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Category Archives: NYC

And I Was Born on Highbridge, Raised on Courtlandt

14 Saturday Apr 2018

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Don Q, A1 – Freestyle on Funk Flex Show 

I took a break from blasting Don Q’s ‘Trap Phone’ to check out his freestyle on the Funk Flex show from a couple weeks ago. I’m definitely down for Don Q freestyling over the Blocboy JB ‘Rover’ beat and as dope as that was, the real highlight here is Don astutely handing the spotlight over to his talented Highbridge protege A1, who certainly makes the most of the opportunity.

Things really pick up around the 5:00 mark or so…

“I was born on Highbridge, raised on Courtlandt, I thought y’all should know that cause I’m telling you to be cautious, I love my Highbridge niggas, I call them, they’ll off him, then my Courtlandt niggas come and spit on the coffin. And we from the bottom we dealt with plenty of losses, I sat in the trap the residue had me nauseus. We went to war with some suckers and then it cost us, now my brother sitting in prison cause niggas crossed us. We ain’t comfortable with the workers, only deal with bosses, they try to take me out so we bulletproof the Porsches.”

“Any nigga that stood on my corner gotta pay rent… you niggas that go against me going to be starving to death. All these chains on my neck telling me I’m blessed, toughest thing I ever did was lay my father to rest.”

“Niggas only carry their pistol so they can make it known, man I carry my pistol so I can make it home.”

Don Q cuts in at this point declaring that anyone he cosigns is fire, and thus far based on what we’ve seen how can anyone really disagree with him? But instead of ending there, Flex throws on the all-time classic ‘Banned from TV’ beat and A1 proceeds to slaughter that as well…

“These fraud niggas couldn’t walk a mile in my sneaks, bro home it’s time to smoke a pound in the jeep. My heart cold, I’m tired of seeing murder when I sleep, the park closed, niggas got murdered every week… It feel good to stand on corners we took over, niggas got the mind of a kid but they look older, me I got the mind of a king I don’t pull over. Hard to really count all the bodies a nigga stood over, hard to really count all the product we had to cook over, and you know that body don’t count if you don’t get closer, … if that pistol not around me that’s when I get sober.”

I don’t know why but I also loved the ‘Now my stomach getting big I feel like my Uncle’ line; a lot of people are stunting by talking about the chains they have, the designer clothes, the cars etc. but in reality one of the oldest and truest ways that you truly can show your status is because you’re eating good and getting fat, eating steak and shrimp, a status symbol going all the way back to biblical times. Now this hasn’t really worked for me or enhanced my status thus far at this point in life, instead it’s just made me an easier target of more fat jokes, but I still support the sentiment nonetheless!

You’ve also got to love the Karlton Hines shoutout and the Oun P shoutout, Oun was one of my favorite battle rappers/freestyle DVD type rappers of the late 2000s/early 2010s scene.

Don Q’s young protege showed a ton of potential here and really put his name on the map with this video, I’m looking forward to checking out more of his stuff and seeing what he does next as he continues to grow as an artist especially being under the umbrella over a successful brand like Highbridge. Highbridge really is starting to look deep with talent, and I haven’t even mentioned A Boogie! (Side note, I really hope that A Boogie really is working on something with 50 Cent like he recently alluded to on Instagram). A1 mentions his new mixtape ‘God’s Favorite Child‘ which I’m going to check out next.

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On Rikers, I was Making it Known, they can’t Forget that. And Up North? I Kept it Funky Like ‘Where the Rips at?’

28 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by in NYC, Uncategorized

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Top Dolla 60 – Set Trippin’ (C-Mix)

This Set Trippin remake actually goes hard and puts a bit of a unique twist on it. Even 6ix 9ine’s harshest critics have to admit he at least caused Casanova to make ‘Set Trippin’ which then caused a wave of Set Trippin remixes all over NYC and beyond, some better than others, my favorite of which ultimately turned out to be this one from this OG ‘Top Dolla 60′ trying his hand at it. Until some further research I actually wasn’t even sure if Top Dolla 60 is an actual rapper or if he’s just doing this as a one-time thing to get a few points across but damn it I’ll take him over half the rappers out here these days, the man has charisma and stage presence, so now I want to check out the rest of his material.

I love the skit at the beginning – almost feels kind of Jim Jones-esque; I feel like we need more skits/vignettes in the beginning/end of vidoes again. To summarize; Top Dolla and his boys are cooling out on the block when an erstwhile Blood is unlucky enough to stumble across their path. Top Dolla disappointedly asks him when/why he turned Blood and chides him for turning Blood in prison upstate, presumably for protection, when he didn’t even have to endure a long bid. Top Dolla’s henchman also takes his flag out of his pocket for wearing it on the wrong side. (Also, note at 0:59 the old Italian-looking guy is loving this skit!) But then finally in a surprise twist, Top Dolla acts fairly magnanimously and decides to spare him further punishment because they grew up on the same block, their moms know each other, and he basically watched him grow up. Knowing that this small fry is no match for him, he lets him cross the street and leaves it to the Damus down the block to deal with him as they see fit.

