I usually wouldn’t dedicate a post to a song like ‘I’m the One’ which already has millions of views in its first day out, but I have to admit, the wild combination of artists and the wave of hype that DJ Khaled created for it by talking about ‘history in the making’ was intriguing to me. With the amount of anticipation that had been built up on social media for the song’s release, it would have almost been impossible to live up to the hype, but honestly I have to give these guys credit because it comes close. The song actually did end up being pretty good and I really liked the beat and the chorus which were both really catchy and infectious. Admittedly it’s not a very bold prediction given the star power involved, but I have a feeling that even beyond the borders of rap music this will be ‘the song of the summer’ for pop music general.
As good as the song is, my favorite part really may be the intro and the ridiculous phone call that DJ Khaled makes to Chance the Rapper. All I can really say about this one is that I can only dream of one day being in a position where someone calls me to invite me to their lush tropical villa in order to ‘do them the biggest favor’ and engage in the important business of ‘celebrating life, success, and blessings.’
Also, I may be overanalyzing here, but did anyone notice the low-key power move by Khaled that he tells Chance the Rapper to ‘do him the biggest favor, no do yourself the biggest favor’ and call Bieber, Quavo, and Wayne to tell them to come down to his mansion to celebrate these blessings, rather than just calling them himself? Almost as if Chance is some sort of high-paid secretary or personal assistant?
The song is an odd but lovely mix of relaxing and menacing that’s almost impossible to pull off. I don’t know who did production on track but the beat mixed with the softly sung chorus lull you into a sort of hazy poppy dreamscape while SahBabii and his fellow Atlantan Loso Loaded mainly rap threats at their opps.
The simple, catchy, and subtly sung chorus “Pull up with a stick, let it hit… B*tch I’m with the Mob, you can’t get in’ will literally stay in your head for weeks, to the point that I had felt like I overplayed this song into exhaustion in February when it first came out and hadn’t played it in a long time, then found myself randomly humming the chorus one day this week, and now played it about 10 more times this week and decided to do a quick post about it. This song is obviously big, and is probably one of the biggest current songs I’ve mentioned on this blog, but it really should be even bigger. The most popular video for it on Youtube has about 11 million views but I think it will continue adding to that and go much higher. You also have to figure eventually some of the biggest names will want to do some type of remix or freestyle over it which will give the song an additional jolt of momentum. (There are rumors that Drake is going to be jumping on the remix because, well because of course he would).
I also recently heard ‘Pull Up Wit Ah Stick’ on the playlist of the last episode of Frank Ocean’s radio show on Beats One/Apple Music and was pleasantly surprised, and you figure that type of shout out/cosign will give the track exposure to a whole new type of audience that probably isn’t always looking out for this type of music. SahBabii definitely has the type of charisma/presence where you can see him becoming a star soon off of something like this.
Add this to the small catalogue of an all-too-rare ‘subgenre’ of songs that I’m still trying to define which is basically songs like this i.e. hard-hitting ‘drill music’ but over relaxing, dreamy, hazy or even shimmery, almost candy-coated production, like this song or for example Chief Keef’s Citgo. There’s something about that unlikely combination that just makes for almost the perfect song in my opinion.
There’s something about this DJ Screw remix that just reminds me of spring and simpler times, so I wanted to post this today. Something about this gem just makes me think of spring time, March Madness NBA playoffs, Easter, Shamrock Shakes from McDonald’s and riding around town in an old school in the nice weather. I have the vaguest memories of linking this up with one of those tape adapters that allowed you to play your Ipod in old cars and bumping this on a nice March or April day in my first car, a baby blue 1987 Cadillac Deville. Does life get any better than that?
