01 Sunday Aug 2021
Pop Smoke ft. Rah Swish – Brush Em
Made a quick stop at the vaunted Vince Lombardi service area on I-95 in Jersey the other night during a business trip and was pleased to see a couple of local hard rocks blasting this at car-shaking volume out of a Toyota right outside the entrance. One old head was just marching around the car fist pumping during the “GDK and I don’t even play about it” part lol
I KEEP A GLOCK, WHEN IM IN CHURCH
NYC summertime music of a different variety, RIP Pop Smoke
13 Saturday Feb 2021
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Fivio Foreign – Trust
Sorry to leave you all for so long, I’ve been super lazy about posting lately and have had a lot of my attention tied up with a lot going on (mostly good things dont worry). I’m back in the saddle now, didn’t realize I hadn’t posted in almost 6 weeks, probably the longest I’ve ever went without a post! I also just celebrated my 34th birthday this week, where does the time go? It seems like just yesterday I was a youngster listening to Dipset, Max B, Gucci Mane, Waka Flocka Flame for the first time and that was probably about 15 years ago now. Still have to post my January list although it will be shorter than usual.
Haters will say that Fivio raps in bullet points… does it really matter when the bullet points are all fire? Fivio really is the king of New York right now, and has been since last spring in my opinion (although he mentions in the first verse here that he could care less about who holds this title). This AXL beat has me ready to go to war and I’m a nerd.
This first verse/hook is flames… one of the hardest I’ve heard Fivio go… they may be bullet points but he’s turning the bullets into an art form, and as far as I’m concerned that’s called being an innovator…
“War
Everybody on the floor
We don’t knock we shoot through the door
We give a fuck who the king of New York
I say what I mean when I talk
the hood ain’t showing no remorse
gun fights in the hall
bullets going through the walls
My niggas cripping for a cause”
P.S. I grew up as a Mets fan but I kind of want that blue and green Yankees hat Fivio’s boy is wearing at 0:49, so hard
12 Sunday Jul 2020
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Pop Smoke – Bad Bitch from Tokyo
Damn I’m feeling this 48 second intro from Pop Smoke’s album. Add this to the list of ‘good’ album intros. This goes hard af, there’s just something captivating about it that grabs your attention and I love the way it blends into the next track too, which is exactly what an intro is supposed to do. Whether he’s referring to ‘his’ killer i.e. one of his guys or ‘his killer’ meaning someone who might kill him, the “I look my killer in his eyes, we talking face to face” line is super eerie in retrospect given what happened.
I’ve been listening to this album a lot over the past week and change and while there are certainly a few tracks I would to swap in other tracks for and some filler, as you’d expect from a major label release, I’d say it’s definitley one of the best ‘major’ albums I’ve listened to in quite some time. The Roddy Ricch/50 Cent flamenco song was fire, Make it Rain was hard AF and it was awesome to hear Rowdy on a track again, albeit through the jail phone, and I respect that they included his phoned in verse on the album’s lead single. This intro was dope, and Aim for the Moon and the Thief in the Night song definitley grew on me. Got It On Me was cool too. I was hoping to hear a Fivio verse on this album/surprised not to hear one given their connection and how big Fivio has gotten but Fivio has told fans to be patient so I’m assuming they have something on the deluxe version whenever that comes out. RIP to the young artist.
05 Sunday Jul 2020
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Pop Smoke ft. Roddy Ricch, 50 Cent – The Woo
SHE WANNA FUCK WITH THE WOO-OOOO-OOO-OOO
The Woos are really taking center stage here
I’ve been bumping the new Pop Smoke album all 4th of July weekend and damnit Pop Smoke singing over this flamenco guitar beat is absolute fire.
As if that wasn’t enough, then you have Roddy Ricch swooping in sounding damn near like an angelic choir when he’s singing “inside of the cooo-oooo-ooo-uuupe”. Is Roddy Ricch the new Young Thug at this point?
I’m always down to get a new verse from Godfather Fif, who also executive produced the album.
RIP to the young king this guy, you can see this guy was going places and taking his game into all kinds of interesting new directions, and didn’t even get a chance to expand further. You can see with this kind of material on this album, I think if he hadn’t been killed, I could picture this guy eventually becoming one of the biggest pop stars on the planet.
P.S. this was actually a surprisingly good article on Pop in the NY Times the other day, I think my favorite part is him meeting Marylin Manson and not knowing who he was because of course he wouldn’t lol
02 Saturday May 2020
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Fivio Foreign – Drive By
One of the tres amigos behind last year’s ‘Waka’ is back with a new project, ‘800 BC’, and while the project is not as fun as Waka, and is in fact a very different, MUCH darker vibe, the whole project is fire, highlighted by the opener, ‘Drive By’.
