Album of the Month 

Peezy – New Car Smell

As my fellow Peezy evangelists like Nyquil510 and Raygarraty have recently been pointing out, Peezy is on top of the game right now.

Obviously we’re used to hearing Peezy over more intense Detroit-type beats and he excels on that type of production, i.e. this or this but it’s also nice to hear him kicking it over a little more of a laid-back, soulful beat like this that you can picture cruising around to or chilling with in the spring/summer. After a couple of listens to ‘No Hooks 2’ this is my favorite song off it or at least the one that jumped out at me the most, but honestly the whole album is fire. New Car Smell is also a great name for a song. Crime Stoppers (another great name), the title track, No Limit, etc. were all dope.

“Leftover lobster, champagne in the fridge” is such an ultimate humble brag. Peezy is just so accustomed to fancy restaurants and lobster that he said that’s enough at the restaurant and will just finish it whenever he feels like it at the crib next time he doesn’t feel like leaving the house to eat, no big deal.

“Bossed up on these niggas like I’m Darnell, niggas selling couches rapping like the cartel.” Such a great diss line since we all know someone who’s working at like Bob’s Furniture or Aaron’s and living at their mom’s house but acting like they’re some big plug to anyone who will listen.

“Ain’t no heat inside the crib but it slap though, Ghetto Boys baby we the new Death Row,” a bold claim but I’m feeling it and hey someone has to go for that mantle it might as well be Peezy.

Let’s all hope that Peezy doesn’t have to sit down for any length of time for the charges he’s fighting while he’s in the prime of his career like this.

Juvenile x Birdman ft. NLE Choppa – Dreams 

I’m ABOUT this 2019 Juvenile resurgence. I would have been a happy camper after just JAG but this new ‘Dreams’ joint is a nice unexpected surprise. Juve comes through and delivers again with another fire hook. He’s turning into 2019’s unexpected hook god.

It was only a matter of time before Birdman and his cohorts got in on this rapping over acoustic-sounding beat that guys like Lil Baby and Gunna have been making hits with. (Great beat by D-Rock here yet again, after a nice beatjack/update of Too $hort’s Dope Fiend Beat on JAG as I learned from Martorialist. I’m not too familiar with him but maybe he’s Birdman/Cash Money’s new in-house producer which based on his showing thus far I would certainly welcome.)

While JAG was just Birdman and Juvenile, here, they link up with Birdman’s latest protege NLE Choppa, he of ‘Shotta Flow’ and it’s 2 billion views fame, giving this a circle of life effect as one generation of Birdman cronies passes the torch to the next. Choppa does a decent job of holding his own here and proving he’s worthy of standing alongside a legend in the game like Juve. Birdman’s verse was predictably mediocre but he’s the money man putting these all together so I can’t complain. I wish Juvenile did a verse here instead of just the hook but the hook is good enough that I can’t get greedy. C’est la vie.

Last time around, Birdman was showing off his art collection of questionable quality to some sort of female curator/critic, this time he’s showing off his taste in animal-themed topiary on the grounds of his sprawling estate to a group of lovely ladies, because he’s Birdman.

Let’s hope that there’s a part 3 to this series.

Saint Jhn ft. Lil Baby – Trap 

I bet y’all weren’t expecting to see me post this. I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t expecting to like this guy because he seems like a plant because he’s been getting pushed by Roc a Fella and been appearing on a lot of radio shows/interviews etc. but I can’t front, his hook on ‘Trap’ is just too fire to hate on. It sounds like some unearthly message being beamed down to us from the heavens. I don’t know much else about him yet but after this I decided I needed to be a little more open-minded and get out of my usual lane a little and decided to check out his debut album from last year, Collection One. It was a little more on the ‘artistic’ vibe than what I usually like but he had a couple of good joints on there I surprised myself again and really liked ‘I Heard You Got Too Lit Last Night‘ as well.

El Camino – Davis St 

Dope intro off of El Camino’s new ‘Don’t Eat the Fruit’. El Camino is really coming into his own and going from Griselda sidekick to featured artist. If you like this lane, you were eating really good this month or so with new albums like Eto’s Hell’s Roof, El Camino, Flee Lord’s Gets Greater Later, Rick Hyde’s Plates, and Knowledge the Pirate’s Black Caesar all coming out seemingly one after another.