In essence, the song is a remake of a remake, since its Screw working his magic and putting his own touch on ‘Scandalous’ a 1995 song by The Click, a group most prominently featuring E-40. Scandalous itself borrowed the beat and hook from Zapp’s ‘Computer Love’. Somehow, slowed down and ‘chopped and screwed’ by ‘The Originator’ himself, the remake takes on a totally different vibe and a life of its own. With all due respect to The Click Screw’s version outgrew the original and became a classic. There’s something about the way he slows down the way Roger Troutman sings ‘Scandalous’ in the chorus and accentuates the ‘electronic’ or ‘robotic’ quality of it that just makes it so memorable and emphatic that it has always stayed in my mind 10 years later long after the first time I heard it.
I also love the ‘I keep a chopper ’cause I’m tryna get paid, gotta shake these city slickers out of my way’ line. Whoever made the collage for this song on Youtube did a great job of making a touching tribute to Screw. Gotta love the White Sox jersey he’s wearing in it and the Chicago Bulls windbreaker; so 90s!
Screw was a genius in the truest sense of the word, and the fact that this loose track he threw together so many years ago has stayed in my mind so many years after I initially heard it speaks volumes about his impact and how far ahead of his time he was. It also shows how wide-reaching and expansive his expertise was – in the early/mid 90s you didn’t have the luxury of just jumping on the internet and having any music you wanted instantly accessible to you, which makes Screw’s selections of this (and other) songs to remix even more impressive and shows how remarkably resourceful he was. He was remixing everything from his own Screwed Up Click artists to E-40 and Tupac to Michael Jackson and Phil Collins long before the days of Pandora and Spotify.
While this burgeoning musical genius was taken away long before his time, he was so productive and dynamic of an artist that there are literally hundreds if not thousands of songs-worth of material that he lives on through and that fans can go through before they’ve heard everything in his expansive catalog. RIP Screw!
Driving back across the I95 towards the GW Bridge after a short trip to Philly last night and getting eager to get home, I switched from my own playlist over to Funk Flex’s radio show on Hot 97 just to hear Flex going absolutely bezerk (in typical Funkmaster Flex fashion) over this new cut ‘Up in Harlem’ by Miss Hustle featuring Vado and Neek Bucks. “This what my city sound like!” “This what Harlem sound like!” screamed Flex over and over again. I started getting equally hyped and driving faster, becuase playing Flex at max volume after you’ve been driving for a few hours, as he starts going wild, tends to do that to you. At first I thought he was just playing the ‘Up in Harlem’ sound bite from XYZ or I was hoping Jim Jones’ and Max B’s ‘Up in Harlem’ from Jim Jones’ ‘American Gangster’ mixtape from about 10 years ago but I thought this would be unlikely just given how old and obscure the track was. Awesome, but unlikely. To my pleasant surprise, it was a brand new song using the same sample, by a female artist I had never heard before called Ms. Hustle, featuring Vado and Neek Bucks, and they actually killed it.
The sample is from a 1977 hit called ‘Native New Yorker’ by the soul/disco/dance band Oddyssey. Jim Jones and Max B first used it for their own ‘Up in Harlem’ about ten years ago on a track that is one of my favorite Jim Jones songs of all time (if not THE favorite) and may get its own post in the next couple of days, with shimmering production and a great verse by Max B (obviously before their falling out).
But the three artists on this track definitely make it their own and make it a memorable and welcome addition to the Harlem iconography in its own right. Vado pays homage to Harlem and NYC legends like Big L, McGruff, Ma$e and of course Killa Cam in his verse and I love his line ‘Ski rack on the Range, the inside champagne”, and raps the chorus “Where A and Rich got rich at, blocks and strip packs to get crack, grams sold we did that, parades we went strapped… the known mecca forever proud, where you won’t see Kevin Liles but Kevin Chiles, where you was blessed to meet Big L, party with Hud 6, Von Zip”. The ‘parades we went strapped’ line goes perfectly with the sample for the chorus and perfectly captures the rags to riches, 90s-nostalgic uptown vibe of the song. The chorus is rich with references and tributes, to deceased Harlem rappers Big L and Huddy 6 who tragically died before their time, to larger than life neighborhood legend Eric Von Zip, and implying that you’re more likely to see former drug lord Kevin Chiles around than record executive Kevin Liles.
