Chris Daly kicks it like Liu Kang.
Nocando is a man of many talents. A free style street fighter capable of spitting Chun Li kick-like licks. The host of the Low End Theory, which if you don’t know about by now, you just don’t know, you know? Launcher of labels named after X-Men nemeses. Wearer of soccer jerseys. What he might not get enough credit for, however, is his uncanny ability to pair himself with some of the dopest production talent coming out of the City of Angels today.
While much already has been written here about Dorner vs. Tookie and aka James McCall’s frequent collabs with Nobody (“Hurry Up and Wait” remains one of the best rap songs of this decade), today we’re here to bask in the audio glory that is “Lucid Dreaming.” It’s the first single to drop from Nocando’s upcoming Jimmy the Burnout, due March 18 on the aforementioned and alluded to Hellfyre Club label. This time around, Nocan enlists 80s funkateer extraordinaire, Dam-Funk, to drop a beat that oozes Dr. Fink keyboards and André Cymone bass lines. To keep the shit so funky you’ll probably need to scrape the residue off of your speakers afterwards, the beat maestro had the excellent sense to drop the vocal chops of Piatra Hawkins into the mix, as well.
The track covers familiar territory for fans of the MC—the struggles of making it in LA’s hip-hop scene, the daily (and now international) grind of gigs and touring, the joys his family brings…all wrapped up in exasperated positivity.
Lucid dreaming occurs when one is aware that one is dreaming. Often, the dreamer also has the ability to shape that dream, like those scenes in Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors where everyone develops superpowers before Freddy fucks up their shit anyways. Up until now, I was fairly confident this state of mind was only achievable through years of Zen meditation or a near alchemical, perfected mix of Hormel chili and Kraft Parmesan cheese ingested just prior to bedtime (I have a lot of theories about a lot of things; don’t hate). If this is Nocando taking control of his immediate reality, Jimmy the Burnout is going to be next level.