It seems like since ‘Waka‘ (the post on Waka is actually by far the most read post on this website, believe it or not), Fivio Foreign has only gotten bigger and bigger, for example releasing probably the biggest Brooklyn drill song to date (Big Drip), getting a Meek Mill feature on this project, to now going where perhaps no Brooklyn drill rapper has gone before, getting a feature on Drake’s new album. Say what you want about Drake, but he’s the unparalleled expert of latching onto the buzz of new rappers and scenes right as they’re blowing up (i.e. Lil Baby, Blocboy JB), so this certainly solidifies Fivio’s star status and perhaps that of Brooklyn Crip rappers and Brooklyn drill itself. I had actually been bumping the 800 B.C. tape and ‘Drive By’ in particular all week so imagine my surprise when I lazily clicked to see the tracklist of the unexpected new Drake album on Friday morning and saw that Fivio was one of the few features.
If I had to define Fivio’s ‘identity’ or what makes him unique in the rap game, it would be hard to pinpoint an exact feature but I’d point to his heart, grit, aggression/anger, and that he just absolutely HATES opps. ‘Drive By’ is the perfect example of that. It’s a total tour de force by an artist just coming into his own and reflecting on both the triumphs and losses on the road to get here as well as where he’s going next. The beat is sick and almost a calm backdrop to the anger that Fivio punishes the track with; I’d describe the vibe of ‘Drive By’ as almost apocalyptic, it’s Fivio riding around the ruins of the city in a tank after he won a war there and surveying the damage and carnage of his victory.
“The opps tell me we be going too hard, we be shooting too much we be going too far”
“I’ve got wolves I’m still feeding them off. I’ve got money so I’m feeding them all. Stood tall when they needed to ball. Ten toes, two feet on the floor.”
“Fovvy, boss, now I could by me a loft. But I ain’t satisfied at all. Still got Fetty (?) in the fort. Going back and forth to court. Couple of fights that still need to get fought.” On the one hand he’s enjoying newfound success and touting the money and fame that signing a major label deal brings, but on the other hand he’s still focused on vengeance and settling old scores.
“Fovvy, I’m different. Everyone know that I’m gifted. 2 shots for the wicked. Pull up, silence, critics. It’s my crib you evicted.”
Also anyone else reminded of Chief Keef’s ‘Now it’s Over’ by the mansion and specifically the staircase?
I’m also loving the plain blue Balenciaga hat
(P.S. interestingly, Fivio was somehow left off of the ‘Waka’ remix featuring Waka Flocka himself?)
03 Wednesday Apr 2019
Posted in California, Crip, L.A.
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Man I wish I didn’t have to post this/can’t believe I’m posting it but RIP Nipsey. I know I’m a couple of days late but wanted to just pay my respects to a west coast legend who was really pushing the envelope and setting a great example for the next generation in terms of entrepreneurship and giving back to your community. There are a lot of good choices but the above is probably my favorite song by him and one of the most profound.
This Ain’t Entertainment, this for niggas on the slave ship, these songs are the spirituals I swam against the waves with, made it to the shore to their amazement.”
I saw a couple of awesome paintings/drawings of Nipsey, somedone by his peers and fellow rappers, in the days following his passing, so wanted to include some of my favorites below.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BvsZfx5nS9y/
P.S. You’ve got to love this from Russell Westbrook
06 Thursday Dec 2018
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Dave East – No Pork / Kiing Shooter ft. Dave East – 30 Percent
Welcome to the Pink C Bodega where we got two Dave East loosies for a dollar.
Coincidentally we’re staying on our recent NYC Crip wave with this post although now we’re heading from Brooklyn uptown to Harlem.
East has me lacing up my Timbs and throwing on a big Marmot jacket with this first one. The smooth ‘No Pork’ might be the magnum opus of East’s career thus far. It’s a ‘classic’ sounding NYC rap song done right without sounding dusty or too formulaic. This is that classic wintertime music, and the type of track that you want to play while you’re hunkering down at the crib or out on a rare nice sunny day in the winter. East goes into full-on nostalgia/story-telling mode as he takes us on a trip down memory lane through the ups and downs of his life growing up in Harlem.
“I told Shooter (see below) we gon get rich no matter what, they was happy when we was down now when we see them they made as fuck. We don’t got to live in the projects no more, I dropped out, but it’s funny I’m hitting college on tour. I need ’em fresh, cop em again if I copped em before. Charlotte Hornets top and bottom, colored aqua velour. Ahki used to let me in after the locks on the door. I ain’t speeding, I ain’t smoking, what the fuck you stopping me for? I hid my first .38 behind the socks in my drawer, my mama asked me why you got a gun, you not going to war? If I go get a cigarette there might be opps at the store.”
