After a few individual track collaborations, Cash Kidd and Jaiswan have linked up for their first full-length. It’s a nocturnal, melancholic work, something you don’t expect from a big jokester like Cash Kidd.
In the past, Jaiswan was known as a hook man for Cash Kidd’s solo tracks, providing the Detroit rapper with lyrical choruses. On Autumn, Jaiswan takes the lead, and the whole tape feels more like a Jaiswan’s solo effort with Cash Kidd backing him up (despite that the latter has a couple of solo songs here). It shows that Jaiswan is not confident enough yet to pull an LP on his own. It’s become a cliché to say that when two artists work together, they complete each other. Perhaps it’s true for some collaborations, but here Cash Kidd and Jaiswan take a different route. They learn and improvise in response to the best skills of each other.
Jaiswan takes a cue from his partner in how to slip in a mean joke: “My momma tried to put me in sports, I hate swimming \ If it ain’t tennis I ain’t like it, no racks in it” (“Shipping and Handling”). He also learns from Cash Kidd an art of punchlines: “This rollie’s a 41 like it’s April the Fool’s.”
Cash Kidd, on the other hand, is trying to sing and be softer than usual: “Bad bitch says she loves my accent, \ Ducking from the alphabet boys with my FN.” (“Left Hand”)
This strategy helps them both to leave their comfort zones, but it’s when they’re back in their usual roles that they hit a nerve. Cash Kidd dons his usual stand-up comedian outfit on “Left Hand” (“Got a bladder problem I’m PPPing.”) Autumn culminates on the final track “2 Months Later” where Jaiswan is singing a sunny hook, and Cash Kidd is back into his mean macho mode.
This album isn’t the best Cash Kidd record and will likely bring few new fans to Jaiswan. Cash Kidd has collaborated before, but more recently has preferred to work alone. Maybe for a good reason. Perhaps the both artists needed some refreshment to get on higher levels in their solo work. This experiment in collaboration work neither succeeds nor fails.
