This song has me feeling like me, Berner, Dolph, and Amp just won a big, hard-fought battle in an enemy city and we’re now realizing it’s over and it was costly, but we gave it our all, we won, and we’re all still here and we’re all good. We’re taking our masks/helmets/visors off and putting our guns down and we’re just triumphantly looking around and surveying the carnage and taking it all in, looking at each other and giving a knowing nod to our brothers in arms. Or we just won a championship and Berner hit the winning 3 at the buzzer against all odds and now we’re all just basking in the glow of knowing we achieved glory.
I was already singing the praises of Berner & Dolph’s collaboration project ‘Tracking Numbers’ because ‘Knuckles’, the first track they leaked from it, was already easily one of my favorite songs of the year. Little did I know that by the time this 8 track mixtape was over that another song from it would be right up there with Knuckles as one of my favorite songs, and beats, of the year. The beat for this one is so triumphant and honest and perfectly captures the ‘Win Big’ mantra. I have to find out who came up with this beat. Berner is like Jameis Winston right now; he’s been around for a couple of seasons but now he’s entering his prime and ready to take the league by storm.
You guys thought I was done over here? Nah fam, I was just hibernating and bumping the new Berner & Dolph mixtape on repeat for the last week. In other news, OMB Peezy continues his streak of very solid releases with this menacing ode to those who dare cross him, ‘The Hard Way’. Nothing fancy here but the foreboding beat, great chorus, and good verses is a surefire and time-tested combo. Just another really good release in Peezy’s overall body of work, I don’t think he’s released a bad song yet. What’s more, Peezy shows a knack for tasteful wall art at his home and even more importantly that pillow he’s lounging on that makes its debut at around the 0:37 mark looks comfortable AF, almost like he’s chilling out on a fluffy white cloud. I’m also loving the self-appointed moniker ‘Overkill Peezy’. He’s also teasing another song on Instagram called ‘Pressure’ which should be dropping soon so I’m fully expecting his streak of hits to continue.
August was probably the best month of new music in a long time for your humble host, with new projects out by everyone from Kodak Black to Peewee Longway to Berner, and probably two of my favorite songs of the year so far, ‘4 Minutes All Me’ by OMB Shawniebo and Berner’s new joint ‘Knuckles’ with Young Dolph and Gucci Mane. Perhaps most importantly of all we got news of what I expect to be the holy grail in a long list of Berner collaboration albums, his project with Young Dolph, which should be out at the end of this month. Here are the top 10 songs for an unexpectedly great month.
OMB Shawniebo – 4 Minutes All Me
OMB Shawniebo comes out with an early contender for song of the year on here. See previous post on 4 Minutes All Me here. You can never go wrong with this type of combination of wolf masks, baby blue Gap sweatshirts, luscious beats, and 4 minutes of just obliterating one of the tastiest beats in recent memory.
Berner ft. Young Dolph, Gucci Mane – Knuckles
Ever the savvy businessman, Berner teased the release of Tracking Numbers with Young Dolph by serving up Knuckles, also featuring Gucci Mane, as a tasty appetizer for it. In almost any other month, when I didn’t first hear ‘4 Minutes All Me’, the unexpected duo of Bern and Dolph would have taken home the crown for top song of August. As In any case, I have a feeling that this will clock in in my top handful of songs for the year and I’m looking forward to Tracking Numbers at the end of the month. As I said at the time…
“According to Dirty Glove Bastard, the upcoming project with Young Dolph, entitled ‘Tracking Numbers,’ will have features from Gucci Mane, Peewee Longway, OJ Da Juiceman, Juicy J, Philthy Rich, and more. I can’t wait to hear the one with Project Pat. I loved DGB’s tepid/noncommital reaction to news of the Berner/Dolph project – “Berner & Young Dolph were probably the last 2 people you’d expect to collab for an entire project, but here we are.” You’ve got to love the ‘But here we are’ as the way to end your thoughts on something that you’re just not sure what to make of. Also, are the ‘Tracking Numbers’ referred to in the title referring to shipments from the Cookies clothing line that this hard-working fashion entrepeneur is senidng out to his customers, or to ‘cookies’ of a more illicit nature? Only time will tell when the album comes out.
