Evan Nabavian once wrote an oral history of The Tales in the Hood Soundtrack.
In 2014, the musical tradition of Los Angeles gang culture competes with budding movements in the South and Midwest to be the national sound of inner city conflagration ere it retire as the – yo, fuck, sorry but check out Yams’ Puff Daddy shirt at 0:53. And I thought I was elevating the culture.
A$ton Matthews is an apocalyptic Piru who styles himself Brick Flair. He first caught my attention in 2012 when his “Mini Van Dan” remix got the posse cut treatment from Danny Brown, ASAP Nast, and Flatbush Zombies. More recently, he’s been gearing up for his A$ton 3:16 mixtape with promising teases such as “Plottin” featuring Vince Staples, produced by Evidence and the video for “Like This” which, among other things, features ASAP Yams’ stirring tribute to rap despotism.
Matthews raps in a high pitched croak like B-Real, but with the mocking cynicism of someone who was shot in the chest at a party when he was 18. He’s either dealing death or about to die, his threats alternately boastful and paranoid. “I rose from the dark with a .40 cal. Hole in my heart,” he raps amid Piru regalia. Scenes of violence aside, Matthews gets his intensity from a confident and unflagging flow. Evidence gave him a golden ticket on “Plottin.” The beat finds an onslaught of menace without massive drums – or any drums for that matter – and invites verbal carnage. With a network that includes ASAP Mob and some of L.A.’s best left of center rap figures, A$ton Matthews has the resources to be great.
