King Lavish D is keeping his foot on the gas. Lav is more consistent and focused than ever in 2019. I don’t know how he does it but Lav is the master of creating these simple flows and rhyme schemes and making them sound dope… (i.e. this song, Speak My Mind, U Feel Me, etc.). Nice hard beat from Royce.
“The gang cold nigga, you a ho nigga, free D-Steez we got hella poles nigga, we demons in the field we got hella souls nigga, everybody pimpin’ we got hella hos nigga.”
On a side note I see that Lav’s chain collection is continuing to grow with this Big Bank Hank chain. I haven’t seen that Waldo chain in a while. I kind of want one of these Bank’d Up ENT hoodies/sweatsuits but I’m not sure if Lav would let me or if they’re even for sale they’re probably just for his crew.
My one small gripe here is that the production/mix sounds kind of off and doesn’t do the song justice when you put it on full blast maybe they can give it a quick remaster since it just came out. Cash Money West needs to give Lav some serious investment for production etc. Another thought here is we have so many collabs with Detroit rappers reaching out to Bay rappers like all the songs with Philthy Rich I feel like it’s time for some of the Detroit heavy hitters to come to Sacramento and start putting Lav on those.
Mistah FAB ft. CML Lavish D, Philthy Rich – U Feel Me
Front Row Fabby linking up with King Lavish D and Philthy for this absolute banger.Was about to post ‘taking a break from Bay beef for a day’ and post a different song today but then I was hyped when I saw that the video for U Feel Me came out a couple of hours ago since I’ve been bumping it all week. Weirdly it appears on both Fab’s new ‘Gold Chains and Taco Meat’ album as well as CML and Philthy’s ‘Political Ties’ project but it slaps so I don’t mind hearing it on both. The song/concept is so simple but just goes so hard. It reminds me of Lav’s ‘What Else’ i.e. the pattern of saying ‘What Else’ and then a short line being repeated over the course of the song/rapping a short line and then asking ‘U Feel Me?’. Not sure who handled the beat for this one but it knocks.
Everybody here is good and their resumes speak for themselves but Lav steals the show which I feel like is becoming a common theme lately. I love the ‘Stepped out of prison going brazy’ line. The ‘I’m a Livewire like Shady’ part was an unexpected surprise since I thought Lav funking with Shady back in the day was how his original feud with all of the One Mob guys started (as my boy Onmirestigexplained) but as we’ve seen, you never know what to expect in these ever-shifting Sacramento/Oakland politics; enemies can become allies quickly and vice versa.
I always figured Mistah FAB was friendly with Mozzy and they’ve done a bunch of songs together (including with Philthy Rich on the same track) back when everyone was still friends so I’m not sure if this appearance is a statement on where he stands by Fab or if he just wanted to get two of the hottest names in the game right now on a track he knew was going to be a banger. I’m going to assume the latter because I feel like Fab is too friendly and positive of a dude for that type of beef.
How about getting a mega-mix of this one where they add Suga Free and let’s say… Cookie Money, and ALLBLACK why the hell not?
P.S. I got a chance to bump Fab’s new album ‘Gold Chains and Taco Meat’ (what a name lol) a couple of times on a long drive this week and as usual you can count on Fabby to deliver with at least a couple of bangers; so far I like U Feel Me, Hey Baby, Time 4 U, and of course Playa Shit at the end with Suga Free and Too $hort.
Could it really be any other song for top song of the month? As my boy The Martorialist would say, this is FUNCTION MUSIC, as opposed to functional music.
From the fact that it’s loosely a Waka Flocka Flame homage in 2019 to the Mexican sombreros to the ridiculously fuego spin move that they choreographed at 0:33 I’m down with everything going on here and want more of it. This is the hottest song I’ve heard out of NYC (or pretty much anywhere) in a minute. Only in NY could you hear a rap song with no Hispanics in it mentioning bachata, pandejo, etc. The beat is dummy hard too.
“Oh let’s do it like I’m Waka, met her out in Opa Locka, baked potato with the lobster, that’s my baby – Goo… Gaga”.
Added bonus in the Youtube comments is a female Doordash delivery driver saying that she watched the video because these guys told her to check it out when she delivered food to them.
This always amorphous Brooklyn GD/Blood/Crip beef is serious and Game of Thrones-level complicated but I think these guys are Envy Caine’s (who I’ve posted here before) opps based on my extensive research of Youtube comments but like I said last time I don’t want to wade into all that I’ve got love for everyone I’m just here to enjoy the slaps. I’ve got to check out more of these guys’ videos.
P.S. for the record I’m definitely strongly in favor of silkies making this big comeback in 2019 I’ve been seeing them everywhere lately.