I was excited enough just to see an unexpected collaboration between these 3, but the beat is absolutely delicious and takes this song to a whole different level. I’m curious who made it and what the sample is from. It has me feeling like I’m at a roller rink in the 70s with Berner, Dolph and the crew just casually skating around, smoking some cookie, chatting up the roller girls.
I loved Big Bern’s opening salvo “No handouts, I got here with nothing. The bezel and band on my wrist keep busting. I got birds from the Asians, guns from the Russians, VVVS’s on my chain keep dancing all custom” BUT the part of his verse that put it over the top for me and really spoke to me, as a big introvert, was Berner’s bold declaration “Fuck the club, dog. I’d rather stay in. I’ve got stacks to count, plus this batch just came in.” We definitely need more of that attitude in the rap world I’m all for it. I mean I don’t have many stacks to count when I stay in it’s more likely that I’m just eating takeout and watching Shark Week or Drugs Inc. but I’m feeling what he’s saying.”
Ryan Hemsworth ft. Yakki, E-40 – Hunnid
Definitely one of the happiest and sunniest songs of the year so far, this unlikely group of tres amigoscertainly bring the fire on Hunnid. This is another song that in some months could have plausibly took the honor of song of the month if it wasn’t such a stacked lineup already.
Rap songs named after NBA players just seems like a natural combination and a tale as old as time, really anything from Young Dolph’s ‘Lebron’ to Starlito’s ‘Black John Stockton’. We get another addition to that proud pantheon with Sheck Wes’ ‘Mo Bamba’ except that not only is Mo Bamba not an NBA player, he’s actually yet to enter the college ranks and suit up for the Texas Longhorns for the first time. The 7-foot tall center out of Harlem, the #4 overall player in 2017’s ‘ESPN 100′ chose Texas over Duke, Kentucky, and Michigan, and will be starring for the Longhorns this fall, so I figured Wes Sheck was from Texas but he and Bamba are fellow Harlemites.
“I be ballllllin’, like a motherf*ckin pro, I be baaallllin’, like my nigga Mooooooo”
The way Wes sings and drags out the words, pro, Mo, etc. in his gravelly voice is almost so abrasive that it becomes instantly catchy and melodic, almost like some of Tay K’s recent songs, or Chief Keef’s more experimental work, or of course XXXtentacion, but it is also his own unique spin on it. I also like the way he switches up his flow at about the 1:40 mark and goes into overdrive. The light beat by 16yrold and Take a Day Trip is really nice and goes perfect with the blunt vocals.
I would love to see Texas Longhorns run out onto the court with this as their intro music for home games this season but I’m not quite sure that that will happen, but alas a blogger can dream right?
After ‘The Race’ mania from the last few weeks I decided to check out Tay K’s “Santana World” mixtape (which admittedly wasn’t any huge commitment on my end since I’d be surprised if the 8 tracks clock in at more than 20 minutes) and there were definitely some more slaps on there.
My favorite of these was ‘Dat Way’. While sunnier and more cheerful sounding than ‘The Race’ it’s similar in the way that Tay K takes an extremely simple, lo-fi kind of catchy beat and just kills it. It almost reminds me of vintage Chief Keef from when he would crush fuzzy, simple, happy-sounding beats like on ‘Citgo’ and the cheerfulness or haziness of the beat would belie the menacing flow and subject matter. Tay K seems to be another master of this art, between this song, ‘The Race’ and also check out his latest ‘Lay Low’ for another good example. This is definitely one of those short, 2-minute type songs that you’ll play 20 times a day the first few days after you hear it.
Tay K’s future output is obviously uncertain given the extensive legal troubles facing him, but it seems like new songs are coming out post-incarceration, so hopefully he has a stockpile of material in the safe somewhere that can be released periodically going forward.
