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Mixtape Review-Gold Bottles by Ziggy x C-Note

by Dan-O

My family loves the movie Tombstone. It’s not the greatest movie of all time but we can never seem to look away. The mustaches, the camera angles, the Shakespearean arc of Ringo and Doc Holiday just work. Everything is in the right place.I can name fifty five movies that mean more to me, that are more important to film history, and I never watch them. Not at the rate at which I consume Kurt Russell and crew.

Gold Bottles is the audio equivalent. Its brevity is part explanation. The ten track mixtape with nothing out of place always has an advantage. It’s a complete and seamless collaboration between the production of C-Note and Ziggy’s lyrical assuredness. It doesn’t really have any standout tracks and is somehow comfortable sounding old school and new school, vain and thoughtful, materialistic and discreet.

If you are used to the wild world of Trap Rap you would see a song title like Mexican and plan for the worst; anticipating a chorus of screaming racially cringe worthy stuff like “ROLLING WITH ALL MY HOMIES LIKE WE MEXICAN!!!” Instead what we get is a bubbling baseline and cold confident boasts with a chorus about living and learning (the song gets its title from an offhand reference “good weed and expensive champagne, this sh#$ is from Costa Rica I can’t even say the name. They claim I need to behave cause I be on some extra sh*^ my Guatemalan chick hate when I call her Mexican.”). The production is straightforward and bumping, feeling more in line with a definition of boom bap than ratchet. It still carries some light finger snap club tendencies but that is background. The mid tempo pace of drum and bass matches Ziggy’s easy transition from one verse to the next.

While the title track is definitely about being rich enough to drink out of Gold Bottles it doesn’t ever alienate you through the brag. The bottles are purely symbolic, it’s the work that remains topic as the song begins with the line “Up early and working I know the grind well. N’s rather copy than ever think for theyselves. That’s why I’m back to myself, writing alone. Trying to find that hunger I had at 9 years old.” The edict given on the chorus that “family and money important all that other sh#$ isn’t” is real talk without ever coming across as preachy. This isn’t struggle music or D-boy music. It’s reflective strong and flashy in the sense of brazenly wearing its confidence.

It’s also crazy soulful. The Gold Outro shows the masterful sampling C-Note runs along with his boom. He never overloads a song with too many elements but this certainly doesn’t feel like a minimalist approach. The beat never feels like it has been stripped of anything. Along with that Ziggy says “Go get your money young man…” with the casual touch of an older brother or family friend. It never comes across as rich rapper bark. The last track on this mixtape ends feeling almost as soulful as a 90’s Goodie Mobb outro.

Only two guest show up: Royce on Gold (Raise Ya Glass) and Taj Withers on Roll With Us. Most of the time (even on the songs listed previously since the guests do chorus work) the voice we hear is Ziggy who without crazy vocal acrobatics or scientifical raps is irrepressibly listenable. The same way I turn to my wife and say “We could always watch Tombstone…” I always come back to Gold Bottles even as high profile experimental mixtapes drop. None of them feel as form fitted for my ears as Gold Bottles.

Stream or download Gold Bottles below: