Creek Boyz – With My Team 

I have a soft spot for any video shot inside a corner store/bodega, but that’s just one of countless things to like about Creek Boyz’ viral hit ‘With My Team’. Spoiler alert: I was going to put up my top 10 songs for May today but this masterpiece by the previously unknown (to me) entity Creek Boyz made such a hard and late charge for song of the month (like Cloud Computing’s late comeback win to win the Preakness, in nearby Pimlico) when I first heard it this weekend that I changed the whole article and wanted to give it its own post today before awarding it song of the month for May when I put up the May top 10.

I have to again give a shout out to one of my favorite blogs (and maybe even my favorite blog), The Martorialist for unearthing this gem with his recent post on ‘With My Team’. The melodic song almost reminds me of a church choir or a barbershop quartet, with the way the group harmonizes and repeats each other’s lines in a different pitch. Pitchfork’s Sheldon Pearce probaby describes the vocals better than I  could, writing “This rap chorale, celebrates their bond with a rousing ode to companionship—to those living and those lost. They subscribe to verse by committee: when they aren’t ad-libbing each other’s raps or filling the space around them, they’re forming a chorus and singing snippets in unison. The singsong-y verses flow one into the next with subtle transitions between distinct voices, highlighted by the constant presence of ETS, who sounds like an R&B heartthrob during his vocal runs.”

In an era where guys like Lil Uzi Vert or XXXtentacion, whether you love them or hate them, are certainly pushing the boundaries of rap and redefining the outer limits of the genre, and inspiring plenty of copycats in the process, the Creek Boyz have created something unique and definitive by going in a completely different direction of their own. The beat by A2rBeatz is subtle but it’s fire. Definitely one of my favorite beats of the year so far. Best Baltimore group/posse rap song since LBE’s ‘Running Bandz’?

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