Chief Keef x Zaytoven – Ain’t Gonna Happen
I can’t believe how little fanfare this Keef/Zaytoven album got, I feel like a couple of years ago this would have broke the internet. I didn’t even know about it until like a month after it was out and I would like to think I am one of the world’s biggest Sosa fans. The project was really good overall with this being by far my favorite track and Spy Kid being another highlight. I love this crooning version of Keef that we hear from time to time especially over this great twinkly piano beat from Zaytoven. I’m glad Keef is doing whatever he wants now and really experimenting/pushing his boundaries musically and getting to enjoy himself out in California after he has lost so many people close to him. Keef has nothing to prove in my opinion and this is probably a topic/article for another day but is one of if not THE most creative/influential artist of the 2010s in my opinion.
“Come on my property I turn you to a french fry, turn my front yard to a fish fry, I see Big Glow in the big sky crazy how I turned into the big guy.”
“Face dried up, from all of the tears that I cried up, lost most of the niggas I would ride for.”
By the way I forgot all about Tadoe! I wonder what he’s up to.
Chief Keef x Zaytoven – Spy Kid
Like I said antother higlight from the Keef/Zaytoven project.
GLOTOVEN OR NO TOVEN!
San Quinn – Ain’t Nobody Thuggin
CALIFORNIA KID LIKE…. TOM BRAZY
San Quinn has got over 25 years in the game at this point and he’s still putting out heat. This beat is slapping like a San Fran pimp when the money ain’t right. That voice singing the hook is so dope. I love the video too with the shots of the bridge and the waterfront.
“Big wads, new cars, move around with 10 large, for a verse 10 large after this I’m finna charge”
“We ain’t sippin Hen we sippin’ Dom Perignon, move along square nigga let the mob carry on”
I lied when I previously said I hadn’t been keeping up with the Mozzy/Philthy/Messy Marv/Lav beef because now its quickly become my new favorite topic. Quinn could probably advise the Philthy/Lav camp on beefing with Messy Marv as Messy was beefing with him about a decade ago even though he’s his own cousin! This guy is a loose cannon. Wouldn’t mind getting a remix of this with Lavish on here and maybe a couple of Frisco rappers – dare I suggest Berner anyone?
Daz Dillinger ft. Layzie Bone – Gotta Get That Money
Between this and Bizzy Bone’s diss tracks to Migos, I’m down with this unexpected but welcome mini Bone Thugs resurgence that we’re getting in early 2019. The sample and that ethereal beat behind it in the beginning sound so dope. I wonder if we’ll actually get a whole project out of this Daz & Layzie collaboration it would be cool to get a full album from them. I love the production here and Layzie sounds smooth on the hook. There’s something just relaxing about listening to this, for lack of a better word.
“Looking at the world like it’s my oyster, closed mouths don’t get fed, little nigga turn your voice up”
Also anyone else feel like Daz sounds kind of like Rozay on his verse?
Nipsey Hussle – Real Big
RIP to Nip, seems like it was a long time ago but it was really just this month.
Lil Uzi Vert – Sanguine Paradise
I guess it’s true that absence makes the heart grow fonder becuase I wasn’t really feeling Uzi that much and generally subscribe to the Martorialist’s school of thought on embargoing rappers with septum rings but I’m feeling some of these new leaks that Uzi is putting out now that we haven’t heard from him in so long. I’m kind of intrigued/surprisingly anticipating Eternal Atake to hear what it sounds like when it comes out if DJ Drama ever frees Uzi to release it. Also wouldn’t it be the ultimate marketing scheme by Drama if this whole thing with him stopping Uzi from releasing new music was just a ploy to build up anticipation for the album? That would be on like Suge/Birdman mastermind level.
DJ Paul ft. Beanie Sigel – Real Money
Admittedly I wasn’t feeling this song but I’m more posting it out of anticipation of getting a full project of Paul and Beanie collaborating in 2019 which would be awesome. We could definitley use a Beanie resurgence in 2019 we need some of that Carhartt and Dickies hustling out in the cold type rap. This would be a wild mix for an album but hopefully it comes into fruition.
Three 6 Mafia – Paul, With Da 45 / Three 6 Mafia – Ridin in da Chevy
Speaking of DJ Paul, I was bumping a bunch of old Three 6 this month. Beat at around 0:52 of ‘Paul with da 45’ is so crazy.
I love the ‘Every time you see the Chevy riding it be full of FOLKS’ at the end of Riding in Da Chevy.
It’s incredible how well this stuff holds up in today’s rap climate.
Envy Caine ft. Cooaxh Da Ghost – Woo K
The ‘Waka’ track had me inspired to go back and delve into this whole Brooklyn drill scene and this GDs/Bloods/Crips beef and go back to one of my favorites from last year Envy Caine to see what he’s been up to.
