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JID: DiCaprio 2 [Album Review]

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Leonardo DiCaprio is regarded as one of the most prolific actors of this generation. Known to be selective with his projects so he would stand out and grab eyes. While some of his projects were blockbusters, he focused on the gold more than the dollar. On DiCaprio 2, J.I.D attempts to command ears everywhere to go for that very prestige.

Since March 2017, J.I.D came into the spotlight with his debut album, The Never Story. Dreamville’s golden child was deemed the next superstar from critical praise. Not wanting to rest on last years laurels, November 26th, also JID’s birthday, we saw the release of this gem. Teaming up with DJ Drama for a Gangsta Grillz project, he continues the legacy many have made in the legendary series. Continuing with the theme from the last project, he starts with “Frequency Change”. Quick little skits that see our main character bored flipping from channel to channel, which could be seen as a foreshadowing of what’s to come from the project. He is showing every side of himself and all the ability he has. He can do every subject good to great and won’t stop till you call it amazing. Drama, wildlife, romance, and news are reflected until it ultimately lands on the action genre with “Slick Talk”. A slow chant of activation that lets him do what he does best: rip the beat. Before listeners get too comfortable, the channel changes again into something straight out of a sci-fi horror special. The ATLien doesn’t loosen his grip on the haunting instrumental till all the life has left it.

Fresh off the slaughter, JID doesn’t stop and continues to murder on “Westbrook”. The beat sounds like a trap jungle and JID is the king destroying everything in his path. A$AP Ferg with his roar of a hook makes you want to chant along with him. Afterward, we get into the two pre-releases from the album starting with “Off Deez” with J. Cole, who might be delivering his best verse of the year and rarely is Cole in this form unless he wants to prove something. It is reminiscent of 2010 and 2011 Cole. These are records that just continue the momentum from the previous tracks. Each bar is worth a rewind and the MC doesn’t let a second waste once he starts. As the first track stated, he activates and shows us the meaning of going off. While the beats are bangers, they aren’t too complex aside from the bass, JID gives the track new life.

And while braggadocio is the main element of “Westbrook” and “Off Deez”, the album takes a quick turn to not only “talk that talk” but to also talk to you. Drugs, addiction, and violence is the message he isn’t trying to shove or force but discuss. Starting off with the second pre-release “151 Rum”, JID is drunk off of the beat that seems to swell with his cadence. It takes 44 seconds into the track for him to get started but once he does, he spews the bars as if he has to get it out of him. He has to expel all the evil he’s seen and has to let everyone know what he just witnessed from the youths around him. After the night of debauchery and sin, the beat for “Off Da Zoinkys” sings the gospel. “I am so grateful” it belts and provides the background for the survivor of last night’s shenanigans to tell their story. JID takes the church podium and proclaims he’s off the hard drugs. As the drums increase, so does his passion and professes he doesn’t want to be the cause of his own or friend’s demise. When the beat reaches its peak, so does he. It’s like the pastor from the church is sweating all over and has his towel in hand because his words have become the holy scripture that is lighting up the hearts of the churchgoers in attendance. The part of the sermon where someone’s grandmother is raising her hand in accordance with the holy word. He isn’t preaching but professing and making his vow to do better: “We almost got into a fight /  Like dead-ass fixing to fade em / Maybe I did too much / But I love my n***a I’m gone save em”.

The addict is afraid for what could become of, not only himself but the ones he rode around within Decatur and East Atlanta. He wants to see the success they’re enjoying continuing with all of them still living. You can almost hear a crack in his voice and you can’t help but feel for his loss of life he has already had from it. And yes the rapping performed to tell these stories is done at an impeccable level. It’s the two song stretch that are the brightest lights on the album.

After the sermon, the frequency changes again to relax and turn to smoother beats and flows from the MC. JID lounges and floats on raps to reflect with “Workin Out”. Things may not be going the way he thought after laying down his troubles but its here’s to hoping it plays out nicely until he gets “Tiiied”. He trades in the relaxed flow for melodic sing-raps and blends perfectly blend with R&B guests,  6LACK and Ella Mai. Venting out their frustrations and transgressions until they feel better. It’s certainly a change in musical style but it fits perfectly with the project because, after the intense feelings left from the other tracks, it lets the listener take a well-needed break. To continue the break, we get saxophone induced jazz raps for women on “Skrawberries”. BJ the Chicago Kid provides soulful vocals as JID lets his love for his woman “bury his sins”. From the type of women he likes to his “femi-nem” friends to the ladies he sees go through the “ain’t worth a damn man” phase, it’s all about the lady. It’s done so smoothly that’ll make you want to two-step every time.

