Torii MacAdams knows how to have a time
Chuck and Mike – “Supersquad”
I wasn’t doing a lot in 2007 except playing basketball, drinking malt liquor, and driving around in a beat up Mazda MPV that belonged to my friends, a pair of twins hell bent on defying the notion that twins share a consciousness. The Cool Kids’ Totally Flossed Out was in heavy rotation, Chuck Inglish’s thumping boom-bap instrumentals testing the limits of the MPV’s outdated, frequently abused soundsystem.
It’s eight years later, and both Inglish and I have matured– I’ve upgraded from Mickey’s to Tecate, Inglish has moved his production’s point of reference from the 80’s and 90’s to the early 2000’s. “Supersquad” is Chuck and Mike reunited (without the Cool Kids moniker); Inglish is still primarily concerned with bass, but it’s a more tempered and lean infatuation. Adulthood is spending an extra $3 on beer and maybe turning the bass down.
Casino ft. Future & Young Scooter – “El Chapo”
Future says “Free El Chapo,” which, while a commendably gangster sentiment, is painfully unaware of the Sinaloa Cartel’s brutality. I appreciate that Casino et al. released “El Chapo” three days after Joaquin Guzman Loera’s prison escape, though I’d be more impressed if a rapper made reference to the Knights Templar Cartel, Jalisco New Generation Cartel, or Los Zetas, a more obscure, if no less murderous, row of bandits.
YG – “Twist My Fingaz”
I have no reservations about writing the following: “Twist My Fingaz” is great. YG and producer Terrace Martin grasp something elemental and gristly about g-funk; Martin’s production isn’t a Zapp sample, but his composition captures the soulful, stomping quality of g-funk’s golden era.
The gulf between “Twist My Fingaz” and Kendrick Lamar’s “King Kunta,” both Martin-produced, should be noted. Martin’s work on “Twist My Fingaz” is superior to his work on “King Kunta,” and, more importantly, YG is better equipped than Lamar to make g-funk. There’s room for every degree of thoughtfulness (or thoughtlessness) in g-funk, but it needs to be undergirded by inveterate goonery–YG’s a goon, Kendrick Lamar isn’t.
Kevin Gates – “Kno One”
“Kno One” is a Kevin Gates love ballad, i.e. he only makes one direct reference to putting digit(s) in a woman’s asshole. As a rapper, there’s nothing Gates can’t do. As a lover, there’s nothing Gates won’t do.
Majid Jordan ft. Drake – “My Love”
Majid Jordan aren’t Michael Jordan. They’re not even Marcus Jordan. Majid Jordan is so medical-grade sterile they could prance into an operating room, serenading the surgeon with their vanilla soft serve stylings, and no one would bat an eyelash.
DJ Chose ft. MC Breezy – “Everywhere I Go”
I can’t claim to have any great insight into either DJ Chose or MC Breezy–I was browsing Dirty Glove Bastard, and got sucked in by the photo of them standing on the hood of a white Cadillac on swangers. “Everywhere I Go” was released on Chose’s March mixtape Incase You Forgot with the video following shortly thereafter. That a video with more than 250,000 views would escape the ever-watchful eyes of Dirty Glove Bastard for three-and-a-half months is highly unusual.
“Everywhere I Go” is deliberate and sparse, its sonic spaces conveying the country sprawl of Chose’s hometown, Brookshire, Texas. Shit-kicking little burgs like Brookshire are where plains, desert, marshland, or swamps meet single-story homes and yellowing, dirty-spotted lawns. The I-10 runs through Brookshire, so it’s got that going for it, I guess. That and DJ Chose.
OG Danco – “Holeman & Finch”
OG Danco is a collaboration between OG Maco and Curtis Williams of Two-9. It’s a shame that Maco’s going to have his skull crushed by Future’s Tetsuo-like powers for talking all that shit, because he’s a pretty good rapper.
