Song Review-Same As by Marc E Bassy featuring Mozzy
by Dan-O
Marc E Bassy cannot become a pop star with pop songs. I’ve heard every project he’s ever made including his new independent album PMD. When he makes pop songs they don’t have any character and feel like they could have been written or performed by any number of people. For PMD examples try Save Me or Drip. These songs aren’t bad unless you think he’s cheesy and that is a personal taste line hard to legislate. They’re just…a lot like everything else in the genre. The more specific Marc E Bassy gets, the more Californian he sounds, the more fascinating he is. On Same As he talks about 40 ounces and fist fighting at red lights, listening to Stevie Wonder and struggling with growth. His nostalgia is specific and ties into characteristics he hasn’t managed to improve upon. His voice is (and has always been) butter but here it feeds into Mozzy’s listless monotone like the two belong together.
The crazy thing: Mozzy is a perfect example of how not to struggle with content or stardom. Mozzy does Mozzy and his fans love it. He works quickly, efficiently, doesn’t doubt himself and always has something new out that knocks. This has sharpened his sword to the point where he sounds great on a love song like Same As where other hardcore rappers would fail. He outworks the majority.
This song carried me back to an all-timer called Back In The Day by Ahmad off The Wood Soundtrack. The imagery pulls me in and sends me off into my own history. Every time I wonder if following Marc E Bassy project-after-project has paid proper dividends he gives me a song like Same As and I am back in!
Mozzy is amazing and proof that we are living in amazing times. My favorite part of Black Panther is when we flash back to 1992 and pan slowly across the basketball court, his voice surfs over the beat and a smile wears my face. The moment blew my mind because Mozzy is of the tradition of E-40 & Too Short a California beat busting hardcore oddball who floods the market until you can’t get away. His music is everywhere. If you look up Mozzy’s discography in google you will be flooded with projects solo and collaborative. He works and spits his truth all over the place and that truth changes. He doesn’t just flood the market he sharpens his sword with each project. 2017’s 1 Up Top Ahk was easily a step up from the already awesome Mandatory Check. In the 90’s he would have just sharpened that sword off to the left while the main stage propped up slick pop rap. The TDE come up changes everything, Kendrick grew up on E-40 & Too Short so he loves Mozzy. He catches the wisdom in the verses while others hear Gangsta Rap for its own sake.
I deeply admire people who can do their best work right as the spotlight finds them for the first time. As the whole world hears Mozzy narrate Oakland in Black Panther he dropped a six song ep that is absolutely the best gateway drug to get into Mozzy.
You can hear the influence of Kendrick’s secret weapon Sounwave in the production style of Spiritual Conversations. The bay used to be all slapping speaker rattling anthems now a new lane is open with rich tones and warm piano textures to better articulate yourself over. Sorry Jaynari, Dave-O, Daniel Cruz, AK-47, Vontae Thomas and Terrace Martin(when you hear the horns on Interlude you’ll know its Terrace Martin) all contribute to a very unified sound.
I’m struck by how reflective and boldly insightful Spiritual Conversations is. Mozzy has always been both of those things but underneath thick armor. 1 Up Top Ahk was a teeth out conversation about violence. This project gives Mozzy wisdom the full floor. In the first verse of No Choice he says “When you told me you loved me, I ain’t believe it/But when you show me you love, you’ll receive it.” It’s a great example of his glaring emotional intelligence but not even the only one in the song (“Bruh told on blood ’cause he ain’t wanna do life/I send my condolences in a kite/You know them people gon hang him and that ain’t right/Stare at my daughters to see the light/Went and got him a M, I promise to see it twice.”
I love hearing Mozzy swap bruising verses with the criminally underrated Jay Rock but my favorite song is Who I Am. The crackly casual tone he delivers that chorus in and the insomnia flavored paranoia in bars like ” Bad karma got me lookin’ over both shoulders/Singin’ bout the shit I did, I pray he ain’t told on us.” SOB x RBE got the most burn from Black Panther soundtrack and they sound great. I’m happy they have the TDE machine behind them and sound energized but I know the most important name on that soundtrack… the one that shocked me and delivered and it’s Mozzy.
