Category Archives: Down South

Reel Me In

29 Thursday Aug 2019

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Little Brother – The Feel 

I’ve honestly never really gotten into these guys and admittedly I haven’t checked out much of their previous stuff that I can think of off the top of my head but I’ll be damned if this intro off of Little Brother’s unexpected comeback album May the Lord Watch isn’t some serious heat.

North Carolina is having a really nice year between the surprisingly good (to me!) Dreamville album, DaBaby planting his flag on the map and now this unexpected comeback from Little Brother.

I don’t know why but I love the ‘Raleigh…Durham… Chapel Hill’ of the intro right before the beat kicks in. This beat is so smooth and laid back.

My favorite part is the mental image the chorus conjures up of a turned-up Phonte about to go so hard at the bar or club just stomping onto the dancefloor one step at a time and warning his companions that they may literally need to reel him in because he can’t promise that he won’t get completely out of hand.

The rest of the album was also a very nice listen as well and I’m usually not a huge skits guy but even some of the skits weren’t bad. I agree with Ray Garraty that unfortunately a lot of new albums/music these days is just made for the sake of being made and don’t really need to exist and just blend together into one big forgettable haze, but thankfully, unlike those I feel like May the Lord Watch is one that while not my usual style, stood out from the morass and needed to be made.

’88 in the Projects We Had it All

06 Saturday Apr 2019

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Birdman x Juvenile – Back Then 

The Juvenile/Birdman reunion tour is back again and now they’re 3 for 3. D-Rock with some nice production again. I’m not going to front I’m not feeling this one as much as the first two but it still goes. This might be the longest and best verse Birdman has rapped in years and his hook is fire. Would I be getting too greedy asking for a fourth installment in this series?

“88 in the projects we had it all, 100 g’s of bake flake we cook it all, block bumpin, we real niggas, we kill em all”

“Cops pulled us over they was looking for a job wanted to know if we were hiring?” That’s definetley a power move when cops are pulling you over trying to get a job with you, but in Cash Money’s prime, they definitley didn’t need a cop as a bodyguard when they had BG with them!

P.S. Whose the dude sitting next to Birdman in the car?

I Let the Jewelery Hit the Sun and let the Shit Gleam

15 Friday Mar 2019

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Juvenile, Birdman ft. NLE Choppa – Dreams

I’m ABOUT this 2019 Juvenile resurgence. I would have been a happy camper after just JAG but this new ‘Dreams’ joint is a nice unexpected surprise. Juve comes through and delivers again with another fire hook. He’s turning into 2019’s unexpected hook god.

It was only a matter of time before Birdman and his cohorts got in on this rapping over acoustic-sounding beat that guys like Lil Baby and Gunna have been making hits with. (Great beat by D-Rock here yet again, after a nice beatjack/update of Too $hort’s Dope Fiend Beat on JAG as I learned from Martorialist. I’m not too familiar with him but maybe he’s Birdman/Cash Money’s new in-house producer which based on his showing thus far I would certainly welcome.)

While JAG was just Birdman and Juvenile, here, they link up with Birdman’s latest protege NLE Choppa, he of ‘Shotta Flow’ and it’s 2 billion views fame, giving this a circle of life effect as one generation of Birdman cronies passes the torch to the next. Choppa does a decent job of holding his own here and proving he’s worthy of standing alongside a legend in the game like Juve. Birdman’s verse was predictably mediocre but he’s the money man putting these all together so I can’t complain. I wish Juvenile did a verse here instead of just the hook but the hook is good enough that I can’t get greedy. C’est la vie.

Last time around, Birdman was showing off his art collection of questionable quality to some sort of female curator/critic, this time he’s showing off his taste in animal-themed topiary on the grounds of his sprawling estate to a group of lovely ladies, because he’s Birdman.

Let’s hope that there’s a part 3 to this series.

I Pull up in a YAG

23 Saturday Feb 2019

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So Baby and Juve delivered and the full song of this actually came out now.  Juvenile is sounding like he’s at the top of his game; we need him to get back in the studio and at least make one of those 7-track type albums that Kanye was churning out last summer for his artists. I’m welcoming this Cash Money resurgence, it’s a shame BG is still locked up and couldn’t jump onto this with a verse. Not sure who the producer is but this beat knocks hard.

It seems that Birdman’s entire art collection is other famous paintings (or figures) wearing red bandanas, because of course it would be. Also, what’s the deal with this woman at the end of the video that Birdman is trying to put onto art-world game, some type of collector or curator? I wonder what type of art-world knowledge Birdman is lacing her with. Or he may just be trying to hustle her into buying one of his paintings at an inflated price or selling him one of hers that she wants for a lower price BELEEE DAT PLAYBOY.  She’s definitely not one of the video vixens.

P.S. Whose the dude at 3:24 is that Birdman’s older brother Terrance Williams?

I Could Make a Treasure out of Trash

13 Wednesday Feb 2019

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Juvenile ft Birdman – Just Another Gangsta (Snippet)

I could definitely go for some new Juvenile in 2019. I’m sure Birdman’s ‘feature’ will just be him saying a sentence at the end at most but this still sounds pretty fire (I didn’t realize Juvenile was still rocking with Birdman maybe this is to repay a debt or something but hey I’ll take it). Not sure if/when the full song is coming out but let’s keep our fingers crossed that they don’t just tease it and then let it go to that big snippet graveyard in the sky. Lmao @ Juve sounding like an old suburban dad talking about how one man’s trash is another man’s treasure in his verse here but it’s actually kind of a wierdly dope line and the chorus sounds beastly. Juve can always make a hit no matter what year it is.

