Harley Geffner burned the sage in the name of protection.
Lil Durk – Just Cause Y’all Waited 2
Lil Durk can’t cry at funerals anymore. He’s numb to it all after watching five close friends die in a single summer. That type of shit shapes your psyche and changes the way you move through the world. We can sympathize with seeing mass death around us from the gun violence, opioid, and now viral pandemics. We see how it becomes normalized. But nothing can compare to having it happen to those closest to you, especially in quick succession like that. Durk handles it all with grace. It’s helped him understand that the most important thing in life is taking care of your people. Though he’ll still flex with nice watches and rap about turning up or whatever and that’s all fun music, it’s his more introspective songs that hit hardest, when he talks about lying to his mother about his drug habits, making up for lost time with his kid, about his homies losing their cases, and how it’s changed his outlook on the world.
Durk is only 27 years old, but listening to his music, it feels like he’s lived and gained a few lifetimes worth of wisdom. And the album is good enough that we’ll forgive his use of the word “lituation.”
Rio Da Yung OG & RMC Mike & Louie Ray & GrindHard E – “Contract”
I’m thinking about starting a separate weekly column just to round up all of Rio Da Yung OG and his friends’ bars every week. It’s taken serious restraint to not include him in every Rap Up. He puts out a new video it seems like every day with a rotating cast of menacing characters, and each one has as many wisecracks as you’ll see in many other rappers’ full albums. I’ve kept coming back to this one from a few weeks ago. RMC Mike and Rio are the powerhitters here, batting third and fourth with a flurry of vicious bars:
“Unc got shot 6 times, now his arm robotic”
“I like to overdo it, don’t need to drugs to catch a body, I’m a sober shooter”
“Heard dog committed suicide cuz we ain’t know his music”
“I had the shakes when I was born, I’m a crack baby / probly why when I ain’t got codeine I always act crazy”
“My daddy walked out when I was young, Damn crack raised me / dawg a plug I asked him how he get the slabs flaky / He says his daddy threw bricks, I think Shaq raised him”
Cash Kidd – No Socks
Cash Kidd’s new album is a testament to how much fun rapping can feel. One of my favorite things he does is interpolate melodies from childhood classics. Sometimes it’s just a single line, sometimes it’s a whole hook, but it always smacks. All through No Socks, he takes the hooks from TLC’s “No Scrubs,” Alicia Keys’ “No One,” Fantasia’s “When I See You,” Kodak’s “Roll in Peace,” and I’m sure there were more I didn’t even catch. The album is a damn funhouse with a stacked cast of Michigan All Stars like Sada Baby, Rio Da Yung OG (this man is everywhere), Icewear Vezzo, 42 Dugg, BabyTron, and many more. The whole team brought their A-games too, as the album is full of fun barbs that’ll have you chuckling the whole time, like when Cash says he sleeps with the .40 like he’s having sex with cougars.
Terr9r – “dntwanna”
20-year old Harlem native Terr9r is a sandpaper Duwap Kaine. His layered autotune preset punch-ins sound almost identical to the way that Duwap does it, but Terr9r gives it a rougher spin. Instead of flying in a space coupe, Terr9r is gliding between the substratum of underworlds with his Diversa Unit group. His new tape LE4KCITY with Bazzi_B, a traditionally footwork and jungle turned industrial trap producer and member of the Unit, captures the pent up internal frustrations of isolation better than any other music has since this new world spawned. His chants of going fast, feeling no better, and being close to letting go on “No Better” speak right to the buzzing, antsy sort of dread that’s been on my mind. But the real standout is “dntwanna,” a song about trying to feel alive that makes me feel more robotic than actually alive. Diversa Unit is truly one of the most forward-thinking groups making music right now.
Rahli featuring Lil STL – “Clip Hangin”
Out of St. Louis, Rahli’s lispy drawl of a delivery is straight intoxicating. It comes through loud and clear on his new album, “Still Big Rallo from Lorna,” which features heavy hitters like Duke Deuce, Quando Rondo, and Mozzy. There are tender moments like the track “Lorna Love,” and ones that make you want to snarl at any passersby. The lead video with Lil STL falls in the latter category.
MGM Flash & KingMostWanted & Shawn Eff – “Get Nasty”
This is the belligerently NSFW song for all the dangerously horny dudes stuck in the house. Proceed with caution.
