Songs of the Year: CJ-Set It On Fire

by Dan-O

IAMSU! heads a group called the HBK Gang from the bay area and they are a ratchet music factory. If you are not familiar with the term it is what we all agreed to call the residual effects of Hyphy on bay area music. The term is a bit disingenuous but at least we don’t have to call it post-hyphy. Too many things are post other things.

CJ is a key part of the group and really interesting, on the mixtape before CJ 2.0 he seemed a bit too whispery for his own good but on 2.0 he cranks out jams like this that are immensely fun to listen too with odd lyrics that are weirder when you catch them. HBK is an immense sex joke improv group with members out-bragging and out-grossing one another. So when CJ says “I told her no hands like she playing soccer, hit her, delete her twitter than maybe block her” I couldn’t help but picture everyone in the studio laughing. This song is a good example of what CJ and HBK do: great beats, hooks, and misogynistic lyrics in as playful a way as they can be done. The songs can sound too similar at times but if they are all equally fun how bad can it be?