Has any song in recent memory been more than the sum of its parts than “Rack City?” Tyga’s best case scenario is Mase and since Young Money already has its Mase in Drake, that would make Tyga the new Loon. But before he becomes a Islamic Fundamentalist, we will always have his chimerical myth about an entire city filled with nothing but Nordstrom’s Racks, girls in thongs at the driving range, and Ponchos.
The real genius here is DJ Mustard, who has graduated from YG’s mixtape DJ to being the best young commercial producer in LA (this month’s edition). He is the condiment behind “Bitches Ain’t Shit,” which is currently running local rap radio. It’s central competition still remains “Rack City,” a song that won over even the ostensibly anti-pop Son Raw. Mustard’s beats distill snap music, hyphy, and jerkin’ into a singular menacing swing. He is this year’s candidate for the Lex Luger Award given to the producer who will be ripped off for the next 12 months. So it goes when you can make beats minimal enough to let rappers shine, but rhythmic enough to let fans groove.
Amounted together, this makes “Rack City” the ideal candidate for the steroidal contrived posse-cut remix. And thankfully, Tyga employs a maximalism usually only employed by Third Century Roman emperors. The “Rack City Remix” conscripts nearly every major label rapper hailed as “super lyrical” by radio DJs and ignored by Danny Brown fans. But while I have minimal interest in listening to a 2012 LP from Wale, Jeezy, Tyga, T.I, Meek, or Fabolous, they remain capable of excellence in 16-bar stints.
Wale may have squandered his promise to make ho-hum surf n’ turf rap, but every now and then, he will remind you why he made bloggers hail him as the second coming of crab bisque soup made by a Soup Nazi (sorry about that). Fabolous discovers that the cause of death can be bars. Jeezy wears enough flannel to get signed to Sub Pop. T.I. delivers arguably his smoothest verse since leaving prison, Meek Mill remains convinced that he is a bawse, and Tyga continues to look like ET. But he is home on beats like this and sometimes, all a rapper has to do is not fuck it up. He does not fuck it up, even if he should probably reference ponchos on every song. This is the best posse cut of the year so far and if you don’t agree, you may be forever consigned to a world in which your racks are filled with nothing but Ed Hardy.
Download:
MP3: Tyga ft. Wale, Fabolous, Young Jeezy, T.I. and Meek Mill (Left-Click)