Apparently I’m already late on ‘Woo K’ because ever the beef connoisseur, Envy has already released a ‘Woo K Pt. 2’. This goes hard as fuck. Definitley more ‘functional music’ than ‘function music’ though.
I love how Envy looks like an angry NFL coach giving a firey halftime pep talk to his team at halftime about how they’re giving up too many big plays and need to hit harder in the second half.
Envy stays with these European soccer jerseys with Juventus here and I always see him rocking Bayern Munich gear too.
Coaxh the Ghost is intense I have to check out more of his stuff.
Pop Smoke – Meet the Woo
If we’re posting Woo K I guess it’s only right that we post Meet the Woo. This song is catching a lot of buzz in NY quickly. Pop Smoke’s voice is kind of cool and makes this sound even more aggressive.
If I could get access to a time machine one of my highest priorities would be to go back in time to like 2016-2017 to the height of the ‘One Mob’ vs Lav beef and blow a few Bay Area rap fans’ minds by showing them this Lav/Philthy collaboration album from the future and then hop back in the time machine and leave back for the future without explaining the whole context of what led to it
My favorite aspect of the Mozzy/Philthy beef is the fact that Messy Marv is certainly the centerpiece of the beef – Philthy is mad that Mozzy linked up with Messy – so he then linked up Mozzy’s archenemy Lav – who featured Messy himself on the remix for arguably his biggest song (Speak My Mind/What Else remix).
Lav may be THE most elusive artist to conveniently find the complete discography of in all of rap, which is saying something – I had been on a bit of a Lav kick after not listening to him in a while after seeing his cameo in the San Quinn video and I found albums/mixtapes by him on Spotify listed under Lavish D, King Lavish D, CML Lavish D, and even just CML. Given the all-over the place nature of his catalogue I might need to compile a top 10 Lav songs here in the future.
I guess Lav is signed to Cash Money or Cash Money West now so congrats to him on that. I wonder if that means we’ll get a Lav/Blueface collaboration some time soon.
Sadly I have to admit I was super hyped when I saw that this project was out but unfortunately even though I am a fan of both, I didn’t feel like any specific track really jumped out at me as a highlight and wasn’t really as good as both of their recent solo work. (I just posted the title track for this article since it’s the title track and has a new video). That being said I’ll give it another listen and maybe that will change over time. But I felt like a lot of tracks on here were just remixes thrown together of their previous songs etc. Maybe we can get a second collaboration from them because I’m definitley still intrigued by the idea even if the execution didn’t live up to it in this case.
I wonder where out of town allies like Yung Cat and A-Wax will line up in this whole battle because on the one hand probably the only thing that united them on tracks like Diamonds Dancing was obviously their mutual dislike of Mozzy but on the other hand I would have to imagine none of them were like wildly in favor of Philthy either.
In all seriousness though let’s hope that this Philthy/Mozzy beef stays on wax and no one gets hurt over it
P.S. here’s what I wrote at the time after I first checked out Lav and posted about it as a young blogger still trying to come up in the blog game, not as bad as I thought…
“As a Mozzy fan I almost felt a bit sneaky and slimey deciding to check out Lavish D’s last couple of mixtapes but much like a cheating spouse eventually the curisoity and temptation got the better of me and I decided to delve into it. He has some pretty good songs and my favorite of all of them was last year’s ‘Iraq’…You’ve also got to tip your hat to any video where the actual rapper isn’t in the video because he’s behind bars so everyone is wearing shirts saying ‘Free Cash Money Lavish’ on them. After listening to a couple of mixtapes I would say that Mozzy has a bit more star power than Lavish D but Lavish D certainly isn’t just a neighborhood rapper looking to get famous by dissing Mozzy, he has a bit of star power and quite a few good songs in his own right. My other favorite by him so far is ‘Speak My Mind‘. Now that he is free I’m going to keep an eye out for his new material as it comes out.”
San Quinn has got over 25 years in the game at this point and he’s still putting out heat. This beat is slapping like a San Fran pimp when the money ain’t right. That voice singing the hook is so dope. I love the video too with the shots of the bridge and the waterfront.
“Big wads, new cars, move around with 10 large, for a verse 10 large after this I’m finna charge”
“We ain’t sippin Hen we sippin’ Dom Perignon, move along square nigga let the mob carry on”
I haven’t kept up with this whole ever-evolving Mozzy/CML/Messy Marv/Philthy etc. beef because all the moving parts make it like a multi-generational multi-city Northern California Game of Thrones and your host is too much of a square and doesn’t have the attention span for all that he just wants to enjoy the slaps, but it looks like Lavish D has a cameo here so I guess San Quinn is down with him. Wouldn’t mind getting a remix of this with Lavish on here and maybe a couple of Frisco rappers – dare I suggest Berner anyone?
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.
PINK CHARDONNAY 