Ms. Hustle keeps it real with a gritty and hard-nosed verse that also captures the vibe of the neighborhood rapping ‘Right up the block from the A Train, outside the Chinese store, go f*ck with Mai Ling, we sell that China White I call it Beijing,’ and ‘Can’t forget the homies up in Polo… all my niggas real they still say ‘no homo’, we shop uptown and get garments from Soho’.
Neek Bucks comes out swinging for his verse rapping ‘All these diamonds can’t see the time tick, laces off the Louie’s ’cause Harlem niggas don’t tie sh*t, ‘jects baby I was born broke Ima die rich, Cuban off of the Coogi I feel like Biggie in nine six.’ Later in the verse, I can’t quite tell what he’s rhyming it with but I also like when he says ‘Get a deal, bail out all my niggas when the advance comes, every time they said I was broke I put a band up, I’m just trying to make a million off a Samsung’.
All in all, this collaboration was a great way to bring new life to a classic beat/sample, pay homage to a ton of colorful and larger than life figures in Harlem and NYC history, and showcased the skills of three newer artists from the area. It was a really fun song that gets you hyped up feel good to be in NYC, especially with Funk Flex playing the best parts over and over again and yelling about them in typical Flex fashion, and I hope that it stays in the rotation on New York radio like it deserves to!
I was somewhat neutral towards Future’s Mask Off the first time I heard it but it steadily grew on me after a few listens. You can already see Metro Boomin’s flute-infused beat beginning to cast its influence over other rap production, i.e. Drake’s ‘Portland’ with Quavo and Travis Scott from his new More Life album. I can’t pinpoint why but it also has a vaguely similar vibe to Tunnel Vision on Kodak’s new album, which was also produced by Metro Boomin (this guy is on quite the winning streak right now). It’s just another one of many beats by Metro Boomin that will go down as a touchstone of its era. I was surprised to see that this was actually Future’s highest-charting single of all time, just for the fact that he has had so many huge songs over the years.
Since the song has taken off like a rocket, it’s inevitable that other rappers will be doing their own freestyles/remakes over the unique beat, and one welcome addition is Harlem’s own Dave East, who did his take on it as part of his ‘East Mix’ series. East is a very proficient rapper with a lot of dexterity and he puts it on full display over the Mask Off beat, with a number of impressive lines, for example my two favorites from it below…
“Dirty project kids in A-list parties we be wildin in it, steak medium well, mashed potatoes and some salmon with it, a true father won’t cop unless his child can get it… walking up Lennox just ‘cause Malcom did it”
“Back and forth over whose the hottest got the whole city riffin, I ain’t never laced foamposites I wore my Penny’s different, they gave my cousin life so f*ck it I’ll take a million visits.”
So far Dave East has the best take on Mask Off in my humble opinion and it will be a tall order for anyone to displace him at the top, will be interesting to see what song he remakes as his next ‘EastMix’
Given that the only narrative arc with as much scope to it as Kodak’s elevation of his status into both a local folk hero and a veritable cult hero a la a Gucci Mane or Boosie to his rapidly growing legion of fans is the constant specter of legal troubles that has haunted his young career so far, its fitting that rather than with lyrics or a catchy chorus, his debut album Painting Pictures begins with just a stark, minimalist medley of clips from the news of newscasters reading off headlines mentioning his indictments, house arrests, parole violations, no contest pleas, etc. “You know I’m a hot boy, but I never lose my cool, the streets on fire, that’s why I’m riding with a tool,” he raps over the understated, twinkling production from Ben Billions after this on the excellent, minimalist album intro “Day for Day”, who produced many songs on this album. He reminisces on lost friends, both to death and incarceration, like his childhood friend Cool, who he has already done a separate song about (Free Cool). You get a sense of the heaviness he has already felt on his shoulders at a young age from these losses as well as from the pressure on him that he feels (whether internal, external, or both) to succeed for those around him, “I ain’t tryna see the pen I’m tryna make it shake, neighborhood hero I’m the one who gon save the day, chosen one; my folks depend on me to make a way, I do it for my niggas locked up doing day for day.”
