This website is user-supported. Any donation is immensely appreciated: https://www.patreon.com/passionweiss
Evan Nabavian never takes a cab.
Pissy project hallways, Funkmaster Flex bombs, the West 4th Street McDonalds. We get it. You’re from New York. Same thing with beats that pantomime Pete Rock, DITC, or Da Beatminerz. There’s no better way to make boring rap music than to ape its most romanticized era. Please don’t wax poetic about the bodega unless you’re Big Body Bes or Desus and Mero. You know who you are.
“V.I.M.” is dope because its only New York iconography is Canal Street and Enyce jeans. Otherwise, Brooklyn’s Radamiz makes you feel the city, like a glare across the E train. The cynicism and reproach aren’t unique to NYC, but the flow and the vainglorious swagger are. Radamiz raps about the days of asking for discounts on streetwear and catching bullets in his afro, but he still walks around with the temerity you develop when every building you pass is Babel. The video glimpses today’s New York as it is, with sideways glances set against bike lanes and Bloomberg-era benches.
“V.I.M.” was released by the recently reborn Payday Records. Payday gave us “Come Clean” and a Jay-Z who still did rap squats. This might have tempted Radamiz to do his best Guru rendition, but he seems to hate the same corny antics as us.