Ohhhhhhh yeah. Stop the presses, stop the presses! We interrupt this broadcast to bring you good tidings and news of Berner’s new collaboration with Young Dolph and Gucci Mane, ‘Knuckles’. Seriously could there be any better news for an erstwhile, newly out of the closet Berner fan such as myself than news that not only does he have a new song with The King of Memphis and Wop, but that he has a whole EP coming out with Dolph? (Berner is carving out quite the niche market for himself with these ‘collaboration’ albums/mixtapes he’s got projects out with everyone from Cam’ron to The Jacka, including his most recent ‘Vibes’ project with Styles P which was a very solid release). I feel like Big Bern’s stock is at an all-time high right now. Ask the rap gods for new Berner material and ye shall receive. Honestly at this point I may need to make a new category on this blog for Just Berner. At this point it’s too early to say but Knuckles may be my favorite Berner song, and you’re talking to a man who listened to a good 4 Berner albums on a long drive last night.
According to Dirty Glove Bastard, the upcoming project with Young Dolph, entitled ‘Tracking Numbers,’ will have features from Gucci Mane, Peewee Longway, OJ Da Juiceman, Juicy J, Philthy Rich, and more. I can’t wait to hear the one with Project Pat. I loved DGB’s tepid/noncommital reaction to news of the Berner/Dolph project – “Berner & Young Dolph were probably the last 2 people you’d expect to collab for an entire project, but here we are.” You’ve got to love the ‘But here we are’ as the way to end your thoughts on something that you’re just not sure what to make of. Also, are the ‘Tracking Numbers’ referred to in the title referring to shipments from the Cookies clothing line that this hard-working fashion entrepeneur is senidng out to his customers, or to ‘cookies’ of a more illicit nature? Only time will tell when the album comes out.
I was excited enough just to see an unexpected collaboration between these 3, but the beat by TraxxFDR (who has collaborated with Berner previously and whipped up some magic with him on my previous favorite Berner song) is absolutely delicious and takes this song to a whole different level. I’m curious who made it and what the sample is from. It has me feeling like I’m at a roller rink in the 70s with Berner, Dolph and the crew just casually skating around, smoking some cookie, chatting up the roller girls. If I do a ‘beats of the year’ type article at the end of the year this one has staked a strong claim to the top of the list.
Young Scooter goes hard AF on the Future-assisted ‘Can’t Play Around’ off his new album ‘Jugg King’. The piano-laced beat is so harsh and foreboding, I feel like I’m ready to scale the castle walls and go to battle with this Black Migo Gang/Freebandz horde. This is one of the best songs I’ve heard out of ATL’s legion of trap rappers in a while and it feels great to blast it out of the car.
Future sounds great on the chorus; “I stay working through a hard rain and thunderstorm, I’m gonna stack this paper up again like I’ve never done. I’ve got these rose gold jewels I feel better now, I put the city on my back and I can’t let ’em down.” There’s just an unmistakable heaviness to this track, with the way Future extols hustling whether it rains or shines, and how Future and Scooter both reflect on losing everything and getting it back.
I love Young Scooter’s first line, “They like Scooter where you been, bitch I’m in Saint Laurent. My nigga VL keep that stick like he play lacrosse.”
This is more my fault than any reflection on Scooter himself but I guess I had overlooked him a bit, with so many rappers coming out of Atlanta during that sort of first ‘post-Gucci Mane’ era/wave and sort of all being part of that same scene and aesthetic. I had always more thought of him as Gucci’s old cellmate/a guy being featured on songs with Gucci, Future, Chief Keef, etc. but he certainly seems to be rounding into form as his own artist and making his own name for himself; Jugg King was a really strong project top to bottom so I’m interested in checking out some of his previous output now. Also even with all of the work we’ve gotten from Future this year, by year end I think that Can’t Play Around is going to be amongst his top few tracks of 2017.
A lot of ink has already been spilled over this barely over a minute and a half long video by this teenage Texas rapper Tay K so I’m not going to go too far into the backstory. ‘The Race’ has already racked up over 12 million views in a mere 3 weeks since being posted on Youtube and is currently the #2 song on all of Soundcloud (behind only the seemingly insurmountable ‘Bodak Yellow’), thanks to the infectiousness of the song combined with the dark back story surrounding it. Tay K is almost like a rap game Icarus, with a meteoric rise to fame quickly followed by a shockingly fast fall from grace. (I’m aware that he had somewhat of a following before ‘The Race’ but let’s be honest this song took his fame to a whole different level and put him into the mainstream consciousness). At the risk of sounding like I’m trying to make some kind of bold statement, the whole thing kind of reminds me of an XXXtentacion, in that they’re both rappers who were finding some baseline of fanbase via their output but then whose notoriety from their criminal exploits propelled them to previously unforeseen levels of infamy.
