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Top 10 Songs May 2018

02 Saturday Jun 2018

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Guys sorry I’m late with this May top 10 and posting it in June, and have been MIA for the last week, I’ve been holed up in a cabin in Wyoming, wearing wierd clothes, working on my next album…

Kevin Gates – Change Lanes

Gates is really baring his soul on this one. Right from the opening bar this one hits you…”Been through a lot of pain in my life and I pray the Lord take it all away. I’ve got family doing life that’ll never see the sun shine again and I pray it all away. Gates touches on a lot of heavy, real topics in his life in ‘Change Lane’s, including his time in prison in Illinois, incarcerated family members, wanting to pull back from public life/fame, and, also, McDonald’s salads and rocking Islamic fashion out in Paris. This is off Gate’s 3 song ‘Chained to the City’ EP, his first work after being freed, and I’ve got to say, Gates is back in a big way because that EP was ridiculous. Not to mention the work he’s been putting in and posting the snippets of on Instagram; I almost want to include a couple of those as my top songs of May as well but I feel like that would be cheating a little.

Kevin Gates – Vouch

As much as I love ‘Change Lanes’, ‘Vouch’ might be even better. The singing, warbling Gates might be my favorite type of Kevin Gates. “I do for me I feed myself my crew not willing to help me, we either die or go to jail so what the fuck could you tell me. Fully loaded Mac 11 when this pressure get applied; got a brand new Glock 90 and I keep it by my side. That part starting at around 2:15 just sounds absolutely heavenly; “”I ain’t never change up, let’s get that understood, I’m in that 70805 they don’t show love in my hood.”

Lil Baby ft. Drake – Pikachu 

Damn it feels like this came out a year ago instead of a few weeks ago, what with all the sniping back and forth between Drizzy and Pusha T just completely usurping everyone’s collective attention span, not to mention Drake announcing his ‘Scorpion’ album and then of course the new .

From the original article…

While I wouldn’t have gone as far as to call myself a Drake ‘hater’, I think the old, healthier but less enlightened me would have perhaps best been described at the very least as a ‘Drake skeptic’ or a ‘Drake nonbeliever’. I wasn’t that into his early stuff when he first started blowing up and later on I really couldn’t stand most of his hits over the last few years like Controlla and One Dance. More than anything I kind of just considered him to be bland elevator music. But I’ll be the first to admit, and as someone whose been critical, I feel responsibility to give credit where credit is due; I’ll be damned if Drake’s last couple of songs haven’t been absolute bangers. He’s had a good 3-4 songs or more in a row (this one with Lil Baby, his song with Trouble on the ‘Edgewood’ album, ‘Look Alive’ with Blocboy JB, and I’ll admit I was even down with Nice for What even though that was definitely shamelessly pandering to the ladies. I also didn’t mind God’s Plan.) that have forced me to mention them with the same disclaimer every time, ‘I’m not a big Drake fan but…,’ so I don’t know if he’s actually getting better or if I’m just going soft in my old age but I’m slowly…becoming a fan??? That was hard to type!

Whether you love him or have him, (or should I say – whether you’re siding with him or Pusha T in the new World War 3?) the man has a pretty unassailable ear for great beats, and if he retired from rapping he would make a great A&R he has an eye for up and coming talent. He has a penchant for working with hard, down south rappers like Blocboy, Trouble, and now Lil Baby. Drake is like the 2018 version of 2017 Berner to me.

Enough about Drake though, Lil Baby is actually the real headliner here. His verse/flow is crazy. He’s another artist I was kind of tepid on at first, not that I disliked him but just none of his songs really jumped out at me, but I loved this song, and ‘I Remember’ with Quando Rondo, and ‘Day in my Hood’ with Sherwood Marty were pretty solid jams so I’m starting to become more and more of a fan. I’ve also warmed to his hits like ‘A-Town’ and ‘My Dawg’. ‘Trap Star’ while delving into his previous work in preparation for ‘Harder than Ever’.

Drake is doing his best Hoodrich Pablo Juan impression on this one. Side note on the Drake verse – he says ‘my shorty a goodie’; most of my friends have been calling bad bitches baddies have they been doing this all wrong? My favorite part is where Lil Baby sings, ‘Waaah waahhh waaahhh bitch I’m the Baby’.

Another side note – apparently on the album this song is called ‘Yes Indeed’ but when it dropped on Youtube they were calling it Pikachu and I’m still calling it that.

YELLOW FERARRI LIKE PIKACHU, CARTIER LENSES I WON’T EVEN PEEK AT YOU

All Star Lee – Cash Money Flow 

Flammable song by All Star Lee out of Detroit. I’m loving the throwback Orlando Magic jerseys and the soulja rags in this Cash Money homage.

