turtle” etc.
i agree “Wipe Me Down” isn’t Boosie’s “Hard Knock Life,” but that doesn’t mean the song isn’t good. maybe he just hasn’t hit his peak yet.
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:10 am
I only compared “Hard Knock Life” and “Wipe Me Down” because they were two identifiable and hated on hit singles. You know this Tray, but as usual you insist on countering points that were never made.
Texaco just seems like a out of left field and specific thing to name a mixtape. My next tape is going to be called Lowest Price Gas Slim.
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:21 am
I actually told someone who only listens to Wu-Tang, Tribe, MF Doom and hates all new music to listen to “Going Through Somethangs,” the other day and caught them in a moment when they realized there wasn’t anything bad they could say about it.
March 2nd, 2009 at 2:29 am
We all just need to realize Tray’s insane and his interactions are limited to blogs and his Facebook messages to me where he tries to get me to talk FILM with him.
The “Wipe”/”Hard Knock” comparison’s apt as both are great solid songs and one that’ll be recontexualized if/when Boosie goes Z-Ro with a big-budget and one WAS recontextualized once Jay-Z made “Yo, I’m sad even though I’m sad because I’m an asshole” songs. At the time, that song was mocked by all kinds of rap heads and now, it’s used as like Jay’s latent brilliance and subtlety in every article about him.
I’ve been enjoying Fabo’s more recent work b/c it seems kinda weathered or something. “So High” is so fucking SAD.
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:49 am
those daddy o joints are crazy, flip killed what a job and fabos new shit is bangin too.
new rap music posts >
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:22 am
the lil flip song is nice. not feeling the rest of that shit.
i don’t recall “all kinds of rap heads” mocking “hard knock life;” i recall a very specific kind of rap head mocking it (there was one explicit reference to “sampl[ing] show tunes” in the song “questions” by hater rap group k-otix). and even then, they only mocked the chorus, not the beat or the verses. now, once he made “anything,” people started clowning, and rightly so.
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
Yeah I was referencing a very specific type of hip hop fan. Most normal people loved hard knock life.
March 2nd, 2009 at 12:19 pm
it’z funny 2 see tryhard tray getting increasingly angrier wit’ noz
especially since it’z becuz noz ignore tray’z own gay blog which consists of around 60% of postz desperately tryin’ 2 get noz’s attention
(with tha other 40% are obviously desperate for sodomburg’s attention)
sodomberg – post linx to basketcase tray’s facebook
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:12 pm
OJ says “Texaco Shawty”(Sunvalley Shawty, Bouldercrest Shawty, Texaco Shawty)a lot, I think that’s the reason they chose it for the mixtape. I think it may be one of Juice’s nicknames, but can’t confirm that. He might just like saying “shawty” after the locations he reps.
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:21 pm
Got Juve comin to throw down (hopefully fucking hard) at a party this weekend. Hopefully I wont be able to post a recap of it for a few days after due to the intensity of my intoxication. Gonna see if he’ll play some shit off his recent mixtape.
March 2nd, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Also–Boosie’s track is fucking awesome.
March 2nd, 2009 at 9:37 pm
tray sucks
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:35 pm
what MZA and mike said
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
great site!
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Thanks!
March 4th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
keep listenin to that young bleed noz
March 4th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
That Gucci Mane was excellent.
March 5th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
Yeah the texaco shawty thing is jus honorin where they hung and trapped at…
gucci always sayin shit like….”I told shawty meet me at the checkers” ROFL
hood shit…and funny those are the top 2 reasons to honor gucci mane….
March 7th, 2009 at 8:24 am
this ant nofuking rap songs that i wont to hear
March 9th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
The Pimp C track with Too Short was dope. I wish there was more unreleased tracks of Pimp C, he didn’t live in the studio like most rappers do.
March 11th, 2009 at 12:30 am
hclwkn
April 1st, 2009 at 3:51 pm
Check out the new UGK record – ugkforlife.com