The navy blue and gold Pelle Pelle jacket he’s rocking looks sick and goes well with his standard Yankees hat, always a timeless classic. There are a lot of dope clothing choices in this video amongst his crew, whether it’s his boy in the Seattle Mariners pullover or the guy with the rarely-seen New York Islanders jersey. Perhaps best of all is the even rarer Minnesota Wild hoodie. I’ve got to just be upfront and say it, I’m not saying one is better than the other and I have no dog in this fight, but it seems like Crips seem to have a better and wider overall selection of teams to choose gear from then the standard Chicago Bulls or Philadelphia Phillies stuff that you usually see in vidoes from their counterparts on the other side of this divide.

I like the raw aggression/energy and just sheer gravity Top Dolla brings to his version of the song, you just feel an added weight with some of the lines since you know he’s lived what he’s rapping here and feels strongly about it. To him this isn’t a fashion statement or a trend like it is to many, this is his life. He mainly talks about being in the minority as a Crip (and more specifically a Neighborhood Crip) at Rikers Island and the NY State prison system, and standing tall/keeping his head held high about who he is whereas many others were afraid to claim in jail since they were vastly outnumbered, a theme he hammers home again and again… “Some niggas pick and choose when they rep, we gotta fix that, if you reppin over there adn not over here, you gettin’ bitch slapped…on Rikers I was making it known, they can’t forget that, and up north, I was keeping it funky like where the Rips at?”

‘Young top Dolla a known threat; 18 Years, Neighborhood, only been one set. They tuckin from the streets to the jail, nigga I bang mine, the Six is like kids around tax time, I claim mine. What I hate is tuck and tell, knowing well, they get in a spot with some Crips, they claimin’ other jails.’

I love his spin on the chorus; ‘Throw your hood up, nigga bang, on Rikers Island a lot of niggas they was scared to claim, Neighborhood nigga that’s the gang…Who loc’d you in, how’d you turn cuz? You went up North and you turned blood?”

“Got a real community over here, my Neighbors with me”

I like the fact that he includes some Bloods in the video that he considers ‘real Bloods’, as he says, “Got Fam that throw B’s but cuz I bring them C’s out”. Apparently even Casanova himself was down with this version of the song, judging from IG.

If She Throw Me on Snap than I’m Breaking Her Phone!

27 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by in NYC

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Ray Mula – Wassup 

Ray Mula ft. Dave East, Don Q – Wassup with the Wassup Remix

Had been wanting to throw up a post about Ray Mula’s ‘Wassup’ for a week or two and hadn’t gotten around to it, and now a remix of it just came out with Don Q and Dave East jumping onto it in addition to Ray’s first verse from the original.

The song title had me feeling like it was going to be like a 90s Budweiser commercial but Ray kills this. He has his own style but also almost brings an AR-Ab type of presence/quality (which is a very good thing in my opinion) in terms of both his voice/delivery and the fact that he has non-stop quality bars which mix in both humor and grittiness. This is what NYC rap is supposed to sound like.

“Shorty sleeping on the hookah so we made her pay for refills. I’m still taking her home, but if she throw me on the Snap than I’m breaking her phone.”

“Used to wake up for the count now I wake up just to count.”

“8 Ball rolling, nigga no pool, trap house jumping more scales than Whole Foods”

No homo but I love Mula’s voice it’s perfect for this type of song.

“I was fucking all these hoes way before I started trapping, looking like a rapper way before I started rapping. Yeah I’m from the 8 talk about it make it happen, we could get it poppin, we could get it crackin… Harlem world AKA money making, hoes started liking, niggas started hating. Tried to keep it funky, niggas started faking, grip on deck but we can still get it shaking.”

The original was already a banger and then when I was getting ready to catch up on some posts I saw on my recommended videos on Youtube that there’s already a remix out now from a couple of days ago. The original ‘Wassup’ only came out in November so these guys definitely jumped on this remix fast because they know it has the potential to be big. I like that they didn’t change up the video for the remix; they still just shot it in front of the same housing complex; all that’s really changed is the more appropriately-heavy looking jackets since it’s been absolutely freezing in New York this winter. Mula switches from a bright green windbreaker to a yellow and black North Face, and there aren’t any dirt bikes out this time.

Dave East has been a busy man lately between releasing Paranoia 2 and adding a sick verse to this remix.

“I was on some broke shit, roaches by the mattress, on some Loc shit way before I started flagging.”

“All this double G be on me got me fucking nigga’s wives. Came home without a scar, could give a fuck about your life.”

I’m not sure what Dave East’s chain is but it’s looking super frosty here.

