I love the sheer sense of urgency that DZ is rapping with here in ‘Keep it On Me’ from his new tape ‘The Gift 3’ which essentially serves as a surprisingly heartfelt and effective ode to his strap, showing what a vital part it is of his everyday life and how much he needs it, whether he’s on offense or defense. He just comes out swinging over this beat with such an intensity. It’s obviously a well-traveled theme for rappers, but he still somehow makes it sound original…
“I go to sleep with it, I take a shit with it, I brush my teeth with it, I handle beef with it. I go to the store with it, I get low with it. I take out the trash with it, get on your ass with it. Go to the O with it, go to the K with it, go to the A with it, nigga I stay with it. I hit Miami with it. I was in Collins with it. In the drop with it, ONE IN THE TOP WITH IT.”
Between releasing The Gift 3 and Ape Season (thanks to Ray Garraty for re-recommending this one to me) just in the last few months, FMB DZ is at the top of his game right now.
Rio and DZ showing that the grind doesn’t stop just for a quarantine or a stay at home order.
My favorite rapper from late 2017/2018 linking up with my favorite rapper from 2019 (and 2020 so far).
FMB DZ is flowing with such urgency over this beat. “I’m not a rapper I’m a motherfucking street nigga. If you ain’t tryna get no money I can’t eat with ya.”
“I’m out West with it, with my Vatos, me and Chino counting $50,000 eating tacos”
I just started bumping ‘The Gift 3’ and there are a whole bunch of bangers on it so far, definitley FMB DZ’s best work in a while; he’s spitting with high intensity on this.
I love the transition from DZ to Rio with DZ using that wierd effect on his voice and then Rio casually walking into the restaurant (LA Coney Island).
Before we even get to Rio’s verse, let’s take a moment to appreciate the fact that this man just dropped a great album, ‘City on My Back,’ then released a dope track with RMC Mike and Lil E (Still Spice Talkin’) and now still had enough gas left in the tank to release ANOTHER classic verse here as a feature on FMB DZ’s album. This guy is rap’s iron man he literally doesn’t stop.
Now let’s get back to Rio’s verse.
“Drop a nickel on your ass I got cheap killers, everybody got a body if you see them with us.”
Then Rio yet again shows that he’s probably the most inventive, ingenuous mind in rap today with this sequence where he adds bouncers to strippers as the nightclub personnel that he is a clear disdain for, comes up with a creative way of robbing a dealer in Colorado, and flexes on us by saying he doesn’t need to use a mask when he’s robbing because he’s an out of towner.
“I’m in the club with some shit that will drop a bouncer, robbed a bow man in Colorado, made him climb a mountain. I even robbed a coke man for an ounce of powder. I did that shit without a mask, I’m an out of towner.”
Oh, and did I mention that he has kamikaze bombers?
I also like that Rio seems to be amongst the more humble rappers in the game and doesn’t seem to have much use for stunting or flexing for social media etc. he’s just 100% about his money, consistently saying things like this…
“I didn’t act like I was rich, I was humble poor. You ain’t learn nothing when you was broke, what you struggle for?”
I’m always a sucker for rappers talking about the security at their spots…
“HD cameras on my house watching down the street. Your hemi slow as hell I’ll chase you down on feet.”
Rio da Yung OG x RMC Mike x Lil E – Still Spice Talkin
Rio dropped so much heat on City on My Back and now he’s back with even more heat that wasn’t even on the album. Rio links up again with RMC Mike to form their usual dynamic duo and also adds in his other frequent and lesser-known collaborator, Lil E who he did the ‘Professional Shit Talking‘ album with to morph into a triple threat as they rip this beat from Baby on the Track. For all the songs each has done together, I think this is the first time I’ve heard Rio, Mike, and E on the same song. Hotbox Social described Rio and E’s ‘Buy the Block’ as “basically the last regional rap song”. It’s too bad Peezy is still locked up and couldn’t get in on this one – Rio and the boys really are the new Death Row.