After the scent of perfume leaves the room, the ganja smoke replaces it to continue the calm mood with “Hot Box” but the bars aren’t sacrificed for simple weed bars. JID and Joey Bada$$ don’t waste time or flows to be wasted and show their generation has what it takes to stand against the vet, Method Man, as he comes in the room to do what he does best. Body a beat, package up the remains and send it every listener to auditorily witness the mess he just made. He has a standout guest verse next to Cole’s. “Mounted Up” continues the high and lets him get on his horse to rap and play with his flow like it was putty and mess around. After playing, he chooses to tell the street tales of sadness with “Just Da Other Day”. It’s a terrible cycle and it may not seem that but it’s pretty bad. The final note of the album narrative is done with “Despacito Too”. The dark, menacing beat is at it appears and knocks on the best level but what doesn’t get lost in the dark bars he spits. Like channeling the dark feelings from everything that has transpired thus far and putting it into the attitude he uses to rap on the closer. But it’s at the 3: 16-minute mark that the hype flow he goes acapella before he crashes into oblivion. It’s a perfect closer for the project as it leaves you wanting more. There is the bonus track, “Hasta Luego” but truly serves as that it may be a great track but comes more like an encore than actually part of the frequency changes in the album.

This project is one of the best of the year. JID is crafting his legacy and is giving performance after performance to achieve rap supremacy. More than an actor, JID is like the main character in an anime. After a long journey of training and growth, he came back to show what he has learned with new techniques and forms. As the project plays, you hear him growing and getting stronger with each beat. This isn’t the final fight that he has been perfecting his technique for. It’s the prelude. He’s merely showing off what he’s got and it’s the appetizer to something even greater he has coming up his sleeve. The Wolf of Wall Street before The Revenant that lets him get that gold he is showing he is capable of holding. But for the time being, the prelude is damn good and will make you anxious for what is coming next.

DiCaprio 2 can be found here:

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Tyler Jones is Staff Writer with Dead End Hip Hop. You can tweet at him here

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Watch the trailer for Donald Glover’s ‘Guava Island’ here

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With Donald Glover turning away from music and Rihanna herself always dipping her toes into other endeavors, the duo has combined creative forces to create Guava Island. The trailer made its debut on the last day of PHAROS, his annual festival. PHAROS has been described by Glover as “a gathering of the five intuitives of the human experience: tribe, ritual, experience abstraction, architecture, language”. In its second year the festival took place in New Zealand, premiering Guava Island on November 24th.

Directed by Glover’s longtime collaborator Hiro Murai, the trailer opens with Glover playing the guitar and singing while playfully teasing his on-screen girlfriend Rihanna. From there, the trailer segues into shot of him performing, dancing, running away, and held hostage. The most notable dialogue in the trailer from Glover: “We live in paradise but none of us actually have the time or the means to live here” speaks to the duality of living in what the West often describe as “destination getaway” while many of the natives are often left with the struggles day-to-day life

It will also feature Letitia Wright and Nonso Anozie. Watch the trailer for Guava Island below.

 

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I.S. Jones is the Managing Editor of Dead End. Her works have appeared in Revolt, NBCThink, and elsewhere. You can tweet at her here

Swimming Through The Good Times: An Interview With Michael Christmas

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Artists who toggle the line of play and precision will seek life-long success. We’ve seen this  There are two kinds of rappers in the game: those who soul lacks music, who are here for a good time, not a long time and there are those who will be successful because they stay themselves.

Enter Michael Christmas and his fully-embraced, fun-loving, free spirit. His upbeat personality and his explosive catalog have propelled him into a world of fame with unlimited possibilities. From world tours to a new deal with Fool’s Gold, Michael Christmas has never once strayed away from enjoying the ride.

His latest album, “Role Model”, is a road trip into his past and a reflection of his life as a young adult trying to navigate the wild world painted before him. Nobody spins joy from the awkward quite the way Michael Christmas does, and in “Role Model”, the passenger seat is wide open.

Christmas’s father was in the studio throughout the recording process; the introduction is voiced by two of his younger sisters while vocals from his stepdad, mother, and girlfriend can be heard on skits between songs. The album is a side-step from what he usually delivers, but a sonic evolutionary journey nonetheless. Opposites attract and “Role Model” came together like Voltron. Growing up in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston ain’t for the weak of heart, but it will morph you into a person with the strength of ten Hulks if you let it. Aside from the amount of tequila he drinks and how often he swims, Michael Christmas is still the same person he was when he emerged onto the scene: moving through life with vivacious spirit but an insatiable desire for knowledge.

Matt Whitlock: How’s the reception for the album is going? I see it every day picking up more and more.