#Bandcampgold-G-Worthy (G-Perico & Jay Worthy) produced by Cardo
by Dan-O
Can I tell you what separates Cardo from his peers at the very top of hip hop production? The Neptunes make anyone sound cool from Kelis to Timberlake to Pusha and Malice to Britney Spears. Not everyone sounds cool on a Cardo beat. Cardo beats are the pure distillation of hearing Snoop and Dre for the first time, liquid metal cool forming and reforming, with the right host on the mic it sounds invincible. This is why when people don’t know who Cardo is I simply say “He built Wiz Khalifa” without the luxuriously unflappable warm sonic world of Cardo to color his incredible personality Wiz would have been another weirdo in a hip hop world full of them. If you don’t have the right personality to sail on these beats you’ll be caught faking the funk but if you match up it takes you to another level.
If you look at the cover of G-Worthy it looks like it could have come out in 1992. Jay Worthy from Compton and G Perico from South Central reassure us that while Rap destroys what it loves to be and rebuilds to the opposite direction every five years…West Coast Gangsta Rap doesn’t.
The album consists of seven songs that feel effortlessly connected without any visible seams. What has changed is the ability for a Blood like Jay Worthy to rap about B hats and his Brazy life right before G Perico raps about violence from a Crip perspective (Getting High). The music is the glue. Jay Worthy is a solid dude who recently released a full length project with Alchemist so he is used to spitting over genius production. Jay Worthy is a game machine talking pimping or gang life or just generally flossing all over the listener. On the single Never Miss he authoritatively asserts “Take a look at yourself, we getting money On the route with these dames, a little lucky.”
Perico is a star his voice his cadence along with the personal specificity of imagery really draw him to the forefront at all time. The best example is his verse on Ain’t Trippin which starts “Middle finger to e’rybody that’s how I do it. Got the glock in the beamer case a n__ want to act stupid.” He talks about how the police are monitoring everyone and that’s not new, that he can’t tell the visual difference between his enemies and friends cops and homies. By the end of the verse you can feel the waves washing over, the uncertainty hostility and powerlessness of this criminalized system. It’s all done economically in a short verse. He loads up and does it again with the subject of women on the beginning of the next track (Scandalous). I heard all of Perico’s work before and liked it but it is Cardo’s production that made his lyrics vivid enough for me to figure out the allure. I think Perico is the best gangsta rapper since YG and G-Worthy could easily become a group without comparison. Not only do they represent a timeless standard few would dream of comparing against but their singles, while fabulous, are just as good as the rest of their output. They shine at a slow bops pace that they could keep up without a trickle of sweat for ten years. I hope they make more money than they ever hoped as G-Worthy.
Before Death Certificate Ice Cube was definitely respected, his first solo album Amerikkka’s Most Wanted is one of the best rap albums ever released with wonderful production from the bomb squad but his follow up is more in every way. In 1991 we didn’t have a real understanding of the concept album in hip hop. Death Certificate gives a template that you can still follow.
First step: Start with scorched earth
Both Damn and Death Certificate start with a brief intro into a scorched earth don’t F_ with me song. The scorched earth first song gives the emcee absolute command and leaves the audience wide eyed and patiently awaiting more. Some of the old classical composers used to write massive swells into their symphony’s to wake up anyone in the audience sleeping. This method is very similar. Cube starts by yelling “GOD DAMN! It’s a brand new payback!” He shouts half of the first verse to make sure you are dialed in.
Mike Will Made It laces a world rattling bassline and Kendrick is off to the races daring us to catch up. With a minute and seven seconds left in DNA we hear Geraldo spewing his evil nonsense and then Kendrick is back spitting in response while the sample scratches. This switch is to let you know that while Kendrick lives in a very confusing world where he is used as a political football, etc he will never be drowned out by it. Same reason Ice Cube called his first song The Wrong Nigga to Fuck Wit.
Ice Cube-Wrong Nigga To Fuck Wit
Kendrick Lamar-DNA
Second Step: Takedown
Ice Cube tried to be nice on Amerikkka’s Most Wanted. He didn’t spend a second on N.W.A. After Niggaz4Life (where N.W.A. feverishly threw shots left, right and center) Cube had no choice and took command of the music industry for the next five years with the most unforgiving diss premise of all time. On No Vaseline he is saying you are being raped without lubricant and I am not.
If Kendrick had a No Vaseline moment it was probably that Control verse. He did bring that back in the lead up to this album, The Heart Part 4 with the second verse “My fans can’t wait for me to son ya punk ass and crush ya whole lil shit. I’ll Big Pun ya punk-ass, you scared lil’ bitch. Tiptoein’ around my name, nigga, you lame and when I get at you, homie. Don’t you just tell me you was just playin'” Kendrick doesn’t think of the rap world as full of people individually important enough to diss. He has his reasons.
