Selected Rap Listening July ‘16
Shut Up And Dance - Black Men United (1995)
The production/MC duo of PJ & Smiley, known under their artist alias as “Shut Up And Dance” (first person to make a Walk the Moon joke gets skipped like a stone) are best known as guys who, in their attempts to sound like a UK version of Public Enemy, while also taking their hi-speed breakbeat cues from the English rave scene, became for-bearers for jungle, or drum & bass. That said, they’ve never not identified themselves as a hip-hop team, so it makes sense to treat them as such. Their 1990 debut “DANCE... Before The Police Come!!!” is full of tunes that straddle the lines of rave and late 80s rap successfully and had one of the best covers of its’ day. And for what its worth, while most UK Rap prior to Giggs had the most limited of life-spans, SUAD managed to have tunes that are still treated with adoration, albeit not within their own genre so much.
Part of the problem is given up to the MCing. PJ and Smiley are the purest of Chuck D clones, doing their best to be commanding and stern, and telling noble tales. But as writers, its hard to say either have the sense of weird humor (Yes kids, at one point Chuck D allowed a Clinton-like sense of humor to pervade in his thoughts) of P.E. Its not that they were particularly bad at it, just that by 1995 rap had moved so far in technique and delivery from this style that they were so antiquated. That said, in an interesting decision, SUAD’s sophomore album is loaded with Gospel Choirs and vocal soloists, as well as PJ & Smiley’s raps; perhaps an influence from their growing success in dance music, while not quite being the biggest success story in hip-hop, we have weird blends of gospel singing over jump-up ragga-tinged breakbeat, booming raps over breezy Duran Duran samples, essentially a lot of peculiar experiments in what sort of different musical styles could compliment each other. Not necessarily an ideal way to legitimize UK Rap for skeptics, but an interesting demonstration of how hip-hop’s identity was molded by England’s particular musical make-up, which would inevitably give birth to Grime.
Kraze - Fire & Brimstone EP (2016)
Kraze AKA *oddly high-pitched nasal voice* KRAZE KRAZE! is a former member of Younger Slew Dem, the youth division of the East London-based Slew Dem grime crew, of whom Tempa T remains their biggest breakout star. The history of Slew Dem is an interesting one, initially they were the Dancehall Mafia crew, consisting of future N.A.S.T.Y./Movement grime superstar Ghetto/Ghetts, Chronik, Stanaman (cousin of Bashy AKA actor ___, and now a significant presence in the road rap scene as ‘Stana’), and Rage. Later, they joined with the Slew Dem Crew who additionally featured the late Esco, G-Man, Tempa T, Lexx Mandaya, Shorty Smalls (arguably one of my least favorite grime MCs ever), MC/Singer Majical, DJ/Producer Spooky and Producers Waifer, Top Dolla & JT The Goon. If you want to imagine what Slew Dem sounds like, just imagine gunshots, heavy Jamaican-influenced bass tracks, and dudes screaming about shooting you and smoking over those bass tracks at the top of their lungs. Its a niche product.
Out of Slew Dem’s whole roster, Kraze was an immediate standout, because his voice was impossibly high. Grime’s often been argued by some to be a genre that fails to hold up against rap because equally important as flow, technique, lyrics and charisma is having a voice that can remain distinctive, having started as a pirate radio-based genre. Listen to old rips of Slew Dem on Rinse or Deja, and whereas most people sound like “Anonymous man from Maryland ready to drive a shank into your chest cavity” all rasp and bark, Kraze is piercingly obnoxious. Its an instrumental capability that’s been lost in grime of late, as much as I like plenty of the newer younger talents, you could listen to most of the MCs crowding hi-tech studios like Radar, NTS or Rinse’s current set-up, and few voices are as distinctive as the era of Bruza, D Double E, Bearman etc. Of course, why Kraze had become a forgotten talent as opposed to a underground favorite was that after a hot run a decade or so ago, he dropped off the face of the earth. Reasons are unknown to me right now, but I presume that the combination of grime’s capital value going down after saturation, and the combined pitfalls of Chronik’s incarceration and Esco’s murder would make Grime as a career path seem a lot less exciting.
Thankfully, an increased demand for Slew Dem pre-Grime’s nostalgia boom led to MCs like Rage and Chronik garnering interest in a Slew Dem Reunion (though tragically it seems there’s difficulty in getting Tempa, who remains one of their greatest talents, to appear on sets/tunes with them these days), and so Kraze returned for a cipher over the “On Da Block” riddim he’d vocaled a decade before last year. That led to his remergance on sets, and now his Fire & Brimstone EP. Given Kraze’s output has only existed in the barest of glimpses via Slew Dem’s decade old Non-Stop Working mixtape or the few youtube harvestings of solo tracks, the stakes are low considering he’s never proved himself as a solo artist. Yet somehow, we have a nice serving of aggressive bangers in his crew’s style, and Kraze has a grown man’s temperament and stoicism. Production is solid, features by Rage and Scrufizzer compliment Kraze fully, and while the last track really could’ve been left behind, its good to finally have a statement to Kraze’s artistic capabilities.