Michael Christmas: Hell yeah, I’m like really, really looking forward to seeing if it opens some doors and shit like that because that’s, you know, that’s what niggas put out albums for. (laughs)

MW: For real, right? Yeah, get the word out. The partnership with Fool’s Gold must be exciting, that’s a lot of leverage right there you know what I mean. You got a crazy cast over there already, you’re in good company. 

MC: Well, I’ve been having people come up to me, about that shit, for months now (laughs) like “Yo, I heard you on Fool’s Gold.” People I’ve never seen before in my life. All the time, coming up to me, talking to me and shit “Yo, you on Fool’s Gold?”

MW: You know damn well that’s gonna pick up more and more.

MC: Of course, I’m ready to start working on the next shit already.

MW: I bet you are. I’ve been listening to the album and there’s a lot of growth in there. Especially from “Is This Art” and other projects

MC: Thank you.

MW: It’s personal and you’re the same, but I was listening to [the album] and I did the Car Test the other day with it, sat in the whip and just vibed out to it. There’s a lot of personal shit, but it’s still relatable with ideas I feel other people don’t necessarily talk about.

MC: Yeah, I’m still not on that “Big Ass Rapper Level” yet so, I can still be relatable. I’m on my everyday shit like before you called me, I was cleaning my house.

MW: Facts. That’s what the people flock to; the fake shit only last so long.

MC: Still drunk as shit

MW: What you do last night

MC: My engineer and I were trying two different tequilas.

MW: What were you drinking, which ones? I work at a liquor store part-time.

MC: One of them was called Casa Noble, it’s from Mexico. My mom went there and she bought it for me, for a gift when she came back. He had this trash shit, some ugly shit some silver tequila and we were drinking both, trying to spot the differences and the differences were obvious very vast.

MW: Yeah I can’t drink tequila. I had a party in college and we played, I was like 19 years old, and we played flip cup with tequila. That was a bad choice—tequila. That’s your go-to? Tequila?

MC: Hell no! Cognac is my go-to but I just had that bottle, it was supposed to be special. So I drank half the other day and then last night I was like “I haven’t celebrated with my engineer yet” and we did this album together so I brought that to the studio and we just got smashed. He was very drunk like you don’t know Rob and shit, but he was fuckin’ belligerent drunk. I had a session, I booked an hour and I ended up staying for the next dude’s session.

MW: That’s fuckin’ hilarious. That’s chill though.

MC: It was cool, today, I got up like “Damn, I got to get my shit together.” My girl said her family is coming here today and we smoke all in the house, so you know I was just cleaning up the crib to make sure it doesn’t smell like weed.

MW: Get it all presentable.

MC: And then she just told us they’re probably not even coming inside, so I’m sick right now.

MW: Nah don’t be sick, yo, the best is chilling and sitting on the couch in a clean ass house and lighting up, just chillin’ in a clean ass house there’s no better feeling than that. There really isn’t, like everything smells mad good (laughs)

MC: Yeah no bullshit, because once my house is clean, I’m doing the same thing I do every time. I’m just walking around the house, smiling, looking at everything.

MW: So, a couple of favorites off the album, definitely “These Days” and “Everybody Eat” with (Cousin) Stizz, what’s your favorite if you had to pick?

MC: My favorites, well my favorite if I had to pick, probably “Upset” is my number one favorite joint. Then “Not For Me” and “Growing up” both make me really happy too. I teared up at the end of “Not For Me”. One time I was listening to it before it came out with the guitar solo at the end. It was the like day after we laid that down. It was my homie who works at Bodega. I was listening to it, while playing 2K and I just started tearing up when I heard the fucking guitar solo like “Yo, this guitar solo is so good!”

MW: That was beautiful.

MC: The thing is, it took him so long to do it because he kept trying over and over and over. Trying different shit and I was like “Yo, play this next one like you won’t get to play it again. Play it like we’re at a show and if you fuck this up, you just fucked up the show.” That’s when he played the one that we kept, so everything came together so tight, it was like a movie.

MW: He just needed that little bit of push.

MC: Yeah literally, halfway through, he would stop like “We got to clean that up” and I’m like “No, we’re not cleaning shit up.”

MW: I’ve noticed that, especially with live music players, in studios, they’re even more particular than artists or producers are with something that you may not even hear, that they hear.

MC: Exactly. There’s another track that you had, and I can’t think of the name of it off top, but it was about one of your teachers. They gave a speech about how it was for you growing up and you said he was talking to you about how you came home and you thought everyone’s family was like your family. Oh yeah, yeah, that was “Growing Up”.

