Song of the Year-Ken Griffey Jr by Starlito featuring Don Trip produced by Canel Finch

From Attention, Tithes & Taxes(5 song mixtape ep)

by Dan-O

Artistic chemistry is a total crapshoot. Two artists who should always have worked together can step on the perfect beat and its dead, nothing interesting happens. Think about how complex artist chemistry is as a concept: everyone thought Drake had great chemistry with Lil Wayne until he stepped on a track with Rick Ross and they seemed to mesh perfectly. Now the Drake fans I meet lay in wait for some secret collaboration between the two, leaving Weezy out in the cold.

In the rap world of chemistry Don Trip and Starlito are like Paul Newman and Robert Redford. It just all makes sense. They trade the most nastily impressive jokes (on this song Don Trip says “I got her chewing wood like she’s trying to build a beaver dam” ) and chase them down with serrated personal insights. On their collective Step Brothers mixtape they blew the doors open on gross joke sadness in a way we may have never seen before (collectively).

Since that collaboration Starlito has become the lord of personal sadness turning every beat into a bleak reflection of poetic gloom (and doing it wonderfully). Don Trip has been a little more hit and miss but his high points have been as impressive and rugged as anything out. The two always (and I mean always) make their best music together. As a solo artist Lito has become more reliable and satisfying than Trip but he still admits “It’s like they only love a N when Don Trip is involved.” That’s a misstatement I would like to add context too. Trip and Lito are a super-group at the highest level; they don’t need Watch The Throne beats to make important music. You can give them a sweet soul jam like this that rides and they make it an event. So as much as I wave my Starlito flag all year, I go nuts for Trip and Lito. I’m not the only one.