Image via OTM/Instagram
Steven Louis won’t go near your green bean casserole.
Kendrick Lamar – GNX
GNX — the sixth Kendrick Lamar studio album, delivered in a surprise drop Friday morning — has a pair of instant classics in my book. “squabble up” is a damn good time, flipping Debbie Deb’s 1983 smash into a voltaic, futuristic fight song. And the warm, crinkling nostalgia of “dodger blue” is an anthem for everyone living south of the 10 freeway.
The rest of the album has its peaks and valleys, but the music as a whole is consistently Los Angeles. There are interstitials in Compton, Watts and Gardena. There are the archetypal Terrace Martin jazz flourishes. And there’s something new to this collection of tracks, textures that I’ve heard described as “evil hyphy” — it’s called Nervous Music, and yeah, it does sound awesome. GNX is Kendrick Lamar’s most feature-laden work to date, and aside from SZA, all of the guests hail from LA County.
I think it’s important to celebrate who is here — Wallie the Sensei deserves to hit arena-sized hooks, YoungThreat has been grinding through the trenches for a full decade, and Lefty Gunplay is indeed “crazy, scary, spooky, hilarious.”
And I also want to acknowledge who is not here. The LA artist I hear most on GNX’s uptempo stuff is the late Drakeo the Ruler, from his lingo (Kendrick calls himself a joint and evokes a Big Face Buddha) to his flow (“hey now” and “wacced out murals”). I also hear An Awful Lot of ASM Bopster on the title track, am reminded of MoneySign Suede’s absence, and — to give some love up north — catch EBK Hotboiiz vibes with the Boogieman motif.
All this is to say that Los Angeles rap styles are rightfully captivating global audiences, and that there’s a lot of thrilling stuff happening in this independent, street-level music scene. I’m still bumping GNX this week, and I’m deeply appreciative of any monocultural moment positioning the city as a center of gravity. But I also want to give it up for the other California talents that have new work. To paraphrase the man of the hour, don’t say you hate LA if you ain’t reading all of PoW.
G Perico – Crip James
“Time was slow during the transition from who I was to who I am now. That shit was uncomfortable, but I loved it,” South Central’s G Perico told me last year. “I take pieces from both back in the day and recent life for inspiration, but I never just stay there. I mix everything up in a pot to move forward and inform, rather than being stuck and regretting shit.” I think this attitude is typified in Crip James, his best project since the Hot Shot Gangsta Grillz release. “Ghetto Poet” throws Rick James’ “Dance Wit’ Me” into that pot, while “Toxic Love” recasts Singles on 108th and Broadway — I’ll take Steelz over Cameron Crowe behind any and all boards. “Stomp” is flashy and anthemic. “Give It To You” is movie star music.
G Perico & Steelz – “Focused”
But “Focused” is the halfcourt heat check. In a decent world, this would get heavy rotation on Power 106 and inspire a slight resurgence in Teena Marie sales. Crip James is gonna be a late entry to my favorite projects of 2024. Perico and Steelz have sufficiently Busted Out of L Seven.
OTM – “2 Of Amerika’s Most Wanted Freestyle”
If you’re partial to the Drakeo flow, which of course you are, no one is flipping it quite like South Central’s OTM. Duffy and Blue Pesos are proud to cite their sources — Neiman and Marcus know them, but Shanaynay has an all-access pass to the gangsta party that it ain’t nothing but. Their latest collection of 13 freestyles takes on three Snoop beats and three ‘Pac ones. Sure, this flip benefits from the contemporary bass boost and drum crashes, but Off The Mussle deliver with a steeliness that would’ve clicked with 1996 Death Row. Duff’s croaks come with extensions and an El Pollo Loco combo meal. Pesos thinks hundreds are thoroughly insufficient, and suggests Thugz Mansion for nosy opps still trying to Find Nemo. Their freestyle on “Da Shiznit” is also top shelf “We’ve been had that name. That’s how we grew up, you get it off the muscle,” the duo told us. Hard to argue otherwise.
Banditdamack – “Free the Messmakers”
Banditdamack makes soundtracks for the step-takers and the mess-makers. He’s from the San Jacinto Valley, and has lived a lot of life in just two decades — incarcerated in juvenile hall, working five days a week at an industrial warehouse, and now ascending as a self-made rapper with syllabic density yet icy flow. This loosie is mean, if not liturgical. He stunts about making in one month what his old hater teachers make in a year — which must feel awesome, but also, can we just give him cops’ salaries? His grimy collaborative album with Blanco15 from March deserves a revisit as the temperatures dip and air thins. “I feel like my rhymes be hard. Some motherfuckers be off beat. A lot of people hard, don’t get me wrong, but I feel like I spit shit people from out here can relate to,” he told PoW last month. Consider me among them.
Zoe Osama – “Bacc Yard”
Zoe has the highest energy-to-bar ratio in the city right now. His booming tenor and smirkish, deadpan delivery fills out so much space. Sometimes it seems like he’s about to pull back the curtain on an elaborate prank; elsewhere, he’s ready to jump start an impromptu party with a malt liquor keg stand. He’s basically the Eastside’s Ferris Bueller or the Black Bart Simpson. “Look, I don’t write. I go off straight emotion,” he told me. On “Bacc Yard,” Zoe chortles like Will Ferrell, conjures voodoo from his swinging dreads, and has stacks that smell, remarkably, like Funyuns. He says not to bother calling if it isn’t about the money, then admits that he doesn’t have a cell phone anyway. The production by K.O. Beats is steeped in Golden Era vocoder and a smoky, rolling bass line. None of us know how we’re getting home, and no one seems to mind.
PlayerrWays & GMoneyDT – “Blocc Stars”
All I’m going to say here is that’s a wild use of the AirTag feature. It’s flu flam season in Cupertino.
Emptying the Chamber