Lil AJ, Joe Blow, Lil Frost 

Dope song from two workmanlike Bay Area stalwarts who don’t get as much love/hype outside of the Bay as some of the bigger names from out there, but who are pretty much always reliable for solid, real music. I’m starting to like Lil AJ’s stuff more and more over time. “Lash Money burning bridges nigga, see an opp slipping in traffic and them niggas get the business nigga, rest in peace Boss Nuge and the nigga Jack, catch me out in traffic riding with the mini MAC”.   I didn’t realize Lil Frost had passed away until I saw this video; and it took me a minute to realize what was going on. His verse being overlaid by old clips of him rapping interspersed with the scenes from his funeral, since he wasn’t here to shoot the video, was straight up heartbreaking and actually hit me pretty hard since I wasn’t expecting it. RIP to Frost man, gone too soon.

Pusha T ft. Rick Ross – Hard Piano 

Some people are mad about the album cover, some people love it. Some people feel like Drake bodied Pusha with his diss track, and other people feel like Pusha ended Drake with his response. Regardless of all that, there were some straight up slaps on ‘Daytona’ (I love that name by the way), my favorite amongst them being ‘Hard Piano’. Kanye really did work his magic on the beats on this one, regardless of his recent controversies and what some would call his subpar rapping on ‘Ye’, the guy is in the zone right now on the boards, this album had some of the best beats/production I’ve heard in a while. I like the combo of Pusha and Rozay. If Ross is sounding like this, I can’t wait for his comeback album.  It’s funny I didn’t realize how much I missed prime Ross until I heard this. Yeah he’s another artist with plenty of questionable moves/songs over the years but at the end of the day he’s still here, he’s been through a lot, he has a lot of dope songs over the years throughout his catalogue and I’m looking forward to what he has to say on his next album.

“The Warhols on my wall tell a war story.”

“Chilling in a condo full of ready rock”

As much as I like my rappers and their music to be ‘real,’ sometimes some straight up luxury/over the top drug kingpin rap can be dope too, if it’s imaginative and really paints a picture for you, which I feel like Hard Piano does.

Mannie Fresh & Birdman

This was uh… unexpected… and ridiculous. Man I love Mannie Fresh. Such a classic Mannie Fresh type beat! I could have lived without the 3 minutes of vignettes that randomly interspersed throughout the song that kept interrupting it but on the other hand I loved the video itself with the New Orleans mardi gras band in the street with them. Any time you get Mannie actually rapping on a track is always a good thing; he’s just so happy and jovial – “$100,000 in a brief case, orange Lamborghini yours with the dealer plates… Bricks, pounds, scales, weed, went to Hiroshima came back speaking Japanese.” The chorus for this one is super menacing; ‘Note around his neck saying get right with the Lord.” I don’t know if Big Tymers is back but if we could get some more stuff from Mannie or even a full Big Tymers project that would be a pretty nice surprise.

Pusha T – If You Know You Know 

Another dope song off of Daytona. The production is so good. ‘If You Know You Know’ is going to be big this summer. I bumped Daytona so many times over Memorial Day weekend.

Quando Rondo – Paradise

I put ‘Paradise’ up in April’s top 10 but I only heard it at the end of the month and I really bumped it much more in May so I’m kind of cheating here. Quando Rondo is dope I’m starting to get into this new wave of Atlanta guys like him, Lil Baby, and Gunna which I wasn’t expecting.

Lil Reek ft. Brodinski – Rock Out

I’m surprised this hasn’t blown up actually. Maybe it’s just because it’s a change of pace but I love this kid’s voice!

And that’s my top 10 for May but here’s a couple of bonus tracks for ya since this month was one of the best in a long time…

03 Greedo – Fortnite 

FREE GREEDO!

Q Money – Countin’ Up a Check 

 

Tee Grizzly – Colors 

Sherwood Marty ft. Lil Baby – Day in My Hood

Playboi Carti ft. Lil Uzi – Shoota

P.S. I usually follow the Martorialist’s embargo on rappers with septum rings but I’m not going to lie this one with Lil Uzi from Playboi Carti’s new album was just too catchy not to mention here.