MW: Yup

MC: So what happened was, this girl said her parents were going to pick her up from school and I was confused by that because both of my parents never do anything together. They didn’t live together so I assumed, I was confused, I was like “Your parents live together? Parents don’t live together” that’s what I said.

MW: What age was this?

MC: That was in kindergarten or the first grade.

MW: Oh, yeah, you were just confused.

MC: Yeah I was so little, I was just like, “What The Fuck”, I wasn’t sad or anything. I never dreamed of having my parents be together because they were never together. There was no like “Oh, I want my dad and my mom back together” or nothing like that. Yeah, it’s just two grown-up n****s that I call every day

MW: Listening to that, it was tough to listen to, not tough but you could feel it. The song had already hit you. So when that speech came on, it was already a beautiful song but my arm hairs started to stand up a little bit. It was like, anytime someone you know, or a teacher is talking about an encounter with a child it’s always going to draw some type of emotion. When it’s something that has to do with family, it fit beautifully.

MC: It’s wild because since I started dating my girl, I’ve learned more about how people grow up and shit. She grew up and had the perfect school career and was a good kid. Her mom was a great mom and her mom was older. You know, my mom was young and dad was young. My family is all over the place (laughs). We’ve been all over the place, so I’ve learned that I grew up very different from a lot of people. I went to like seven different schools, mad shit. So, recently, I’ve become proud of some of these, I wouldn’t call them setbacks but I call them differences. I’m just different and these differences are what made me this way.

MW: Exactly and now you’re realizing it at a perfect time in your life, where it fits the music that you’ve already been making.

MC: Yup, we had a party the other day for the album and my mom and my dad were in there, fucked up with me. My mom was clutching the champagne bottle all night and I’m like “Nobody’s parents are doing this.” Nobody’s parents were turnt up like mine and it’s funny because all my life, all the other kids always said they wish their parents were like my parents.

MW: It’s funny to think about how you were confused about all that and now, it’s like the dynamic that they had when they were not together, kind of made you, well it made them, more of your homies than traditional parents. So now looking back, people are like “Damn I wish my parents were like that” when most parents were traditional family parents, so you wouldn’t think of it that way.

MC: Yes exactly, it’s more from my dad really because my mom was pretty strict when I was a kid. She was on my ass daily, yelling a lot. Now that I’m grown, and I could take care of myself, she comes to me when she needs to talk. I’m like the only adult that’s not connected to the rest of the adults in her life like that. So, I have my own outside perspective.

MW: So she can appreciate that.

MC: Whenever she needs to talk to somebody, she immediately comes to me and I’m like “Whatever you need”. You know my mom is the homie now but it wasn’t always like that. With my dad, it was always like that. [My dad and I] bet that my mom wouldn’t show up to the party, even though I knew she was coming. She doesn’t usually come, she doesn’t usually go to shit because she doesn’t like being out with all the young people. So I called her the day before the party like “You know you got to come” and she was like “Alright.” So she pulled up with her homegirl and we were in there getting folded. One of my roommates is a huge fan of my mom, she wants to be like my mom when she gets older, and they were getting drunk together, it was funny as hell.

MW: So you mentioned Bodega a little while ago. Everybody knows there’s a relationship with you and Bodega there, can you give a little info on what Bodega is to you and how it influenced your career as an artist, as an individual aside from music…?

MC: Well, Bodega, more than anything, is a place that when I was always down there. I just wanted to shop there. Everybody in there was dressed so cool and anybody who was coming in there was buying fly shit. I always wanted to be able to do that but I couldn’t. Then I really wanted to get a job there when I was like 16 or 17 and they wouldn’t hire me but I was still coming all the time, with my friends. At one point, we got in trouble there so much that we weren’t supposed to go there anymore. Fast forward, we’re in town, we start doing our rap shit, it’s working and we’re cooperating.

We’re not fucking the store up (laughs). Now, it’s a hub for us to go get kicks, we buy shit and we know everybody that works there. There’s no reason not to kick it there and it’s kind of a central location because of where it’s at in the city and when you go there you can get anywhere from there. Whenever I need to kill time, I just go kick it at Bodega, chop it up with them, buy some shit, they always hold me down with the kicks. I just got them off-white ones, we went there the other day, you know what I’m saying. They’re just the homies, but more than anything else, I don’t feel like any other stores here really hold a candle to them. As far as what they do with the streetwear, selling kicks, the style of the actual store itself, everything about Bodega. I think it’s just better than all the other streetwear shops in the city, that’s really what it is.

Yeah, they do a lot of cool shit, they throw the homies little fuckin’ modeling gigs, every once in a while. A bunch of my homies, who didn’t even have a job, like, I’ll go there and they’ll be there working now and I’m like “Oh shit, you work here now?” They always support me, for the most part, when I go in there. They always know what’s up when I put out albums, they held them down, they carried my merch in there for a little bit when I had my hats, so it’s just the spot.

