Yung Joey- The 6^th Man.

            Over the last few years, Gucci Mane’s Brick Squad Monopoly has expanded faster than urban blight in the American Midwest. BSM is so massive that at this point the weed carriers have weed carriers, who in turn have intern weed carriers. It’s weird and sometimes exciting and even though it can yield some great results overall, at some point it always leads to things like The 6^th Man. Yung Joey’s approach here is the Hip Hop equivalent of a late night soft core flick: not unpleasant, but forgettable nonetheless.

With the unfortunate passing of Slim Dunkin’, there has been some speculation as to who would be taking his spot in the BSM roster. Suffice to say, this tape completely disqualifies Joey from the running. Yung Joey’s tape is based on the concept that he is the “6^th man” on the BSM team.  To me, this does not really seem like a great aspiration and yet he aspires to it anyway. Frenchie? Wooh Da Kid? Waka?  Nah… Joey has decided that he doesn’t want to be better, or as good, or as interesting as his team mates. Instead, he seems content to do just enough to avoid dissolving into the tinny, mediocre synth assaults he’s been given, and benefit from the already established BSM brand. I can’t really decry this move, but it’s hard for me to believe that he disregards the “dingleberry chasers” as much as he says he does on “Family First Vol 1”. The roster Yung Joey belongs to is deep and if he is going to attempt to stand out, he can’t be as lethargic as this. It’s a sleepy affair that only wakes up when one of the starting team shows up. Especially on some of the few recycled tracks like the Twin Towers standout “Banned from the club” staring Waka Flocka and Slim Dunkin’.

 At 23 tracks, Yung Joey’s tape length, a constant issue with BSM tapes in general, is its greatest failure. Joey doesn’t have the presence to sustain interest for this long, so you are left with a handful of weak hooks, some tragic auto tune “singing” tracks no feature could save, and a collection of forgettable verses save for a few cool sounding, but nonsensical lines like “Burgandy Beamer/European Piru”. In the future, Yung Joey could be the 6^th man on the BSM team, but at this point he should probably just sit on the bench and work out his game.

– D.L

You can hear Yung Joey’s The 6th Man here.

http://www.datpiff.com/Yung-Joey-The-6th-Man-mixtape.295316.html