Big Wan ft. Goowap – Breaking All the Rules (Bonus)
Big Wan is breaking all the rules. I kind of love the fact that Big Wan had the audacity to call this a ‘bonus track’ on a 13-minute mixtape that would have been 11 minutes without it.
The big homie Crimedawgbylaw put me onto Big Wan and sent me over the Dog Slayers mixtape that he bought at a streetwear shop in Milwaukee (and in a move Big Wan himself would probably be proud of, they tried to charge him an extra $5 over the top for it), and now it’s also on Spotify and Youtube for the world to enjoy.
Big Wan had me at’Fast Lane Lifestyle‘ but ‘Breaking All the Rules’ further sealed the deal. While Fast Lane Lifestyle was more of a bleak, cold tour de force through the Milwaukee winter, ‘Breaking All the Rules’ is a more laid-back, summery vibe where Melodroppin 30 switches it up from his usual signature sound (at some point someone has to make a Melodroppin 30 compilation with some of his best production, I’m going to take a stab at it soon but others out there will have more knowledge of him than me) and almost gets a little tropical on us with the beat. I’m breaking out my Hawaiian shirt with the coconut buttons and hula dancer print for this one. But don’t let the beachy production fool you; Big Wan is flowing like a demon on this.
I’ve been on a big Milwaukee kick lately thanks to Crimedawgbylaw. I was listening to a lot ofLil Chicken a couple years ago and at first I wasn’t into the new direction he was going in with more singing then rapping and evolving from Lil Chicken to Chicken P but it slowly grew on me and now I’m loving it. This song ‘Fast Cash Baby’ from his latest project ‘Billy’ is so fire. I’m loving the flow here – Lil Chicken/Big Chicken/Chicken P is sounding like a disembodied, self-promotional ghost here floating around in the ether imploring the fiends to come shop with him – ‘Come shop this shit cheeeee-eeeep’ (I love the idea of Chicken P standing outside a mattress store or a hood cell phone store singing this)
You don’t work you don’t eeeeee-eeaat
Dope production from Melodroppin30 as always I feel like this guy is one of the most underrated producers in the game at this point
Not only did I forget all about posting this on my top songs of 2019 list, I even gave it the gross oversight of forgetting to even include it in my more recent and extremely belated top songs of December 2019 list. I found this of course thanks to Crimedawgbylaw, who at this point has become a virtual Lonely Planet guide to Milwaukee slaps. This fucking goes. Beat by MeloDroppin30 is so cold. Perfect type of beat for a cold midwestern winter night. (Can’t find his solo mixtape on Spotify anymore SMH it had a dope intro on it I forget who rapped on it too so will never find the song again. He’s also done some nice beats for Lil Chicken).
Like Big Colin, I’m feeling the prefix of ‘Big’ here in the name instead of the more common ‘Lil’, and similar to the Big Colin song I posted a while back, I love when Wan’s crew starts yelling along with the one line as he raps it. I would not mind this becoming a new trend in songs/videos. When Wan switches up his flow after that to the faster flow it almost reminds me Tee Grizzley’s flow change from First Day Out.
It’s been a long, hot July out here, but we’re still hanging in there and I finished my top 10 songs in a bit more of a timely fashion this month. This month took me down a lot of interesting paths as I stayed on my Lil Chicken/Milwaukee grind that started last month via Rap Music Hysteria, then a post from the Martorialist on Berner had me go down a huge Berner rabbit hole and after studying his back catalogue as if I was writing a dissertation on him, made me realize that this husky Bay Area renaissance man actually has quite a few jams, then from there I was bumping another large white rapper Jelly Roll for a couple of days to see what he’s been up to lately, checked out the new projects from A-Wax, Meek Mill, and 21 Savage before getting really into Mac J and having him take over the end of the month.
Lil Chicken – No Grease
This song is from the end of 2016 but Lil Chicken wins the award for hardest first verse of 2017 and maybe hardest song in general with ‘No Grease’ – “See the pain in my eyes this sh*t gettin tiring, eyes get bug as hell when I hear them sirens. Money, diamonds, gold, we a bunch of pirates, watching out for narcs trapping out a hybrid. Fiend keep nodding off man he can’t fight it, this dog biting nigga’s ears punching like Tyson.” I’m not sure what I like better the very apt pirate comparison or the image of him trapping out of a Nissan Leaf or Toyota Prius. I also love the weary, almost strained voice that Big Chicken P raps in on this one; the trap has been good to him but he’s also growing tired of the unwanted complications that come with it.
“All these motherf*cking grits I feel like Rich Porter, b*tch we ain’t no small fries we taking big orders, these niggas b*tches I’m finna change my hustle to extortion, phones slapping back to back they sound like walkie talkies.” Lil Chicken just goes too hard on this one.
Berner – Float
As I said in my mea culpa on Berner, “In a more just world, with this type of chorus and vibes, Berner would be making royalty money off of Sandals or Atlantis or one of those other Caribbean all-inclusive resorts using his song in their newest commercial.” After a long journey into this affable weed/fashion entrepeneur’s catalogue, I have to admit the man certainly has some gems I’ve missed over the years; the highlight of which would be the airy and enjoyable ‘Float’ from his 2016 Packs album.
Mac J – Differences
I don’t know much about Mac J and only heard about him after reading about him on Rey’s Cafe a couple weeks ago but he certainly has some absolute bangers in his catalogue, my favorite of which thus far is ‘Differences’. The beat for this one is ridiculous too. Based on the Mac J playlist Rey’s Cafe put together I definitely want to start listening to more of this north Sacramento artist and check out the rest of his output, including his new mixtape ‘Local Celebrity‘.
Lil Chicken – Pitty Pat
“I’ve got it all on me riding round in the foreign, Ballys on, white folks staring at me, make me feel important”
““Me and Max posted up in the stash house playing Pitty Pat, I feel like Chris Brown all these junkies hollering gimme that. Spanish ho like Dora that b*tch pulled up with a mac, said he want 44 watch me pull up with them racks.”