Don Q makes the trip down from the Bronx and puts the song over the top with his verse..

“I be walking through the fire when the smoke clear. Tell my niggas open fire when the coast clear. Yeah that block was on fire but I post there. Don’t stand by that car tire we got coke there. Fuck a prince nigga I got king status. Stuffed $200,000 in a queen mattress. All my ice bright nigga I done seen darkness, my lawyer got pistol cases looking like weed charges.”

I liked the simple but kind of harsh beat for this song and these guys went 3 for 3, all obliterating it with their verses.

Even the little details of this video like putting the rapper’s name on their screen as they start or the fire graphic that comes on the screen when Don Q says ‘I be walking through the fire when the smoke clears’ give it that classic feel.

Ray and the team definitely deserve to start getting some heavy rotation on NYC radio and beyond with this one.

 

Airedales, Billys & Tekashis

25 Thursday Jan 2018

Posted by in NYC, Uncategorized

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Seqo Billy – Billy Dat 

Crazy new song/video from Brooklyn’s Seqo Billy who starts 2018 with a splash. The beat is sick and Seqo snaps on it. I also highly approve of his use of a friendly and loyal-looking airedale terrier as the dog in this video instead of the usually far more prevalent pitbull which is normally the ubiquitous choice in these types of videos. Even the dog is flamed up with his red bandana. Watch this once or twice and you won’t be able to get the chorus out of your head, at this point it’s probably my most frequently played song of January.

“Red chucks low cut laces on the floor I’m really 9Trey, B-Hop all over a nigga’s face if he ever disrespect the gang. Always red flag when I billy rock, paint the town red make the biddy hot, bang like the niggas from Cedar Grove, trip on my set and get pita rolled”

And just to top things off we also get a brief non-rapping appearance-only cameo from one of his affiliates who just so happens to be one of the most divisive rappers out right now!

KEEEE KEEEE

15 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in New Jersey, NYC

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6ix9ine ft. Fetty Wap, A Boogie – Keke 

Keke has landed and we finally got the full version. Don’t get me wrong – Keke is definitely a banger, but I’m not sure if it lived up to the hype of the snippet that’s been floating around online/on Instagram the last couple of months. However, in fairness, few things in life truly live up to the insane level of expectations we put on them. The anticipation is almost always better than the event itself.

Best part of the song was from about the 1:00 to the 1:20 mark, Fetty’s hook. My biggest regret with this song is that they didn’t have the hook in it more times because it was sounding absolutely heavenly. Fetty’s verse wasn’t bad but it slowed down the song a little bit and didn’t seem to totally fit in with the ferocious vibe/tempo that Tekashi set with the opening verse (you could say the same thing about A Boogie’s verse too, the song felt a bit disjointed). Still, it’s good to see him back out here and hopefully we can see him taking back his crown as the hook god going forward.

It’s a good hype up song between the aggressive verse from Tekashi, the dope but unter-utilized hook and all the general shenanigans going on in the video, which looks like it was probably a lot of fun to be at. I like all the quads and dirtbikes in the video but I’m wondering how these dudes have them in NYC I could rarely find a parking spot there let alone space for extra ATVs and bikes, and we all know damn well that NYC apartments are basically the size of glorified closets so it’s not like they can keep them inside. I expect to see Meek and them and D.C. rappers etc. riding around on toys like this since they have a ton of land down there but doing it in NYC is an even more impressive feat. NYPD is going to be salty about this video.

A Boogie is surrounded by an entire snack attack at 2:00.  I can’t really get behind Tekashi’s rainbow-colored fur hood here, looking like he hunted a bunch of Care Bears and made a coat out of them, but the dude in the Lacoste jumpsuit and purple Lacoste hat looks fresh, and I’m not opposed to Fetty Wap’s Pelle Pelle jacket. Apparently the guy with the mask on is Rowdy Rebel’s brother Fetty. (Side note – ‘Fetty’s Song’ by Rowdy off of ‘Shmoney Keeps Calling’ might be his most underappreciated if not best song. So real and sounds so good over that smooth ‘Night Shift’ sample.) This song had the potential to be more but I’m still going to say that Tekashi is 3/3 now with 3 solid hits in a row between Gummo, Kooda and Keke, with Kooda being the best song so far. It will be interesting to see what he does next/how long he can sustain the momentum for.

 

 

I CAN’T WAIT ANY LONGER FOR THIS TO COME OUT!

14 Sunday Jan 2018

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Apparently today is finally the release date for Tekashi’s/6ix9ine’s ‘Keke’ with Fetty Wap and A-Boogie. Your humble host is over here just keeping his fingers crossed and hoping there aren’t any delays. They’ve been teasing this for a while now and I’m just hoping it doesn’t become a white whale of sorts like the unreleased Big Choo song that Big Choo has been haunting the Martorlialist with with Instagram snippets of for over a year without releasing.  I was a little worried that this new squabble with Casanova could put Tekashi in the way of bodily harm before he was able to fulfill his earthly destiny and release this fire but thankfully cooler heads prevailed and Cas decided in the interest of the greater good to not harm Tekashi until we could all hear this banger.