MW: For real, I don’t want to keep you on the phone all night, so the last question: what’s something the average fan might not know about you? Something they might not be able to find in another interview?

MC: Oh alright, I’m really good at swimming, like I’m nice.

MW: At swimming? Like you can do the high dive and all that?

MC: Nah, I can dive but I never dive off like the big ass platform, but I can dive. I was trained in all of this shit. I went camping for like four years straight and ended up being a junior lifeguard, so I’m nice at swimming.

MW: Wow, so did you compete or anything? If you were a lifeguard, you had to be pretty serious.

MC: No, every day there were two forms of swimming. They had an instructional swim [course]. If you were good, you used to do drills the whole time, and that’s what I was doing by like my second session. Then you have a free swim [lesson], everybody kickin’ it or whatever but during an instructional swim [course], they’d have us doing shit because we were 12 foot [deep]. They would throw this, like, black brick at the bottom of the pool and they would do shit like you’d have to dive to the bottom of the pool and get the brick and swim up to the top but you can’t kick off the floor.

MW: Damn, that’s intense.

MC: Yeah, drills like that, doing like five or six laps down the whole length of the pool, I should be shredded. (laughs)

MW: (Laughing) Are you still swimming?

MC: I don’t have a place to swim. The last time I was swimming, was me and my DJ, did a show in Michigan and the hotel had a pool that was open all night. There was a basketball court right next to the pool, so we hooped for like 2 hours and then we went swimming for like 2 hours. That was like the last time I got to swim, but I realized I still got it.

Role Model can be streamed below:

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Matt Whitlock manages a liquor store and listens to Rap music. He also enjoys short blunt walks to the refrigerator, watching movies with the sound off, and just plain chillin’. You can tweet at him here

Vince Staples: FM! [Album Review] by @SageTerrence01

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The radio is home to all of the most popular from your region. It’s not necessarily highlighting the best when it comes to a genre of music but the sure-fire songs. Vince Staples teleports us to a sunny yet realized observation at one man’s world that knows the terrors of the Summer and its fleeting enjoyment brought to you by the radio station with FM!

FM! is right at home within Vince’s discography for discussing the stark reality that he’s never shielded away from with production that gives his lyrics a backdrop of up-tempo pop and bounces when he calls for it. In the back half of the album, the sounds of summer and the electric beat are replaced by more downtempo and G-Funk as Vince digs into what makes a dangerous, but normal life for the young Long Beach rapper. The project is short, clocking in at just twenty-three minutes. Across eleven tracks Vince gives us deadpan raps with a nasal voice that has the West Coast sound with accessibility as it continually loops from the production from Kenny Beats, Hagler, KillaGraham, and Cubeatz. FM! Is an album that brings together the fun and danger of Summertime in unison to biographical stories and what that means in this hectic time that is known to increase violence in the streets.

 

FM! acts as an encapsulated moment reminding listeners us all that there’s more to the Summer than the Radio and highlights the dangers that are behind the music stations when you turn the radio off. “Feels Like Summer” starts the album with Kenny Beats who produces the bulk of the project with an electric energy that Vince immediately capitalizes on with verses about the difficulties of life in Long Beach. “First month still feel like summer Cold weather won’t stop no gunner / Wrong hat, wrong day, I’d kill my brother.” The Ty Dolla $ign feature gives the song the proper air for a Summer song it needs with Vince’s words setting it against his real-life accounts that are bouncing across the production. Vince’s cut and dry voice alongside the bumping sound clashes well with all of the tracks that follow. The sequencing in the album is as we hop from song to song. “Outside!” ups the tempo and gives us an anthem as he runs through the cardinal directions all participants in the chorus in a way as he asks “who ’bout that life?” while holding onto recounting being at his relatives house with guns and running up on others that bring the songs down to earth through the energetic feel that it gives off in the early parts of the album. Going into “Don’t Get Chipped” the bouncing vibe turns dire as Staples and Jay Rock gives us a warning with this song. Trying not to get beat up and/or killed is put plainly by Jay Rock. “Don’t get chipped, don’t get chipped, don’t get chipped Nigga, I ain’t got the patience, yeah My hustle like a mental patient, I’m tryna ball”