YFN Lucci - Wish Me Well 2 (2016)
Last year, one of the most surprisingly underdiscussed mixtapes in rap belonged to one YFN Lucci, a cousin to Skooly of Rich Kidz and an artist with the Think It’s A Game label responsible for putting out the initial offerings of Trinidad James and Rich Homie Quan. Thankfully Lucci’s output skews closer to the latter than the former; Wish Me Well was loaded with a series of melancholy street anthems with a definitive melodic sense, occupying the post-Futuristic school of his former label mate, while having the self-seriousness of a Kevin Gates. A brief scan of his IG account shows Lucci consistently touring across the south to sold out clubs with whole audience singing along earnestly to every bar, and yet this Atlanta mainstay lacks the internet visibility of a Lil’ Yachty or a D.R.A.M. which is further indicative of the growing economic/class division in Atlanta Rap audiences. Some guys get to be memes and have Fader/Vice/Complex features, some guys get to rely on a traditional core southern rap audience.
On his second outing unfortunately, YFN Lucci is not quite ready to win any newer fans. Wish Me Well 2 suffers in many cases from a lack of standout production save for a surprisingly pop-leaning effort from TM88 (formerly of the 808 Mafia production team) for the lead single “YFN”. Elsewhere, you get the sense that Lucci hasn’t had the sense to take great pains in selecting good beats, nor do his current hooks have the same immediacy as he was able to depend on last year. An interesting development however is his newfound celebrity Rolodex given his increased fame. Atlanta mainstays like Trouble, Migos and Johnny Cinco provide additional support and dynamic to keep the mixtape from falling too deeply into monotony. Still, given the earlier heights of Lucci’s output, there’s no reason to think he’s plateaued so early in his career.
V/A - DJ Lil Keem Presents: Smokers’ Choice Vol. 3 & 4 (2015 & 2016)
Compilation tapes are kind of a ‘lost-art’ in so much that DJ Khaled started pushing the idea that DJs should be using their artist connections to make A&R’ed compilations of summer bangers. Sometimes you get someone who can effectively transition out of the traditional mixtape format into this formula with some success such as DJ Drama, but effectively this leads to a gap between such obviously constructed attempts for success and the more amateur efforts that simply compile hot records of the moment. Earlier in the decade these tapes often would find the biggest acts of their point in time, and some of the more obscure faces who may or may not go on to greater success (for example the “Space Invaders” series administrated by DJs Spinz & Pretty Boy Tank). Nowadays, fewer rappers seem to even be working with the traditional mixtape model, preferring to charge for projects or even forgo them altogether until proper albums can be released.
Thankfully, Hoodrich Keem is one of the few DJs who works this sort of model, albeit with a twist. He still does administrative mixtape DJ work, often in conjunction with DJ Drama affiliate DJ Scream. But additionally his Smoker’s Choice series serve as ‘snapshots’ of the current rap climates. Occasionally he buoys these with some more ‘bait’ choices (Vol. 3 features Kanye West’s “All Day”, as well as selections from a then recently released Barter 6, which are questionable in their sense of ‘exclusivity’) but provides a diverse range of rappers, usually with a greater emphasis on the scene out of his residence of Atlanta.
While both are chock full of obscure gems from artists of varying statures, there is a definite shift in the content provided; Smoker’s Choice Vol. 3 features a lot of greater industry product such as ASAP Rocky and Drake, artists who tend to flirt with their interest in Atlanta but rarely maintain solid relationships in the area beyond a sense of the direction of rap is going. By Vol. 4 however, many of those presences have been phased out in favor of the new faces of the rap internet such as 21 Savage, Lil’ Uzi Vert and Lil’ Yachty. Given that their aesthetic coincides with Keem’s own tastes (left-leaning street rap), its not too vast a switch. A more interesting theme are whom stay as reoccurring acts on these tapes: the QC/300 affiliates such as Skippa Da Flippa, Johnny Cinco and Jose Guapo and also the former Nashville-based Starlito (who recently migrated to Houston). The ATLiens make sense, its Keem’s continued championing of Starlito, an underground rap icon traditionally more recognized by bloggers, that’s a particular interest. As far as artists of no name who appear to be affiliated with Keem himself such as RayG, time will tell if they earn their keep for the constant features, but by no means are they a detriment to the tapes.
Keem’s Smoker’s Choice series are important simply because as the rap internet seems to be retracting its will/interest to cover outside of the industry product they’re expected/requested to cover, more and more these ‘mid-level’ rappers who maintain a considerable regional presence or suffer from not being marketable to a commercial (suburban/internet) audience need their best outlets. And inadvertantly, Keem is working subtly to keep the playing field somewhat level.
Choice - By Choice Not Force (2015)
Choice, or formerly Royce The Choice, is another new artist of DJ Mustard, best introduced to audiences on Mustard’s Ketchup mixtape years ago. Originally based out of Washington, Choice lacks the close relationship to the Pushaz Inc. team that fellow Mustard artist RJ held, so whereas RJ has maintained productive visibility among his friends and his own efforts, Choice had prior to this tape simply appeared on a duet tape with RJ, as well as both their respective features on Mustard’s 10 Summers album. Choice’s best quality is a combination of technique and a rather off the wall sense of humor, making him feel a potential Young Dro for the ‘ratchet’ generation.
By Choice Not Force is pretty much a solid solo effort for Choice. Right from the jump he’s playful, inventive and holds a solid commercial effort. Doesn’t hurt that he gets access to Mustard and understudies like DJ Official for production. However, given so little to investigate to sell Choice, one would hope for a lot more than 7 tracks. Furthermore, quality dips impressively in mixing and hooks after 4 or so tracks, and worse yet, Mustard’s other artist Drakeo is just... Not endurable. All in all a good appetizer, but still not quite indicative of whether or not Choice will be as enjoyable an artist as we could hope for.