I’m most intrigued by Fetty Wap’s part since it sounds heavenly in the preview, and because he was an interesting inclusion for the song. I feel like 2 years ago or so Fetty Wap was arguably the biggest up and coming name in rap and then through no fault of his own he fell off the radar as fans, in typical fickle fashion, just moved on to the next flavor of the month, whereas Fetty Wap was still out here making some pretty good songs the whole time. He definitley still has something to bring to the table and I would love to see ‘Keke’ push him back into the forefront. I always like strange combinations for collabs and the combo of 6ix9ine, Fetty Wap and A-Boogie is definitely a juicy one. (Also bringing together Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Paterson NJ).

For now I’m just watching the Jaguars/Steelers game biding my time patiently awaiting Keke to make landfall.

P.S. – I’m also holding out hope for a Tekashi/PC Tweezie collab bc I saw a since-deleted post on the ‘Gram of the two of them posting up in Florida with PC Tweezie saying ‘He good in Florida’ but the fact that it no longer seems to exist makes me less confident that there will be a song forthcoming. That would be one aggressive song.

 

Scooby Doo Denim Jacket with the Fresh Chris Webbers

05 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in New Jersey, NYC

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Crimeapple – Florentine

We’ve been absolutely spoiled with so much good new music lately whether it’s the new FMB DZ tape or Sada Baby’s latest, or even the Sniper Gang ‘Baptized N Blood’ project that I’m not even done listening to all the way through yet, that if you told me my first post in 2018 would be about a Columbian dude from New Jersey I’d never heard of before named ‘Crimeapple’ I wouldn’t have believed you, but this guy is a straight up beast.

Crimeapple is spitting quotable after quotable over a Heatmakers-esque beat that wouldn’t sound at all out of place on an old Diplomats mixtape from the mid-2000s. He hits on that feeling of east coast nostalgia for that great time period while still keeping it new.

“My line buzzing, I’m pretty sure what they calling for, ’cause we chop cheese like ahk at the corner store.”

“I’m popping like vegetable oil my bitch spoil me. Ironic, the only real luxury now is loyalty. I swear I’m hallucinating the burner even spoke to me, the coke felt nostalgic it spoke and it said ‘Boil me!'”

With this multi-week Arctic blast we’ve been surviving out here on the east coast (and today’s blizzard), this is that type of weather that makes you want to throw on a hockey jersey over the hoodie and THEN throw on a Starter jacket over that, and this is the perfect type of music to throw on to get you into the spirit and endure this winter grind.

Kooooooooda

08 Friday Dec 2017

Posted by in NYC

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6IX 9INE – Kooda 

I don’t know if Kooda will hit the same heights as Gummo or cause quite the same stir but it goes hard af (maayyyybe even harder than Gummo, this Nintendo-sounding beat is another sledgehammer) and I have to give credit where credit is due to Tekashi – I honestly thought Gummo would be a one hit wonder and then we’d never hear from him again but he’s definitely got a second hit on his hands here with Kooda. (Tekashi is coming up with some great names for these songs, better than his own moniker 6IX 9INE. He should consider just going by Kooda or even Gummo).

I like the part where Tekashi yells ‘We’re gon show what we about” partially because it sounds cool and partially because I actually am genuinely curious what exactly it is that he’s ‘about’.

I also like the ‘We don’t do the race, you gon die today’ line. A Tay-K reference/slight?

Imagine if you were an unsuspecting commuter just looking to use this subway station on a normal day and then walked in on this video being filmed? Lmao.

Shout out to the guys at about 1:04 just being an absolute menace to the public transport system. What exactly is he up to? Come on bruh the NYC subway system is already slow enough on its own without people blocking the tracks.

My only minor quibble about this one is the Hilfgier polo that Tekashi is wearing with the buttons buttoned up all the way to the top and the tips of the collar curling up, loosen up a bit bruh you’ve got a face tattoo and rainbow-colored hair, the top button isn’t going to make you look any more formal, you can loosen your collar a bit!

Between Gummo and Kooda Tekashi has really been taking the interweb by storm lately (I also even heard Gummo on late-night terrestrial radio the other night, a big surprise and a rare foray into FM radio by me not by choice but by bad circumstances) , acting as a blunt instrument to just hammer these hard beats with his abrasive flow. I’m looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next –  I have no idea what’s going on in the very beginning of this video, but based on the guy at 0:07, could we possibly get a Tekashi song with phoned-in Bobby Shmurda and Rowdy Rebel verses, just to break the internet? Would that be too much to ask?