The adaptability of Vince’s rapping is showcased through his verses giving us a great display of his ability to be succinct. He’s telling instances of gang violence, the smaller moments that’ll sit with a person as their survival is in question, and what comes after as they’re able to talk about it. Vince while keeping things short and to the point, keeps the production in league with the subject material in the process. With “Relay”, he drives home the harshness behind him with the gangster influences that are ingrained in his music. The transitioning disguised as the radio is a smooth way to tie in previous songs to the interludes and the skits that are on the album. Speaking of interludes, a pleasant surprise was the “New earlsweatshirt (Interlude)” that comes off as a new release on Big Boi’s station. It comes on and by the time it registers that we’re blessed with new Earl Sweatshirt, the twenty-two seconds of knocking drums and an irregular beat are over. “Run The Bands” is an undeniable hit for the album as the infectious chorus maintains the anthem-like sound throughout as Staples raps with a breakneck speed when “Run the bands, run the bands, hey” isn’t right behind him. FUN! is another banger in a different light, it has the DNA of what the album has given us thus far but it’s reminiscent to Staples work during his time on Big Fish Theory. It’s a shoulder-shaking song with enough power to make you want to dance, the case can be made most of the album would cause this reaction because it’s a project made in the vein of what the radio will do to you. Even in the midst of delivering a pop-styled record, Staples highlighting the different ways life is plagued by the violent tendencies of the summer bring it back to its gangster roots, “Don’t be lookin’ funny when we come up in the store My black is beautiful but I’ll still shoot at you, dawg” can perfectly sum up how Staples has balanced the two sides of the material on FM! It’s expressed definitely on FUN! and it’s accompanying video that just shows people wanting to enjoy themselves to “not fuck up nothing.” E-40’s presence on the track strikes the tone for the second half of the song that allows him to ride out the song with a groovy repetition going for him as the song closes.

No Bleedin is the peak of the album when it comes to the hard-hitting production, Staples and feature Kamaiyah are in unison for the entire song. The production from Kenny Beats on this song specifically pushes you to get up and dance or fight the closest person to you while yelling the chorus. Kamaiyah verse on the album perfectly illustrates the violence that comes with talking to someone that’s 100% ready for war. The verse is practically a call to arms and verse to be used with anyone you have a problem with, it comes off cool and nonchalant with an air of eagerness from Kamaiyah. Both Brand New Tyga (Interlude) and (562) 453-9382 (Skit) both maintain the radio station personality that the album has kept up throughout with Tyga’s interlude acting as a teaser for new material that sounds like a very nice Summer Hit. The skit is a hilarious short break with Big Boy that features a challenge I recommend everyone tries at home to see if you do better than the unlucky caller. The final song Tweakin’ is a somber finale to the album. It’s a midnight stroll made into a song with the feeling and tone of the entire album shifting with the song. Tweakin’ can be described as the darkness setting in after the long day in the summer sun goes down. Buddy and Kehlani assist Staples as he puts his emotions and feelings about his life and the commonality of losing people on the track with the sinister, dream-like production behind him. “When Jabari died, was off the porch for homicides Then when Half had died, I bought some things to pass the guys But when Johnny died, all I had was shows booked” Kehlani’s hauntingly good chorus covers the song in a melancholy feeling about an emotional subject that many have said their peace on, “Just got a call ’bout my tweets (Tweets, yeah) Told me to watch what I’m sayin’ (Sayin’, yeah) Just got a call ’bout the streets (Streets, yeah) Told me to watch for a Jeep (Jeep, yeah)” The lyrics on Tweakin’ hit differently with Staples illustrating what life has been and what it is with stardom now another thing he has to worry about. He’s spoken about the instances he’s rapping about before and with Tweakin’ the Summer days come to an end, as we know them too.

Ending the album comprised of songs meant to mimic the happy-go-lucky, fun in the sun mood that one might think is Cali’s specialty on a note of reflection and remembrance about what Summer means to black people when tensions grow and the weather gets too hot is the only place Vince and company could take FM! Perfectly mimicking a Summer Day in Long Beach, Vince brings it home with a project that encapsulates his world that we’ve seen time and again (with Prima Donna and Summertime ’06 coming to mind) FM! is a short project with lots of reasons to revisit it in the future. A concept that’s used so sharply it’s ingrained in the way you approach the album, making you want to take it from the top and give it a spin for a car ride. Vince Staples has another winner with this album, keeping the songs consistent, the features playing to their strengths, and the production across the board from all involved being top notch. Now go turn on your local radio station!

Grade: A

 

A Short Guide to Westside Gunn’s “Hitler Wears Hermes” Series (1-5)

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Prominent Buffalo MC and Griselda Records chief, Westside Gunn, decided to give us all a treat on Halloween by releasing the 6th installment in his Hitler Wears Hermes series. Gunn is fresh off his release of Supreme Blientele, an album that will most certainly be in the “album of the year” talks at the end of 2018. Hitler Wears Hermes is a series of projects that ranges all the way back to the beginning of Westside Gunn’s career. He’s dropped a new installment in the series almost every year since 2012 (aside from the year 2013).

