Mixtape Review-Preacher’s Son by Tut

by Dan-O

In my mind Nipsey Hussle Mailbox Money is the most important mixtape I count as being 2015. Preacher’s Son is right after it. So many narratives come out of the first few listens that you can’t help but keep pursuing them. The battle between the knucklehead Tut who could be one of your loose cannon friends and the spiritual Tut who is proudly the son of a preacher. Also the three songs (Sheba, Holy Water, Living On The Sun) featuring Angel Mae carry uncharacteristic chemistry. For my money most rap songs with the R&B hook sound stapled together but Angel Mae is made for Tut (and yes I desperately want a full collaboration between the two).

Preacher’s Son is comfortably grounded in the battle between looking for truth and spirituality and being a man with all the negatives, positives and silliness that carries with it. You can just take a glance at the tracklist and get an understanding of this push and pull. Track 2 is Fall of Goliath which is very high orchestration twinkling 1950’s Sinatra production packed with biblical references and evocative imagery. Track 3 is Corner Stories which starts “Crackhead sitting on the corner, looking like he might be in need. Wondering if you can give him a little bit of cheese for another crack rock and a little Mickey D’s.” This is a song that lives so close to the street you can feel the cracks in the sidewalk. Just when you forget this is the same guy who gave you Fall of Goliath, angelic female voices hum in the background.

Tut never feels like he’s trying to prove his street cred with stories. He’s just flushing out daily life through poetic imagery and trying to find the divinity in it. Hangin’ is consecrated by the delicate brass saxophone in the background and stories about friends and dick jokes. His flow can shift up out of the mellow vibe song so pervasive on Preacher’s Son, on Kids These Days he turns up the tongue speed and the results are 8 out of 10 on the head nod scale.

The most impressive moments on Preacher’s Son are meditative and songs with almost no pacing to them. Living On The Sun is infinitely re-listenable. Tut gives you bravado, a sense of purpose, and words for ex-girlfriends while Angel Mae blesses the track with the tape’s best chorus (I assume Swayvo Sax is who laid the great saxophone solo). By the end Tut is repeating the catchy chorus and so are you while everyone outside your headphone universe thinks you’ve lost your mind (ok maybe this is just me).

The second best moment on the tape is Live From Chattanooga and its all Tut. No chorus assist, no deeply impressive beat just some plinking piano and his sticky Southern flow. It’s profane and poignant and this kid is twenty two years old having carved out a piece of the mixtape universe all his own. The number of rappers who can keep spirituality as a vital part of their art is slim and the ones who can do it without beating you up about it is an even smaller number. Nobody in that group is this young. Are you intrigued? You should be.

Stream or download Preacher’s Son below:
http://indy.livemixtapes.com/mixtapes/31855/tut-preachers-son.html