Rick Hyde ft. Benny, El Camino 

Speaking of Griselda/El Camino etc., Lanez off of the aforementioned Rick Hyde mixtape goes hard as fuck. Benny is the best of the bunch in terms of Griselda. It’s crazy how deep upstate New York is right now, Rick Hyde doesn’t seem to get as much hype as some of these other guys yet but this tape was really good. Lanez was my favorite song off of it. The intro had me all hyped up between that sample of the guy talking about how these are the real Sopranos (no idea what it’s from but just sounded awesome), the beat kicking in, the El Camino hook, the brrrrraatt, and Benny yelling his trademark ‘The butcher coming nigga!’ ‘Eastside Buffalo shit!” I felt like I got taken back in time to an old DJ Clue or DJ Kay Slay mixtape from the mid-2000s which is a very good thing.

“Six figure diet make my heart stable” is such humble brag by Benny since at the end of the day health is the ultimate luxury.

Also this might sound like sacrilege but is it just me or is El Camino sounding at least just a little like Max B on the hook here? At least a poor man’s Max B. But with the wave god still locked up, I’ll take it.

Memo the Mafioso – The Race 

Saw this on Nyquil 510 and I’ve been on a big Memo the Mafioso kick ever since. Memo the Mafioso > Shoreline Mafia in my opinion. I’m feeling this San Diego wave that Memo is at the forefront of.

Memo the Mafioso ft. C-Loccs – Swervin

It seems like Memo is starting to get some deserved buzz with the above video; this one ‘Swervin’ is from a year ago so well before his star turn. The production is kind of low-budget but it kind of goes with the old-school west coast vibe of the song. I don’t know who C-Loccs is I’m assuming he’s Memo’s OG or something but I love the way he’s flowing on this song I feel like this could really be some early 90’s Death Row era album cut. ‘Just bangin’ and slangin’ what’s the word on the street, here in Southern California where you gotta pack heat.’

Memo the Mafioso x O’Way

Another heater from Memo and his boy O’Way. Alright I’m officially a Memo fan now I guess.

I don’t know who Alejandro that they refer to is but it’s clear he’s not one to cross and his association with Memo apparently means that this sentiment extends to him as well.

PLUS TAX WE THE SAN DIEGO BEATLES. I’m loving the boldness of this line and the ‘Alejandro’ ad lib afterward. Not just Plus Tax we the new Hot Boys or Plus Tax we the San Diego Death Row; Plus Tax we the San Diego Beatles, just going straight for the crown of the best-selling band of all time, I respect it.

Flame Blazin x Shotgun Quannie – Regardless 

Still been bumping this all month because it’s so hard. ‘Judge put me on probation, I’ma be with my squad regardless’.

‘If they bring him back to life than we shoot the doctor’.

‘We got too many guns we gon go to jail/chill bro we got money for bail/we got too many bodies we gon go to hell/fuck a judge he can get it as well.’

Leeak ft. Peezy – True Story 

This wasn’t on Peezy’s No Hooks album, since it’s just a feature for another artist, but his verse on here is crazy which just gives you an idea of how insanely prolific Peezy has been lately. This is probably one of my favorite Peezy verses and it’s just a quick feature that didn’t make it to his album.

‘Big bag on my like it’s Christmas Eve, smoking fluffly light green Christmas trees. Judge thought I was gonna fold told him sentence me.’

‘Brodie heard I’m in Cali want to send us cheese, cuz called me from the joint said he need a sleeve.’

‘I can’t help but eat I gotta get it gotta chase these millions gotta get my people out the swamp gotta feed my niggas.’

I also love the Peezy pretending his playing the keys in the video like he’s Mannie Fresh!

Peezy – Crimestoppers
Peezy – Homecoming 

More heat off of No Hooks II. I love the Peezy billboard.

NLE Choppa – Shotta Flow

Yeah I’m hella late on this (crazy that in this era a song from like 2 months ago can already be ‘old’ but I went back and listened to all of NLE Choppa’s other stuff after ‘Dreams’ with Juvenile and Baby and this one really grew on me. ‘Extended clip long as a rope’ is such a vague unit of measurement but it sounds nasty.

Project Pat – Choices

Went back and listened to a bunch of old Project Pat this month. So smooth and such an all-time great flow and voice. I’m surprised how positive/upbeat ‘Choices’ was, with songs like this and ‘Choose U’ Pat kills soulful production.