I was planning out a different post today but this song by Smokepurpp was just too wild for me not to put this up. It’s such a crazy mix of melodic and ominous. The TM88-produced beat is so hazy and shimmery it’s one of my favorite beats by anyone I’ve heard in a while. I love the voice Lil Purpp sings the exceedingly blunt chorus in, ‘Glock inside my Benz, no such thing as friends.’ Sonically, the song doesn’t really have much in common with Chief Keef’s ‘Citgo’ but for some reason the vibe and the dreamy, sunny haze mixed with the ominous lyrics give me kind of the same vibe as Citgo.
I don’t know a lot about Smokepurpp besides that he’s from Florida and that he and Lil Pump seem to be associates. The first I had heard of him was a brief mention in Lil Pump’s song ‘Lil Pump’ where Pump makes the claim that the pastor at church told him that he and Smokepurpp were ‘off the purp’. He doesn’t have a ton of material out yet but this is definitely my favorite song I’ve heard by him so far and I keep blasting it over and over again. I’m probably a bit older than the demographic that these guys are getting really popular with but I really like what they’re going in terms of doing their own thing and creating almost a whole new subgenre within rap along with guys like Lil Peep etc. I only found out about them this winter but they’ve def built up quite a bit of momentum; both Smokepurpp and Lil Pump are nominees for the XXL Freshmen Top 10 cover.
Floria is a really diverse and interesting state music-wise, you have everything from the dreamy trippy new wave stuff from these guys like Lil Pump and Smokepurpp to Kodak Black to 1wayFrank to even stuff like Rick Ross and of course xxxtentacion.
Definitely an early frontrunner for one of my top 10 songs of April
I don’t know what the sample used in this song is from but there’s something instantly familiar about the funky and bouncy riff that makes it the perfect song to bump on a nice spring or summer day; it reminds me of a skating rink or a block party. Something about it just screams Florida even if you didn’t know that Kodak is from Pompano Beach. Indeed, a young Kodak here is fully aware of this jam’s summery appeal as he commands listeners, ‘Y’all slide this til school start back’.
It’s always a great feeling when an exciting new artist you like makes a new song over a beat you love from an old song and brings it back to life for you, which is exactly what Lud Foe did for his song ‘My Life’ off of his new ‘Get Well Foe’ EP. Foe reaches way back into the vault and repurposes Kanye West’s ‘Family Business’ in a remake that is as unexpected as it is awesome.
I don’t think there was a song that was more summer in uptown NYC Bronx/Harlem in the mid-to late 2000s than Purple City Byrd Gang, whether it was blasting from car speakers or being one of the main elements that started a fist fight at a house party I remember. The song is unmistakable from the moment the ominous and captivating beat hits in the beginning. Sheist Bubz’s opening verse is absolutely savage and an all-time classic that perfectly capture of the gritty uptown imagery and swagger of the time; every line from it is a hard hitter from him saying to go ahead and let the fiends into the traphouse, to being a 10th grader going from varsity letterman to getting involved in interstate trafficking and hopping on a bus to Maryland (presumably either Peter Pan or Grehyound). “Nah I ain’t worrying, send shots and they scurrying, transactions we hurried them, bastards we buried ’em, in the belly of the beast there’s Sheist the Barbarian,” he triumphantly declares at the end. Perhaps the only thing that can overshadow the sheer brutality and bravado of his verse is the 3XL purple Dickies work shirt that he’s sporting with purple Dickies workpants and a purple Yankees hat.
PINK CHARDONNAY 