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Top 10 Songs April 2018

04 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Monthly Top 10

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03 Greedo ft. Drakeo the Ruler, Fenix – Wake Me Up in Traffic 

I usually like to joke around on this site and keep things light/entertaining (or at least I hope!) but on a very serious note, please pray for Greedo as he is facing some very serious time in prison in Texas. The circumstances are particularly unfortunate as he got hit with this big sentence just as he was starting to blow up and create a huge wave for himself. In the same month that Meek came home, we sadly lost one of the most creative and innovative, truly interesting artists to come out in a long time. I’m glad that apparently he has tons of unreleased music still in the vaults that we can enjoy but sometimes real life and whats at stake for the artist facing all these years just feels bigger/more important than the music itself. Originally it was being reported that it was a life sentence but now it seems like places are saying it’s 20 years… maybe he can appeal or get out early.

‘Wake Me Up in Traffic’ featuring him, Drakeo the Ruler, and Fenix from Shoreline Mafia is my top song for April; from the original article…

Even 03 Greedo’s unreleased loosies are better than 95% of other current artist’s best material that they would choose as the singles for their new album. This guy really is on a different level. Almost reminds me of an in-his-prime Gucci Mane with all the vaults upon vaults of quality material he has laying around. I really hope this one doesn’t get taken down from Youtube! This is going to be a dope summer driving song.

“And I got my mask and my gloves, dead presidents chasing bank do some drugs, every day I repent but I keep fucking up, only my God can judge me, too rich for a judge…Unless I get paid I don’t go to clubs.” This line was so dope and mind-blowing to me because it was so braggadocios but also simultaneously so humble, which you would think would be impossible but Greedo pulled it off.

03’s cohort, Drakeo the Ruler, who if not for Greedo would almost certainly be the most dynamic rapper in L.A. right now, also contributes a dope verse as does, according to Youtube, someone named Fenix of Shoreline Mafia. Let’s keep our fingers crossed/prayers up that Greedo and Drakeo both beat their cases and we can keep getting awesome collaborations from them for years to come.

03 Greedo has easily usurped the Dos Equis guy as ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’ at this point.

This post was too sad man…

Kooda B – Walking Through the Ville

From yesterday’s post…

Man fuck Hot 97 and the current headliners, Kooda B should be on center stage getting the star treatment at Summer Jam this year. KOODA B FOR SUMMER JAM MAIN STAGE!!! Or else I’m boycotting.

The Kooda GOAT is ridiculous. I wasn’t sure if I had ever pondered the concept of whether someone could rework Vanessa Carlton’s ‘A Thousand Miles’ into a foreboding message to potential foes warning them not to run up on them in his neighborhood or risk becoming a victim of gun violence, but Kooda certainly comes about as close to achieving that odd task as humanly possible.  But more importantly, his heartfelt ode to gun crime is also undeniably catchy as fuck.

Tekashi’s bodyguard(/wingman/handler/subject of the song ‘Kooda’) has quite a bit of charisma and even some star power of his own. He reminds me a bit of a Sonniebo in that while some of the songs are clearly trolling and made for comic value, they also stand up on their own as songs that whether you want to admit it or not, just straight up slap.

Favorite part: About 0:40 to 0:45 in – ‘I was walking through the Viiiillllllle, fans ask me how I’m doingggggg!” I also love when the beat ‘drops’ at about 1:00 like in the real song and he goes ‘TONIGHT – we gon get you… we wont’ miss you!”

I don’t know how he pulled off driving that piano around through the streets of Brooklyn. Also – he DEFINITELY picked up those two girls at Starbucks and asked them to be in his video, and let’s be honest, how could they have resisted?

Quando Rondo – Paradise

A late entrance to the list, ‘Paradise’ is an amazingly catchy song by rising young artist and apparently aspiring herptologist Quando Rondo out of Savanna, Georgia (the home of Camoflauge! RIP!). There are so many new rappers out of Atlanta and the surrounding areas all the time right now that it’s hard to keep track of them and to be honest a lot of them are kind of generic/blend together but this young bol Quando Rondo is different and has an absolute gift for creating catchy, anthemic songs as well as deep, introspective ones. This is one of my favorite choruses of the year so far. Paradise should definitely have more than a million views!

Jim Jones – Never Did 3 Quarters

These recent posts about Cam, Lil Flip, etc. have got me feeling like it’s the mid-2000s and that’s definitely not a bad thing in my book. Jimmy brought his A-game on his new album Wasted Talent and after multiple listens through it this week ‘Never Did 3 Quarters’ stands out as my favorite track off of it. You really can’t go wrong with the capo, or really any Diplomat, over a soulful Heatmakerz sample like this one. Jim gets introspective and reminisces on this one, creating a narrative that goes perfect with the reflective vibe of the beat.

“Gotta look both ways before you cross the street, you’ve got to watch out for them strays from across the street. In my day I was clapping at all the beef; start beefing now these rappers might call the police. I grew up in a country that rather war than peace, in my hood there’s always war so I wore the piece.”