Meanwhile 30 Percent is the first track from his aggressively-named protege Kiing Shooter’s mixtape ‘Fucc the Doubters’. The interplay here as East and Shooter trade bars back and forth like a Styles and Jada is great. Whereas ‘No Pork’ is the type of song you could kick back and relax at home listening to, ’30 Percent’ is more of an aggressive one you’d blast when you’re in the mood to get rowdy. Shooter has a dope and pretty unique-sounding deep/’blunt’ voice and raps over the top ignorant lines like “I’m creeping through the back window hoping they don’t keep alarms, .40 on me just in case the dog or the grandma home.”
01 Saturday Dec 2018
Poppa da Don x Abillyon – Smoked
Staying on this unexpected NYC Crip wave/Poppa da Don wave with Poppa and Abillyon’s ‘Smoked’. Like one of those cartoon angels on your shoulder or a Loc’d out Sunday school teacher, Abillyon implores you to ‘do the right thing or you’ll get smoked’ in that heavenly voice of his. Abillyon is quite the hook-smith and this could be one of the best of the year. I also love the gleeful ‘I’m on the other side with the Locs!,’ willfully declaring themselves as the ‘other side’ or the opps and celebrating it. Abillyon is a name some may recognize from the height of the GS9 era; from looking at his Soundcloud and quickly browsing other streaming sites, it doesn’t look like he has released a ton of music since then but he seems to be making a resurgence now. Poppa is in the middle of a strong run as well between this, ‘Crip Shit‘ and his mixtape ‘Fucc Wit Da Cuz Vol. 2‘.
I had heard this a couple of times over the summer and enjoyed it, but then for whatever reason forgot about it until I saw Meek Mill talking about it on Instagram and singing the hook and now I’ve been blasting it non-stop for the past couple of weeks. ‘Smoked’ deserves to blow up on its own merits, and has certainly done well, and I think with the co-sign from Meek now it’s really going to really reach a whole new level. It would be cool to get Meek on a remix. Possible song of the year contender?
P.S. Fun fact – apparently at one point Junior Galette who used to play for the Saints announced that Abillyon was on his record label and that he was planning to bail out the entire GS9?? Abillyon appears to be doing his own thing now and the label’s website doesn’t appear to be up anymore but they do have an IG; Galette may not be on a current NFL roster but he makes up for it by being a renaissance man of fine taste in music.
At some point when I get a chance in the next few weeks I want to go back and listen to the old Abillyon mixtapes to see what hidden gems they have in store.
I also want to find out what the deal is with these NBA player cutouts they’re holding up is!
24 Saturday Nov 2018
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Brooklyn, Crip, Dave East, Harlem, NYC, Poppa da Don, Sha Mula, Top Dolla 60, Tulito
Poppa da Don, Dave East, Tulito, Trap God Mula – Crip Shit
It’s turning into winter fast out here, and you know what that means, it’s that time of year to hunker down, lace up the Timbs, throw on a big Marmot jacket and see what’s going on in the big apple. These NYC Crips have really been coming out with some heat lately. Here, we get two of the best linking up and Brooklyn and Harlem joining forces with Poppa da Don and Dave East, along with Tulito and Trap God Mula/Sha Mula who may have the best verse of all on this one.
I love the pure energy and fervor Mula brings here as he says ‘Sha Mula I’m the Trap God, probably made $100 thou in my backyard,” pounding his fist as he raps it. “Blue flag 100 Locs I’m moving wocky nigga, 2-seater, I8 they couldn’t stop me nigga!” I’m hyped off of the defiance he’s spitting with.
East makes a typically solid contribution here as well, and also just released arguably the best song of his career, in my opinion, with ‘No Pork .’ Poppa da Don put out a total banger ‘Smoked‘ with Abillyon over the summer which I think is going to start blowing up even more because Meek Mill was talking about it recently.
My only very minor gripe with this one is that I wish they grabbed my man Top Dolla and got him on this one this would have been perfect for him!
22 Thursday Nov 2018
Posted in California, Crip, L.A.
Blueface – Respect My Crypn
I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at first when I first heard about him but hadn’t listened to him yet, but Blueface is starting to grow on me. The ‘mop the floor and hide the wet sign just to catch him slippin’ line’ is genius; I can’t believe no one came up with that before. And to his credit apparently he really does ‘pull up and bounce out with a briefcase when it’s time to handle business,’ according to recent news reports.
I love his tone on the ‘I’m an alpha male, ain’t no bitch in me. Grown ass man, feed my family” line, like he’s incredulous that someone is even questioning if that’s the case. The ‘Give a fuck if he like it, he gon respect this Crippin’ hook is also strangely infectious. Blueface is almost sounding like a less artsy/creative but more Crip west Coast Young Thug. And while he can be a bit over the top, he actually has the charisma and personality to pull it off.
By the way Happy Thanksgiving all! I wonder what Blueface is thankful for today.
Edit: I wish Blueface was the halftime entertainment for this Cowboys/Redskins Thanskgiving game instead of Meghan Trainor smh