It seems almost impossible for Rio to go harder than he already has but he somehow finds a way to keep pushing the envelope –
“I shop on one side of the set, I don’t sky walk, just seen an opp strolling, now that nigga sky walking”
“Don’t even know what dog drive, bro just shoot at every white Charger”
I’ve said before I love when everyone yells along with the line at the end of a verse to add emphasis i.e. here in ‘We’ve got the city hot from all the spice talking, BITCH SHUT THE FUCK UP WHEN ME, E AND MIKE TALKING, or on Big Wan’s ‘Fast Lane Lifestyle‘, or Rio and Big Colin’s ‘Ghetto Boyz‘
Mike comes roaring in as abrasive as ever. “Whole team doing good we worked our ass off. Doc I need an 8 of red I got a bad cough. Chilling in the trap with my fiend drinking Mad Dog.” And they really did work harder than anyone else, these guys have the best work ethic in the rap game right now. Mike is at home in the trap, he’s not just serving the fiends he’ll drink some Mad Dog with them.
And then Lil E comes barging in – don’t act like Lil E isn’t spitting he actually low-key may have the best verse and bring the most energy out of all of them on this one. “Nigga play with me? He might as well buy a coffin. Shot a nigga’s house up everybody in the house crawling.”
Would love to get more songs with all 3 of them on it or even a whole project, but I’m being greedy since ‘City on My Back’ just came out. Even the rest of the guys in Rio’s crew that don’t rap look intense.
P.S. – Is that the American Gothic painting on Rio’s hat??
Rio may be one of the hardest rappers out but don’t for a second think that he’s not groovy.
Every once in a while, I worry and think to myself wow rap has been around so long that I wonder if eventually rappers are going to run out of new things to say that actually rhyme, but then you have a creative maestro like Rio come up with something like this rhyme scheme here and you realize that he’ll never run out –
“Pop a perc drink a deuce of red that’s a perfect high/now I’m finna smoke half an ounce of turtle pie/auntie hide this brick for me, pull up your gurdle high/the green got a shell on my back I’m ninja turtle high”
Let’s hope Rio really makes good on his claim here that he might ‘drop 100 tapes this year I’m Gucci.’ I’ve been saying for a while now that Rio is the new Gucci in his prime.
Rio might be the only thing out there that’s sicker than coronavirus. Regeneron needs to get Rio in the lab and have him cough up a few bars for them to use create the vaccine and save the world.
“30 shots hanging out the glock look like a hockey stick, 3 of Wok in a Chinese pop ain’t no jollies in it. Walk into the club wearing a trench coat with a shotty in it. Thought I seen an opp in here I was probably tripping. Put a nigga in a box I’ll Roddy Rich him. Bought some more black Balenciagas and caught a body in them.”
THE GOAT HAS SPOKEN.
Other rappers are walking into the club wearing tight jeans and effeminate designer shirts; Rio is just fine walking in looking like a suburban teenage Goth that may or may not have brought a strap to school. (Whether it’s Rio or ALLBLACK, I always get a kick out of real street rappers adapting the imagery of school shooters).
“The tips on these .308 bullets look like Jolly Ranchers, pole on me in the strip club damn near shot a dancer”
The imagery of the bullet tips looking like Jolly Ranchers is too good, and when you combine it with Rio’s comically ever-present casual disdain for exotic dancers it makes for a classic Rio line. This guy really is on his own plane of existence right now.
I also love Rio’s self-reflective earnestness when he says ‘Street nigga; when I jump out fresh I still look kind of tacky.”
Rio’s “City on My Back” is out now and after a couple of listens last night/this morning it definitley does not disappoint. And I’m sure I’ll listen to it about a dozen more times this weekend while I’m trying to ride out the coronavirus storm at my crib, so I’m sure there will be more posts about it. I’m going to try to actually buy this one to try to support Rio for all the entertainment he’s given me at this point.
P.S. I hope all you guys are safe/healthy out there with all this craziness going on
Rio going the ‘single’ route for presumably the first single off City on My Back. Was wondering what it would sound like if Rio tried to make something a little more poppy, and first results are not bad at all, he still wields that trademark Rio grit and the ridiculously grimey bars but makes it catchy. This reminds me of during Gucci’s rise to the top when Gucci started making stuff that was at home in the streets but that you also would start hearing unexpectedly at a bar/club/party and felt equally at home there.
This beat is fire and the hook is growing on me more each time I play this. We’ve even got Rio breaking out a much-deserved dance move at around 1:11 – when you’ve been torching every track like this for like 6 months now how could you not be feeling yourself?
“Baby you can’t get no money from me don’t make that face. Power-braked the Scat on 8 mile in front of Ace of Spades. Damn, I need another tire. Knocked a nigga’s brains out it look like jambalaya. I threw some water on his shirt he had a fucking wire. Bought a zip of soft for $800 and let my uncle try it.”
