Nef the Pharaoh is balling like Baby. You can hear it in his hook and see it in the video for “Big Tymin.” Rap hasn’t had a tennis court scenario this solid since Raekwon handed out tennis courts for people’s birthdays on “It’s Yourz.”
By contrast, Nef is 19, hails from Vallejo, and comes equipped with slaps and a solid forehand. The stripped down Mardi Gras bounce sounds like it could’ve come from a hard drive stashed inside a King Cake that Mannie Fresh abandoned in the Cash Money studios sometime around “Shine.”
There’s also the non-coincidence that a rapper named Pharaoh is balling like Birdman. According to the last time I read the Egyptian Book of the Dead, Baby has been alive since the Middle Kingdom, sending rappers on expeditions to the magic land of Punt, and making lawyers sue him for royalties when he refuses to pay families after said rappers disappear in a Nile cataract accident. (Ask Mr. Ivan.)
By law, musicians named Pharaoh tend to be the most supernaturally gifted (see also: Sanders, Monch, these ladies). Nef is no different, all airplane dances and perpetual motion, big tymin’ to get your roll or rolls on. The Bay and the Bayou have been connected since before Percy Miller set up shop in Richmond. The young despot pays homage, but isn’t imitating. According to the honorable Thizzler, Nef might have next in Northern California. If he keeps making songs like this, someone should build him a pyramid in Jack London Square.
