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Harley Geffner has goons posted on the block with Super Soakers.
Wifigawd – “OG Air”
DC’s Wifigawd sticks mostly to Philadelphia-darkened high-bpm post-trap tread beats, but he always sounds fresh. He’s kept his head above the heap in that dirty lane by constantly finding new ways to dip and wrap his deeply airy voice around the chaotic production.
On OG Air, HI-C’s distorted bass patterns hit the muddied woodwind synths on random off-beats, leaving almost no unfilled space. But Wifi always finds a way in. He slides over the top and drips his words around the edges, never fully immersing himself. He’s smoking OG Air while floating over the trenches, watching the polluted sound envelop those below him while his gas lifts him above.
YNW Melly – “Na Na Na Boo Boo”
Floridian YNW Melly is just playing around at this point. He’s past the heartbroken piano-laden gun ballads from around his time in prison and he’s ready to have some fun. He’s not missing his mom around Christmas anymore, now he’s spazzing around in a lambo laughing at those around him.
He goes falsetto for a minute “hee hee haw haw haw” to highlight the absurdity of someone asking him for a $500 feature. He’s teasing you like a 4th grade bully because he fucked your girl in Jimmy Choos with a big glock pointed at you.
Yhung To x Shoreline Mafia – “Harden”
I’m not saying LA’s Shoreline Mafia and the Bay area’s SOB x RBE ended a regional rivalry, but I’m not saying they didn’t. Representing opposite ends of Cali’s rap renaissance over the past year, Shoreline links up with SOB x RBE’s hook god Yhung T.O. for a smooth new cut in “Harden.” It’s not the groups’ first time collaborating, but seeing them together with increased frequency is certainly a harbinger of even greater heights coming for the scene.
Though Shoreline always has a vicious subdued energy, they usually rap over bouncy high-tempo keys with heavy basslines. Not only are they expanding their circle, they’re expanding their sound too, keeping that same energy over more muted, downtempo production from BeatBoy. And T.O. singing “Choppa with a sidekick / Shoot like Harden,” on the hook and hasn’t left my head all week.
Sauce Walka – “Drip God”
Houston’s Sauce Walka is an energetic story-teller on par with Meek Mill, but with a side helping of goofiness you can expect from Famous Dex. He can paint vivid pictures of hood life over hymnal church keys, but also excites with OOHWEEE ad-libs and bars about Hurricane Harvey flooding his wrist or hanging with OGs wearing Kangol.
But don’t take the playfulness of his raps for weakness. He will pull up on you in a chariot. And the only thing you’ve ever sprayed is a watergun.
Having been dropping music since 2014, Sauce is a veteran by today’s standards. And it shows on his new tape Drip God. He flexes designer drip with the best of them. In fact, he invented your style. But he still keeps his nose close to the streets. He creates space for his weird vocal tics with exasperated gasps and he strong-arms production to bend to his whim all over Drip God. Even on songs with hefty features from Chief Keef, Hoodrich Pablo Juan, a posthumous XXXTentacion, and Bun B, Sauce is always in the driver’s seat.
Slimesito – “Quickdraw”
“There will be no negotiations or programs for armed gang banging thugs in Clayton County.”
That’s from a boastful press release by the sheriff who arrested Atlanta rapper Slimesito on gang related charges in early August. Just five hours after tweeting that he was off of probation, Slimesito was apprehended by the sheriff’s office, who raided a known hangout. Slime had already left the spot, but was hunted down after they found guns, weed and a bottle of promethazine at the site.
I want to talk about Slime’s new song (in which all his homies on the block got a yacht), but it’s hard for me to get past “no negotiations or programs,” not to mention the coded language that follows. Sheriff Victor Hill is not a man who believes in reforming people. Declaring that programs won’t help, he’s insinuating that people involved with gang-related activity are beyond repair. He wants them to “leave [his county] or enjoy a repeated stay at the “Hill-ton.”
Hill is a self-proclaimed “Crime Fighter,” but doesn’t seem to understand that fighting crime starts with community reform. With afterschool programs to keep kids off the streets. By paying higher than starvation wages so that people aren’t forced to seek alternative means to literally survive. He’s happier arresting rappers fresh off probation and posting videos to social media of him giving out hundred dollar bills to people on food stamps.
In addition to his misguided philosophy, the self-aggrandizing sheriff has cost the county millions in legal settlements against the department, was accused and acquitted of 27 felony racketeering charges in 2013, accidentally shot his girlfriend while showing off a gun technique on a date, and refuses to talk to any media.
More, he uses a government alert system as a way to collect data on voters. When one employee objected to this and other changes the sheriff was trying to implement, he was fired and then charged by Hill with Computer Trespass. The man says it’s Hill’s way of getting back at him for calling him an “evil man with an evil agenda.”
Needless to say, it’s Free Slimesito.
