Kendrick Lamar (feat. Dr. Dre) - The Recipe (Aftermath/Interscope, 2012)
Scoop Deville provides one of the smoothest beats in recent memory for Kendrick and Dre (as written by Kendrick) to floss heavenly over. It’s a shame that it’s so cold outside over here in the Northeast, because this song is gonna be this year’s quintessential summer jam.
Himself The Majestic - Still Drippin’ (Youtube, 2011/12)
“Still Tippin” is one of my favorite songs ever (and yours too). Himself The Majestic is a very talented rapper, of the Shadowrunners Click (whose 808-Bit Revenge I’ve covered here before). This is from his solo project, Mexicans Can’t Rap Vol. 1.
Schoolboy Q (feat. ASAP Rocky) - Hands On The Wheel (Top Dawg Entertainment, 2012)
Did you know that Schoolboy Q released the best gangsta rap album since Flockaveli? Go buy it, okay?
Also, recent trend I’ve noticed between this and Future’s “Deeper Than The Ocean.” Vehicular suicide is so in right now.
Drake (feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga) - The Motto (Young Money, 2011)
How Wayne manages to look the most suspect in a video with Drake and Tyga, I’ll never know, but the video itself succeeds thanks to some finely timed cameos and Tyga’s weird methods of space travel.
Also, Chase N. Cashe. Seriously, this dude’s work as of late has been excellent, and I can’t wait for 2012, which will undoubtedly be an even bigger year for his production.
Schoolboy Q - My Hatin’ Joint (Top Dawg Entertainment, 2011)
It’s the case of a once overlooked producer working with an overlooked (but not for long) rapper. Mike Will has been going hard since at least 2007, back when Gucci Mane slayed his beats regularly. He’s only recently come to prominence since Meek Mill’s breathrough hit of the summer, Tupac Back, a beat that was considered faux-Luger but sounded better than essentially anything Lex had done in half a year at the time. His work with Brick Squad helped shape his sound, and he helped shape the sound for the Luger’s and Southside’s who followed (contrary to popular belief). He’s been everywhere this year, producing for everyone from Ludacris, to Future, and now Schoolboy Q.
I first heard Q on Kendrick Lamar’s awesome Michael Jordan, and it was pretty much a wrap for me from that moment on. Q has more than a handful of flows, and even though I expected him to get his snarl on and tear this beat to shreds, he actually uses his laidback flow found throughout most of his underrated Setbacks, released all the way back in January. Mike Will changes up his style for this, with some Legend of Zelda flutes and an all around whimsical sound. Q on the other hand asks a brothel of women why they’re with their shitty boyfriends, showing signs of jealousy, but also some concern for the women he’s addressing (despite the fact that there’s, like, 12 of them).
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (feat. 2Pac) - Thug Luv (Ruthless, 1997)
I caught a plane late last evening out to Cleveland/to help my niggas clean up some niggas no longer breathing
ShadowRunners - 808-bit Revenge (the deepest regions of the internet, 2011)
I usually have a hard time co-signing young artists unless I feel they’re contributing something to the game. Though all of this generation’s rappers are as addicted to video games just as much as they are to weed, video game themes generally still tend to be mishandled by rappers. When someone like Soulja Boy names his mixtape 1UP, then proceeds to write a song about video games that has little to nothing to do with video games, it feels like a cry for attention more than an actual admiration of games. Though it can be embarassing, every now and then the video game theme is done right.
ShadowRunners are a very young group out of Los Angeles. The group is fronted by Himself Thy Majestic, who is obsessed with 8-bit video games, professional wrestling, and Peggie Hill. If you were a child of the 90s, this is going to be a nostalgic trip you won’t soon forget. The beats all owe their sample to old Nintendo games, with Pokemon and especially Legend of Zelda getting a lot of love. Even though thematically and content-wise this could be mistaken as nerdcore, the rapping itself owes more to the blooming-weirdo generation of blog rappers.
Despite that, Himself is technically superior to most of his peers, with a writing style that’s more akin to early-00s West Coast underground rap. Though there’s room for improvement, a certain polish that will come with more time in the game, these kids are onto something. The ShadowRunners have the potential to be great in time, though.
You can also check out the remix of this project, which dropped yesterday, if you’re feeling it here.
MellowHype (feat. Tyler, The Creator) - Game (Odd Future/Fat Possum, 2011)
A very #rare and #secrete song that is featured as a bonus track on the re-release of Blackenedwhite; under really strange conditions. First, you have to buy the album at FYE (or buy the Australian version, apparently), at which point there’ll be a code for it at the bottom. Then you have to go to Redmusic.com, and download it from there. If you don’t wanna do all that, you could just click here.
Game is only two minutes long, and features production from Tyler - making this a Hodgy solo track, I suppose, adding further to the confusion presented. Unsurprisingly, the production on this track is better than most of the beats found on the actual release (which isn’t to say Left’s beats are wack - lacking in spots, just inferior to Tyler’s industrial-mayhem). Tyler’s guest verse (somehow they managed to sneak in two verses and a chorus in the span of two minutes) is a welcome indication that he’s still got some fuel left in him, after his other recent outing (Trouble on My Mind) had me worried that he’d be talking about paradoxes for the remainder of his career. Which he may, but at least he’s not here.
Frank Ocean - Acura Integurl (Odd Future/Def Jam?, 2011)
Elegant piano keys and Lil Wayne quotes, this song sounds left-field even by Frank Ocean’s standards. However, who’s to say what standards to hold Ocean by at this point in his career? All that matters is how good this is. Def Jam is apparently rumored to drop Nostalgia, Ultra. commercially on July 26th, and this would clearly be one of the tracks replacing the many cover-songs. I’m definitely okay with that.
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Tyler, The Creator on Her (XL, 2011)
just from this 30 second amazon snippet, I have the feeling that Tyler’s Her maybe the most emotionally devestating love-song in Tyler’s catalog yet. Gone is the rage and blood-thirst, and all that appears to be left (or at least from what we hear) is raw honesty and yearning. I think most kids from the internet generation have probably fallen into the pitfall Tyler’s describing so vividly here at least once.
I can’t wait for GOBLIN.
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