File this one under unlikelist of trios I would have expected to link up and make a song together. Not only do these guys join forces, but unlike some other unexpected combinations where the actual track underwhelms and is less interesting than the combination of names itself, these tres amigos bring the fire on Hunnid.
Yakki (nee Yakki Divoshi) absolutely manhandles the chorus on this one as he gleefully booms out ‘I can make a hundred in a daayyyyyy’ and between Hemsworth’s bouncy, summery beat and Yakki’s catchy chorus this song really should get big and be one of the songs of the summer. I feel like Yakki should start blowing up to and start getting even more buzz than he already has, with a couple of bangers under his name now like ‘Trust Issues’ with PNB Rock and the Lil Uzi-assisted ‘Xans’ from his recent album ‘Yakkistick’ which was a pretty enjoyable project. “Every night I’m eating steak and shrimp ’cause I ain’t going back to Church’s”, howls Big Yak at the end of his verse about grinding day and night and then ungrateful people wanting things from you.
Approaching 50, E-40 has shown an amazing knack for longevity and staying relevant in the rap game. I’d imagine life is pretty good for the Sik Wid It CEO right now, with his young bols on the label like OMB Peezy and Nef the Pharaoh making a ton of noise over the past year, but on ‘Hunnid’, like a grizzled player-coach that can still step off the bench and hit a few 3’s in a pinch, E-40 shows that he’s still got it. I’m feeling the Backwoods hoodie E-40 is rocking here too; as one of rap’s elder statesmen he’s not out here rocking skinny moto jeans or some designer shirt with sparkles and rhinestones on it, he’s just keeping it simple and relaxed wearing a comfortable hoodie and winter hat with shades, which is more befitting of a legend of his stature at this point. Shout out to E-40 for the casual, self-aware swagger.
I don’t know much about this dude Hemsworth aside from the fact that he’s from Canada, he produced this sick beat, and apparently he’s one of Yakki’s coworkers at the autobody in the video. From the looks of it this song is from his own album that he’s working on. It looks like he does work both inside and outside the rap genre, which I actually think is a good thing because it gives artists different types of beats to work with and brings in some different perspectives, and between this and working with Adamn Killa on his other recent rap foray ‘Commas’ I’ve definitely got to give the guy credit for having good taste in rappers.
I also like the choice of the yellow Firebird for the car in the video; an underrated American icon in my humble opinion, and the Nef the Pharaoh cameo rocking out with the Sik Wid It chain. I wish they added in a verse from Nef at the end since he was there anyway, but I guess we can’t get TOO greedy since it was already a great song.
You thought we were done with the Berner exploration journey over here? Nah bruh we stay on this Berner grind all summer long, can’t stop won’t stop. I’m not sure if I should thank or blame The Martorialist for inspiring me to go down this treacherous but also sometimes rewarding path. About 10 Berner albums deep, imagine my surprise and pleasure when I saw that his 2015 album ‘Harvest Season’ featured not one but two separate tracks featuring both The Jacka (RIP) and Mozzy on each, along with two other songs featuring the Jacka and one more with Mozzy. Say what you want about this affable Urban Farmer, but the man has an undeniable talent for getting great rappers to work with him and join his projects, as well as getting great verses out of them. I didn’t even know who Mozzy was in 2015 showing that as usual, Berner was ahead of his time.
‘Gone’ has the added bonus of not only featuring the Jacka and Mozzy but also one of my favorite Nor Cal artists who I had gotten into for a while and completely forgotten about, Lil Rue, so it was good to hear him again as well. (Push It and Self Made were both in heavy rotation five or six winters ago I remember bumping them on a New Year’s Eve).
Mozzy raps a bit slower on this track and seems like he has a little bit of a different flow, and it sounds great over the triumphant, battle-ready beat. It actually might be one of my favorite two or three Mozzy verses to date, he absolutely bodies this one…
PINK CHARDONNAY 