The running controversial title of the series was intentional, according to Gunn, and served as a metaphor for the grimy, yet luxurious, feel of the music he makes. Here is Gunn’s reasoning behind the title, pulled from a mini documentary:

“The whole Hitler Wears Hermes, you know the title, man, was just, I wanted to come with, you know, some of the grimiest but flyest shit I could come up with, cuz like, that’s basically my whole style, you know. Just the grimiest, flyest shit I could think of, so. You know, everybody was already used that Devil Wears Prada, and I’m just like, you know I want to flip that right there. Like that was something, I just wanted to come with somebody that soon as you hear it, you be like, ‘Yo that shit’s crazy, but fly at the same time.’ So that’s how I really came up with it.”

So, in honor of the release of Hitler Wears Hermes 6, (which you can purchase here) here is a short guide of installments one through five in the Hitler Wears Hermes series!

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Hitler Wears Hermes 

Released: 2012

The original (OG) installment of the Hitler Wears Hermes series. It is also the shortest out of all the installments, only including six tracks. It also features only two tracks containing original production. However, Westside Gunn does a hell of job making those tracks his own, one track in particular being “Rayful’s Plug”, which includes the beat from Wiz Khalifa and 50 Cent’s, “Telescope”, produced by Harry Fraud. If you’ve never heard any of the Hitler projects, feel free to start with this one and work your way up.

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Hitler Wears Hermes 2

Released: 2014

This installment is my personal favorite of the Hitler Wears Hermes series. It includes several memorable songs, including the first track representing the iconic duo, Hall & Nash (Westside Gunn and Conway). The production from Gunn’s in-house producer and right hand man, Daringer, is stellar. The way he flipped “Sleepy People” on “City, Sos & Me” will forever be ingrained into my eardrums…it’s quite beautiful. Do not let this one slip by your ears. Don’t believe me? Take KA’s word for it.

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Hitler Wears Hermes 3

Released: 2015

This is easily the longest of all the installments (17 tracks), and also includes some of the most potent features of the bunch (Sean Price, Benny, Skyzoo, Durag Dynasty and Vast Aire). The Vast Aire (member of Cannibal Ox) feature on “Rixh Lord Poor Lord” in particular is quite a standout. Aside from Daringer handling business as usual on the boards, fellow Buffalo producer, Camoflauge Monk, takes the opportunity to shine on this project, producing tracks such as “Dear Winter Bloody Fiegs” and “Oil Base”.

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Hitler Wears Hermes 4

Released: 2016

Around the time this project was released, Westside Gunn (and Griselda Records in general) began to get a lot more attention (shown through the “Combat Jack Speaks” sketch on the project…R.I.P.). He was fresh off his release of FLYGOD, which had dropped earlier that year (check it out here). Like usual, this is yet another solid installment in the series that not only showcases Gunn’s talents, but his label mates as well. Conway’s verse on “The Cow” is easily one of his most emotional and memorable verses he’s ever done…and it’s the VERY FIRST verse you hear on the album. Conway also appears on the track “Nitro” alongside fellow Griselda representative, Benny. The chemistry between all the emcees of Griselda Records is undeniable.

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Hitler Wears Hermes 5

Released: 2017

You could argue that Hitler Wears Hermes 5 may in fact be the grimiest installment of the series. The first two tracks, “Hebru” and “MAC 15’s”, strongly support this statement. Also…shoutout to Buffalo poet, Keisha Plum, who has appeared on every installment of Hitler Wears Hermes (as well as FLYGOD and Supreme Blientele). On HWH5, she appears on “Hebru”. Her dark, chilling vocabulary is extremely fitting with the aesthetic of Westside Gunn’s music. In fact, a Westside Gunn project without her presence wouldn’t feel quite right. Conway and Benny once again make appearances. Conway in particular makes an appearance on “R.I.P. Bobby” and glides with Gunn over a beat produced by The Alchemist. The beat includes a gorgeously flipped sample of “I Can’t Stay Away From You”.

Hitler Wears Hermes 6 is available exclusively on Westside Gunn’s website. It will be available on other streaming platforms on November 9th.

 

Jake Milgate (@MILFENCE) is a staff writer for DeadEndHipHop. He resides in Rochester, NY.

“I wanted to be an outcast”: On The Unique Sounds of Rico Nasty

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The evolution of hip-hop in the Internet Age has given birth to a myriad of different sounds and trends over the past several years. The music birthed in the “SoundCloud era” of rap has become part of a larger movement that embraces some of the tenets of the ‘70s punk movement: loud music, transgressive fashion, and undermining traditions.