If it’s possible for an artist who got as popular as Jim did at his height to be ‘underrated’, I’d say that Jim Jones is criminally underrated, especially from a lyrical standpoint and from the perspective of how impactful he was on the rap game and the culture. Between his material with Dipset, his solo work, and things he was working on with Max B and Stack Bundles, Jones has compiled a pretty impressive catalogue and almost 20 years in the game.

Drakeo the Ruler – Big Bank Uchies

I’m a little late on this one but I’ve been bumping a ton of Drakeo over and over again all month, probably more than any other artist. I love his guttural flow and his unique lingo. Him and Greedo have the West Coast rap game on lock right now. Unfortunately like Greedo he’s also in the midst of some questionable at best legal troubles; I’m not sure what the exact status is right now but hopefully he’s home and can get back to living his life and making dope new west coast music; I hope we can still get that Greedo/Drakeo collaboration album one day.

Drakeo the Ruler – Flu Flamming

I’m a Flu Flammer

Jim Jones ft. Mozzy – Bangin’ 

Another highlight from Wasted Talent. One of my favorite rappers from the mid to late 2000s linking up with arguably my favorite rapper of 2016? I didn’t expect to ever hear them on a song together but sign me up. And the results weren’t disappointing at all as they often can be in these types of collaborations.

Capo really crushes both the chorus and his verse on this one and it’s also nice to get a little bit of a look back at a different time in history from him…

“I loved the gang I even banged when I was famous… I put the city on my back, had my biddy screaming blatt, all the main events with 40 niggas in the back. I was bicking back booling, skipping all the schooling, small .22 in the Timbs to get my tool in…They called me Billy the Kid, Sex Money Murder we was killing as kids, I send a missile and get you killed on your bid.”

“I used to rock a vest cause in my streets no love, I was the first to hit the West and show them East Coast Bloods. Everybody screaming gang but nobody put in work for it, my whole gang was putting bodies in the church for it.”

It looks like there may also be a video coming out for this at some point soon which I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to.

Quando Rondo – My Motivation

Another nice melodic jam from Quando Rondo as he gets his Rich Homie Quan on. This is off of his Life B4 Fame mixtape which I definitley need to finish listening to the rest of. I love introspective songs like this, he really gets a lot off his chest and takes you through some heavy things that he’s been through. “RIP Quafee 3 times, and my niggas they with it we just buried about three 9’s”. I also always love videos where rappers walk you through their hoods that you’ve never seen before, like Savanna here.

Drake – Nice for What 

Your humble host must be getting soft in his old age, because I used to be known as a bit of a Drake hater but lately I’ve been oddly at peace and down with pretty much each one of his latest string of singles. Is Nice for What clearly pandering to female fans? Probably, but the song and sample are both fire so I can’t complain.

Cam’ron – Harlem Streets

From my post earlier this month…

With the passing of Steven Boscho earlier this week I kept hearing the ‘Hill Street Blues’ theme song on the news radio that I listen to for traffic info etc. in the car and I kept thinking to myself damn this song is so smooth, where have I heard it before? It’s sampled in one of the all-time great (and dare I say underrated?) Killa Cam songs, ‘Harlem Streets’. I love when the saxophone (or trumpet?) kicks in. We need more rap songs over these type of samples like Cam sampling Hill Street Blues or Peezy (and others) sampling Herb Alpert’s ‘Making Love in the Rain’. I loved the classic Heatmakers sound/beats that the Dips usually rapped over but they sounded so dope over these more jazz/soul-infused samples too. So many Cam quotables here…

“And I get it cheaper, I cop bricks like sneakers, and if the cops come I just hit amnesia, but i give them an earful, it’s tearful, told my mom I hustle and she said be careful.”

Including perhaps, gun to my head, my favorite Cam sequence of all time…

“And when I rap it ain’t no punchlines. I be on the highway, dirty, crunch time. No timeouts homeboy, just one time, if they find that stash box just one time? Shit, they put the dogs in the trunk, side of the road, holding you up, cold as a fuck, they want that button, lunge it and push it, as soon as they lunge it and push it, I run in the bushes. That’s how I play mine, jump over the grapevine, take my chances one on one with the canines, steel and a clip for anyone squealing their lips, fuck y’all if y’all ain’t feeling the Dips.”

Got me feeling all nostalgic right now. KILLA!

Bonus 

Not really a song per se but to celebrate Meek being free I’m also throwing in this clip by the Hoodies celebrating the news with this great freestyle snapping over the ‘Monster’ beat