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‘Twas the Night Before Christmas, Riding in a Stolo with YNW Melly and Fredo Bang

26 Saturday Jan 2019

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YNW Melly ft. Fredo Bang – Ingredients 

Pure, unadulterated heater off of the YNW Melly album. Another early nominee for song of the year for 2019? Save for a track here and there the entire Melly album is straight heat. I’ve been blasting this all week and I think I played in 9 or 10 times in a row in the car after I first heard it. I’m a total square but I can def see the appeal of bumping this in the car driving away after hitting a lick in Florida. I love the hook here and the beat is nice too. It took me a minute to warm to NBA Youngboy opp extraordinaire Fredo Bang’s part but it’s grown on me more and more and now him stepping up to give his verse is one of my favorite parts of the song. While lyrically it’s pretty run of the mill/mediocre (what exactly does ‘picking that ass apart’ entail anyway? Lol), I’ve grown to appreciate the blunt-instrument quality of his voice/flow that he brings to the track as a foil to Melly.

There’s a whole bunch of other bangers on this album, my second favorite of which was ‘Robbery‘. People who were into the whole Lil Baby/Gunnna acoustic guitar wave will probably also love ‘My Heart‘ on here. The song with Kanye seemed kind of out of place with the rest of the album and wasn’t really my thing but it was different/worth a shot and should give him exposure to a whole new audience. I feel like he also might as well have thrown ‘Freddy Krueger‘ on here as well since it’s still fairly recent and had been a huge single. I didn’t think I liked that one at first but I can’t get that haunted house-sounding  ‘Cooling in the cut with my shooters’ hook out of my head so I guess now I’m a fan.

FREE MELVIN!

Looking like I Still do Fraud, Flying Private Jet with the Rod

17 Wednesday Oct 2018

Posted by in Down South, Florida, Kodak Black, Uncategorized

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Kodak Black ft. Travis Scott, Offset – Zeze 

Zeze finally came out and it had your host walking into Midwestern travel plazas and Quaker Steak & Lubes going ‘Bum bum bum bum bum’ and pretending to play the steel drums all weekend while I was on a road trip.

The song with the highly-flammable steel drum beat that Kodak has been teasing in snippets where he’s dancing in his sensibly understated lavender church sweater for the last month or so finally came out, and I’m thankful to say that not only did it live to see the light of day unlike other fire snippets that never lived to see the light of day like ones from Kevin Gates or Ya Boy Big Choo, it also lived up to the hype. The D.A. Doman beat could cure a lot of the world’s problems, you get a simple but incredibly catchy hook from Kodak, and solid verses from Kodak and Offset. An all around solid effort on all levels and certainly a song of the year contender for me. Also my favorite Kodak song I’ve heard since probably some time last year.

My only real gripe is Offset’s lazy ‘in the middle of the field like David Bekcham’ line because it just sounds dated at this point and David Beckham wasn’t even really a central midfielder in the first place, he couldn’t have said someone more current/central like N’Golo Kante or someone and rhymed soemthing with that? But hey c’est la vie.

Big Homie Flock!

10 Sunday Jun 2018

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Waka Flocka Flame – Flava / Waka Flocka Flame – Smoker

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I didn’t realize how much I missed Waka Flocka until I decided to give his new tape Big Homie Flocka a couple of spins over the last week. There’s a couple of bangers on here, including Flava and Smoker.

Flava 

Flava brings forth that classic Waka Flocka sound, like a mix of trap music and just straight up mosh music. “I’m doing shows selling bails at the same time, I’m taking business calls and trapping off the same line.” I love the almost gleeful way he croons about taking business calls and trapping on the same phone, clearly relishing his niche he’s carved out as a businessman who can get paid to do obscure EDM shows in Europe while still having a foot in the streets. I love the ridiculously long, overstated ‘B-rr-r-r-r-r-r-r’ phone ring ad lib after it.

“Hot Boy like I’m BG, broad day you can meet me at the BP”. Flocka has never been a lyrical wizard or anything but there’s just something about his lines like these and the way he delivers them that still make them memorable. Also, in case you haven’t noticed, I’m always a sucker for rappers that post up trapping at the gas station and tell you to meet them there.

“I put Christians on wifey she a walking blessing”

Smoker 

The chours for this one goes hard as fuck…

“Ay my smoker cooking dope for me, they say there ain’t no hope for me, white folks got the rope for me, my shooter bought a scope for me”

I’m loving these over the top Waka ad libs in the background after not hearing them in a couple of years. You’ve also got to respect Waka’s efficient utilization here; having one of his customers cooking for him and a shooter on his payroll gifting him an expensive scope. That’s what I call getting the most out of your investments.

 

If I can Pray there I can Stay there I Ain’t Scared of Nothing

27 Sunday May 2018

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Can this snippet PLEASE come out as a full-length/CDQ song soon?? Gates is in another place right now. People are talking about Kanye being in another world cooking up his plethora of albums in Wyoming but how about this magic that post-prison Kevin Gates is whipping up down in Louisiana? “If I can pray there I can stay there I ain’t scared of nothing, your grandma stay there you don’t lay there boy you scared to hustle.” “I’m pissing clean for my P.O. I’m a living legend. Straight out the clink, fuck every CO who wanna come at Kevin.” “White people showing love, niggas hating on me, say they got a cake baked and they waiting on me.” “I pray five times a day I had to talk to God, in Chicago going hard without a bodyguard.”

And for those who prefer Kevin Gates the singer to Kevin Gates as a rapper, his warbling is sounding as nice as ever in this second one. I’m feeling the beat for this one a lot. “Change Lanes” and “Vouch” off of his new 3-song EP are both two of my new current favorites in my rotation. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that these snippets turn into album cuts along with Vouch and Change Lanes and we could have a classic on our hands.