Ice Cube-No Vaseline
Kendrick Lamar-The Heart Part 4
Kendrick Lamar-Control
Third Step: Vision
Ice Cube was consumed with correcting the perception of blackness. His second verse on True To The Game is absolutely the father of a lot of discussion on DAMN.
“When you first start rhyming It started off slow and then you start climbing But it wasn’t fast enough I guess So you gave your other style a test You was hardcore hip-hop Now look at yourself, boy you done flip-flopped Giving our music away to the mainstream Don’t you know they ain’t down with the team They just sent they boss over Put a bug in your ear and now you crossed over On MTV but they don’t care They’ll have a new nigga next year You out in the cold No more white fans and no more soul And you might have a heart attack When you find out the black folks don’t want you back And you know what’s worse? You was just like the nigga in the first verse Stop selling out your race And wipe that stupid-ass smile off your face Niggas always gotta show they teeth Now I’m a be brief Be true to the game”
1991 Ice Cube wanted to be in control of every aspect of his presentation and was very frustrated by people who just didn’t have the determination to shoulder that responsibility. Kendrick talks about this on verse 2 of Feel “I feel like debating on who the greatest can stop it. I am legend, I feel like all of y’all is peasants. I feel like all of y’all is desperate.” The lesson to learn from DAMN is the one rap learned from Cube in 1991. The best rapper is not that because of pure mic skill. The best rapper in the world has command and vision. The best rapper gives you vulnerable personal experiences like Cube on Doing Dumb Shit and Kendrick on Duckworth. Political messages might be overt or laced inside the songs but the total concept and vision will be challenging even if it offends you sometimes. The best rapper brings his own sound to the table (Sir Jinx for Cube, Sounwave for Kendrick).
Song Review-California by Childish Gambino produced by Donald Glover & Ludwig Goransson
by Dan-O
Don’t ever take “talented” as a compliment. It is not specific enough to call what you do valuable. Donald Glover spent his whole career fighting this designation. He could have kept putting out projects like Camp full of punch lines and geek culture references, and that album is good enough to get him called talented. It is good enough for people to buy and follow his career.
Talent isn’t craftsmanship, it isn’t approach. His new album Awaken My Love is head and shoulders above anything he’s done before musically (Troy Barnes 4 life). Instead of spitting feverishly with as many inside jokes as can fit he lets the music lead him and he does what the song needs. It is my 7th favorite album of the year (I don’t post lists on this site so you don’t get to know the rest!) because it has a real groove that guides it and doesn’t try to jam too much into the space it provides.
While Stand Tall is the height of its beauty California is such a necessary release (like Forrest Gump on Channel Orange for Frank Ocean). For those fearing that he would allow this album to slide into depression like Because The Internet; California is fearless lovable while telling a tale of absolute failure. Songs like this show that he is loose enough to play and past the initial stage of calibrating his talent level. Gambino has control and isn’t creating music to prove to you he can, instead he is giving you his vision and this time it is great.
I would like to present King Chip with The Pretty Tony award for hidden gems. Pretty Tony is easily the second best solo album Ghostface Killah ever produced (I love me some Fishscale guys I’m just saying), the problem was he produced it at a time when Def Jam first forgot how to market rap music. When I saw it in my local record store (yes we used to have local record stores when I was young) I thought they were stocking bootleg mixtape compilations. It still stands as one of the truly perfect slept on non-limelight albums.
Likewise, Chips new album Clevelafornia arrived to a literal anti-buzz. Die hard fans of Chip (I am probably pretty close at this point) were tweeting things like “Chip has an album?!” He does and it’s the first important one of 2016. I’m not going to start trashing his label for not pushing him; Chip must be a marketing challenge. He doesn’t have a professorial teaching angle, not an honest to god gangsta rapper with a spellbinding flow. His voice is so gruff you can lose track of how brilliant he is with chorus’s. Every hook on Clevelafornia is proper. I love this song because as direct as it is about the culture of negativity that surrounds public figures it doesn’t wallow at all. This is still an anthem, one that plays in Chip’s head at award shows when his name is called and everyone wants to see him fall on his face. This song is in his mind playing, keeping his feet steady.
Don’t forget about Chip. Don’t sleep on something different when we as an audience spend so much time complaining about the people who sound the same.