A member of this new wave, DMV rapper Maria Kelly, widely known by her stage name Rico Nasty, is quickly emerging as one of the most distinct voices of this recent “punk rap” movement, thanks to her eccentric music, subversive fashion sense, and raw authenticity.

A quintessential oddball, the Maryland native presents a surprisingly interesting and refreshing take on melodic trap music. Filed under a subgenre she refers to as “sugar trap,” Nasty effortlessly combines the cartoonish, youthful nature of bubblegum trap with the angst and grit of genres like punk, nu metal, and drill. It’s a sound she began developing in 2016 — with the release of her second and third mixtapes, The Rico Story and the appropriately-titled Sugar Trap, respectively — and which reached its lyrical, sonic, and artistic peak on her most recent project, Nasty.

In an interview with Complex in 2017, Rico Nasty described sugar trap as a mixture of “that good, that bad, that dark, and that light,” referencing the way that her sound has evolved since its beginnings to reflect the onset of darker emotions — a product of a shrinking circle of friends and increased exposure to critics and trolls. It helps to explain why the nature of her song titles differ so drastically, from playful and lighthearted (e.g. “Hey Arnold,” “iCarly,” and “La La Land”) to bold and abrasive (e.g. “AR-15,” “Smack a Bitch,” and “Rage”).

Similar to the way Nicki Minaj utilizes various alter egos to explore different identities and play around with different accents, Nasty channels her “light” and “dark” emotions into her music through distinct characters — namely, the chirpy, ultra-feminine, sing-songy Tacobella, which she turns to for glittery songs about self-love and stunting on haters; and the boisterous rager Trap Lavigne, who can be found threatening violence towards her enemies over much darker, grittier production soaked in sub-bass. Rico’s artistic fluidity enables her to float almost effortlessly between the musical extremes.

It’s not easy to compare Rico Nasty even to her rap contemporaries; very few (if any) up-and-coming artists sound quite like her — it’s part of what makes her such a special artist. Rico’s verses are craftier than those of some of her SoundCloud rap counterparts; her cadences and flows are charismatic, and vary more widely than most other trap rappers; her dynamic microphone presence, unlike that of most emcees across the board, rapidly fluctuates between the opposing ends of the emotional spectrum.

And much like her music, Rico Nasty herself is one-of-a-kind. Her authenticity shines brightly in an industry that is often plagued by notions of insincerity. It’s a resolve she developed way back in grade school when she refused to follow the conventions of cliques at a boarding school she attended in Baltimore. In an interview with The FADER, she stated, “I was, like, weird on purpose. I wanted to be an outcast.”

Nasty’s moxie has given her the confidence to embrace the very fact that she purposely doesn’t fit the stereotype of a pop star — her voice is raspy, her musical and stylistic inspirations come from outside the genre, and she rarely raps or sings explicitly about sex.

“I’d rather not compromise who I am for the rap image,” she commented in an interview she did with Highsnobiety. This uncompromising attitude reminds me of the way that Lil Yachty and Lil Uzi Vert were both unwilling to concede to the expectations of the hip-hop masses (even if they came across as disrespectful and sacrilegious).

Rico Nasty’s refusal to accept that age-old adage that “Sex sells” has also inspired her to combat what she calls the industry’s “cookie-cutter” image with her own idiosyncratic sense of fashion, inspired by her punk aesthetic. Her style is adventurous and fresh, reminiscent of the sort of way Kelis pushed boundaries through her unconventional fashion sense. From platform boots and lace tights to flamboyant makeup and spiked collars to outlandish hairdos and colorful wigs — Nasty’s wardrobe often speaks louder than her words.

And on that topic, the only words Rico Nasty seems concerned with are her own, and not those of her naysayers. On the hook of the song “Won’t Change,” Nasty sings “People false claim, people gon’ hate / But you can’t worry about them ‘cause they won’t change.” In her short career, she’s received her share of hate — just as Yachty and Uzi were lambasted for their viewpoints. Yet Nasty seems to have grown comfortable with the direction of her artistry and her public image.

Rico Nasty’s dedication to being true to herself has turned her into a role model for young fans looking for down-to-earth, honest inspiration from their music idols. And having already been co-signed by various artists, featuring on the cover of the Summer 2018 issue of The FADER magazine, and appearing on the soundtrack of HBO’s hit show Insecure, Rico Nasty is well on her way to becoming an icon in the world of mainstream hip-hop.

 

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Bryan Okani is a Contributing Writer for Dead End Hip-Hop. You can tweet at him here