Album Cover via Key Glock/Instagram
Twitter is rotting Will Hagle‘s brain and destroying his soul, but is pretty sure he’s gonna strike it rich as an influencer on there any day now.
Only one newsworthy thing happened in hip-hop thing last week: Key Glock dropped an official remix of “Let’s Go.” This is huge news. Bigger than anything else that could have possibly happened, because it features an un-vaulted verse from Glock’s late cousin and mentor Young Dolph.
While he was here, he did everything in his power to ensure that everyone knew that Glock was next. Their Dum and Dummer series was supposed to be the beginning until it was the end. In the past few years, Paper Route Empire has prioritized showcasing Key Glock’s ability to stand alone as a singular artist – who will just so happen to forever exude a little Dolphness.
Glockoma 2 was fifteen tracks. Fuck A Feature. Plus eight more on the (Deluxe Edition), where “Let’s Go” caught on as the most viral single. Obviously, the song that samples an obscure record of Polish folk music would be extremely popular. PRE knows as well or better than the trifecta of major labels (the “Big 3,” if you will) that the music industry operates like a For You feed. “Let’s Go” hit, so Key Glock made a John Wick-style cinematic. He dropped the Alok remix, in which the Brazilian DJ translates the track effortlessly into the language of heavy dance kicks. Now, months after the song’s initial release, Glock is back to run the numbers up again, as Dolph always did.
When PRE put out Paper Route Frank, longtime Dolph engineer Peezy told me “90-98%” of the songs Dolph recorded have been released, but there’s still a ton left in the vault. The “Let’s Go (Remix)” verse is purportedly one of them. I say “purportedly” because Twitter has decimated what was left of my puny human intellect, and all this Drake/Kendrick shit has me panicking about A.I.
A lot was actually going on last week. Especially if you’re one of the lucky individuals whose feeds succumbed to DJ Akademiks’ January 6th-style, selfie-sticked coup of the hip-hop media narrative. If you missed it, let me try to catch you up: Drake’s song was definitely A.I., then definitely not A.I. The Kendrick song was definitely A.I. Then Drake’s song was definitely Drake but definitely also A.I. but on purpose. If you’ve ever laughed at Jimmy Fallon, both “Push Ups” and the Tupac/Snoop bit were instantly the funniest jokes you’ve ever heard. Everyone online except Kendrick has since chimed in to say everything that is to be said, which is, ultimately, nothing. Our social algorithms are custom-tailored suits made of poisoned fabric, further sickening us the better they fit. Okay, they’re also pretty fun.
I don’t actually think Dolph’s “Let’s Go” verse is fake, and I am eagerly awaiting PRE’s calculated teasing out of the alleged vault’s alleged remaining 2-10%. But intaking another posthumous Dolph verse was like Timothee Chalamet sipping the worm juice. My internet-addled brain saw all the possible futures. I fear the one in which popular music becomes a chorus of dead familiar voices, endlessly iterating.
It’s already a little sad to hear Dolph’s recordings reworked to fit beats and songs they likely weren’t intended for. Because Dolph eternalized a full short life through microphone recordings, those with access can resurrect him as they deem fit. If the independent juggernaut Dolph built is always moving faster and smarter than the major labels, PRE has to have at least entertained the idea of a robot Dolph.
For now, putting Dolph on the “Let’s Go” remix is a full circle moment. If Key Glock’s career were a camouflage Challenger, it needed Dolph’s jumpstart but has long since peeled off the lot. It’s only right he bring Dolph back alongside him to take in the blurry scenery.