I’m not sure what it is but there’s just something about saying ‘big pape’ instead of ‘big paper’ that I went from dislking at first to now kind of loving just the sheer obnoxiousness of it.
Just more absolute nastiness from Rio da Yung OG and one of his many statesmen that he’s been pumping out features for non-stop.
“Alright, now it’s time for me to talk shit, chop take a chunk out of his leg, look like a shark bit it”
“Hit the tar with the fetty wap now it’s dark skin, no NBA but we got 2 K’s at the park with it”
“Ain’t no love in my body bitch I’m heartless, I ain’t worried about the opps them niggas harmless”
In related news of Rio features, Crimedawgbylaw posted another one of the many recent ones, “Ghetto Brothers” this one with Rio and the fantastically-named ‘Talibando’.
ShittyBoyz link up with Icewear Vezzo to wish us all a Happy New Year, dropping this bright and early on January 1st 2020. It was only a matter of time before these two movers and shakers of different waves and generations of Detroit rap joined forces, and I have to say, Icewear does not sound out of place on this type of beat and he has no problem keeping up with the ShittyBoyz flow. (By the way, I can’t find my favorite Icewear song from back in the day anymore, I forget the name I just remember it was him rapping with a girl (or maybe even 2 girls?) and he said something about that he’s ‘Still repping Peezy at Sundance’ anyone know what that one was called?).
Lmao @ Stan Will “For all the grannies I jugged, I might burn in hell.” Stan Will actually kind of stole the show on Wheel of Fortune; “On the road for 30 days, and 30 nights, enough punches in this bitch to win 30 fights. Circled through an opp block we hit 30 rights, looking at my future like you staring up at 30 lights”, and “Money on the floor, I’m spinning hoes like it’s Wheel of Fortune, spikes on my toes you a crumb boy you still in Jordans. What you paid for your fit was my bill at Morton’s, even when I’m six feet deep bet I’m still important.”
Damjonboi X Coach Joey ft. Allstar JR, TLG Deuce – Catch Up
I was surprised when this came up on my ‘Your Top Songs of 2019’ playlist because I didn’t expect that it was one of my favorite most/heavily listened to songs, but then I realized that it comes on after ‘7 Mile Zoo’ on the mixtape it was on which I was listening to a lot in the spring/summer and I guess I just let it keep playing. In any case I hadn’t taken much note of it at the time but now that I’m hearing it again I’ve given it a new lease on life and I’ve been bumping it all weekend.
My favorite part of this whole thing is Damjonboi’s ‘Red bandana hanging out my pocket. Your bitch came to my hood she thought she was in Bompton.’ Note the ummatched efficiency and economy of Damjonboi’s boast here – “Your bitch pulled up to my hood she thought she was in Bompton.’ In just that one short sentence, Not only has he established that he’s a blood (and in a heavily blood neighborhood nonetheless) – he’s also a blood that’s stolen your girlfriend and she’s coming to his hood to see him.
This is like the 4th time in a row Rio has linked up with someone I’ve never heard of and made it into pure heat. Rio has the Midas touch except that everything he touches turns into flames. I was actually going to post a different song today but then I saw that this came out today and I was just too hyped about Rio’s verse not to post it instead. My man Ray Garraty is going to have to make another addition to his Rio loosies mix or maybe just wait for a volume 2 soon because this guy never stops. Rio is just relentless – who else can rap like this –
“I just linked up with BC, I ain’t have no cut I hit the powder with some BC, slick nigga, I put the play on Unc they say I’m greazy, .22’s bounce through your body like a P3 (?), back to back to back when we drink red got it on repeat, put your glasses on I’m bout to shoot the Glock in 3D, hit the button, shoot for 20 minutes this an EP, I just bought another pint from my Titi, my nigga doing life he said he good he need a TV, my Arab bought a zip that nigga rich he own a BP.”
One of the nicest verses/lines I’ve ever heard.
Bericcus sounds like he could be a feared Roman emperor with that name and he has a couple of nice lines here too; “Dodging potholes it’s just me and Ri, real shooters follow niggas home just like TMZ.” That OG Memphis Grizzlies jersey is tough. And I like that these Detroit/Flint rappers are bringing back Timbs.
