Real Rap Back?

What’s goody? What’s goin dine? Hope all is well on your end, blessings have been bestowed upon me so I will never complain! Sorry I’ve been MIA, I ain’t gonna lie, a lil writers block kicked in for a bit but now I’m back at it like a crack addict! But everything hasn’t been stagnant, I’m currently working on bringing some newish projects to the fore front so just know that work has been put in and I can’t wait til y’all get to partake in this dopeness. Speaking of dopeness, I’ve listened to more dope new rap music in the past two months, than I have in the past two years! Now I want to be completely fair, this says more about my consumption and loss of love of hip hop music more than it does the genre itself. Podcasts have slowly become my number one source of entertainment, especially when I’m in the car. And most rap albums lately have had very little replay value for me outside of a few projects. Now this does speak a lil to the quality of music that’s been produced in my opinion. Although my attention span for rap has lessened to a certain extent, there is some responsibility to artists to put together projects that continue to draw listeners back time and time again. And note that I said “projects” there, because there have of course been great songs and singles released over the past few years, but albums/EPs? Not so much! 

So what have you been jammin Dizzle? Well my friend I’m glad you asked, this has been fun because it’s actually been a plethora of projects. I mean I’m sure everyone experienced “Clipsemas” a few weeks ago with ‘Let God Sort Em Out,’ but Metro Boomin also has me feeling a lil nostalgic with his compilation album ‘A Futuristic Summa,’ and Freddie Gibbs also recently teamed up with The Alchemist for the highly anticipated ‘Alfredo 2.’ But Dreamville’s JID “surprisingly” released a very damn good album in ‘God Does Like Ugly’ (I’ll explain the “surprisingly” later) and I was also put onto a couple of newer artists like Hashi Senjoo and Gauxstman that really captivated my attention with their projects. So let’s get into them! Now this isn’t gonna be like a full album review or anything, I’m just gonna give some of my opinions on what I’m hearing. I’m not in any position to give any album ratings especially when I still feel like I haven’t heard a “GREAT” rap album since 2020!

Clipse - Let God Sort Em Out

REAL RAP IS BACK! All you moaning, groaning, and harmonizing ass rappers step to the side and let some real lyricists come through and spit some shit from their chest! Lol I’m just fuckin around but lowkey I’m not. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m from Texas, of course I love a rapper who can hold a tune, but it was a breath of fresh air to hear Malice back in action over some Pharrell beats! The brothers from Virginia put together a solid and simple project that was very easy to listen to. I can see why the hype has been the way it has, especially with their whole album rollout process. I’m not sure if I wasn’t paying attention in the past, but this is the most I’ve ever heard from Pusha T outside of an instrumental and Malice has just proved to be a down ass brother, loving son, chill ass dude who happens to be phenomenal at rapping. I also feel like all of the features answered the call with their best punch throughout the album, which you gotta tip your hat to as well. The thought of hopping on the first Clipse album in over 15 years and dropping a mid ass verse is devastating but everyone held their own. Obviously the verse of the album came from Malice on ‘F.I.C.O!’ This one has been making it’s rounds all over social media and deservingly so because Malice essentially decided to display that his ethereal bars, word play, rhyme scheme, flow, etc. was heaven sent…all while rapping about moving weight lmao. It’s not even one of them “stank face” verses…like when I first heard it I almost went into stank face mode, but then my frown straightened out and I just kinda sat there in pure awe in what I was hearing and after he sermonized the last words of this spectacular display of rapping “cuz this really shit I done done” all I could do was let out a little chuckle.

Now I did say that I could see why the hype has been the way it is, but let’s not overcook our grits here, I have seen some people mentioning this as something that can be played anytime anywhere, and while I won’t necessarily say that this is “scaring the hoes” music…it’s definitely “scaring the hoes” adjacent! Like you might not be scaring the hoes when you play this, but the hoes might get a lil concerned. Matter of fact this is main nigga music! If you a side nigga, I’d say you have maybe 3 tracks on this album that you can play in front of your chick before she starts texting the next dude cuz you bullshittin. Matter matter of fact fact, this is actually married nigga music! If you’re a main nigga, and there’s a possibility that yo gal gotta side nigga, make sure you got all your shit done around the house before you decide to press play on this whole album with your girl around. Cuz you know she’s looking for any lil reason to go out and have a “girls night” and if she gets track 6 and realizes that you haven’t taken out the trash or replaced the batteries in that smoke detector yet after she asked you to 4 months ago, you might be….BEEP….done! But if you are married and wanting to listen to it with your ol lady you should be straight, just make sure you putting it down right so she ain’t in a mood and she’ll vibe witchu on this one!

Metro Boomin - Metro Boomin Presents: A Futuristic Summa (Hosted by DJ Spinz)

Alright enough of that rappity bappity real hip hop shit, let’s get back to them moanin’, groanin’, harmonizing ass rappers! And that’s exactly what you’re getting with ATL encompassed project here by Metro Boomin. If you were the ages of 15-22 between the years of 2006 and 2011 than this album will take you way back when to a care free time of life, when as guy all you wanted to do was mack on the cuties and crank something. That’s it…that’s who this album is for! If you’ve ever cranked anything in your life, whether it be that Soulja Boy, that Batman, that Birdwalk…you will find some satisfaction somewhere in this group of songs! TBH 90% of the album sounds like a ratchet ass Chuck E. Cheese soundtrack! Five years ago that would sound far fetched but given today’s circumstances it’s very realistic!

https://www.tiktok.com/@tulsa.native/video/7530740456330726687?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7508263424854591018

https://www.tiktok.com/@tiffanyliness/video/7537157837793922335?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7508263424854591018

Nah you know what?!?! This album sounds like if your local ice cream truck got hijacked by Spacegod Da Thug!

https://www.tiktok.com/@bigregg3/video/7531888040168525070?is_from_webapp=1&web_id=7508263424854591018

https://www.tiktok.com/@focused_dg/video/7534928714367323406?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7508263424854591018

Man I’m so happy I found that TikTok of Spacegod Da Thug and Young Dro, because he’s my favorite part of this album! Anytime I get to hear Dro snap on something I’m tuned in, except he even sangin’ and shit on this ho! Plus you gotta Roscoe Dash and Waka Flocka making multiple fire features and the one regular song on the album by Rocko is a jammer too! I’m gonna start stretching now because I’m sure by the end of this summer these dancing ass niggas from Atlanta are gonna have at least 8 new dances for us!

Freddie Gibbs - Alfredo 2

Gangsta Gibbs dropped some new heat for us, and if your a fan of Freddie you’ll be satisfied for sure with this quality project. Honestly I ain’t got much to say about this one yet besides ‘Ensalada’ is flames! Oh and Freddie is somewhat beefin with Curren$y…which kinda sucks for obvious reasons but it also seems like this is kinda overshadowing the album in itself. Also, how are you beefin with Curren$y??? Like I’ve listened to his explanation and all, but who the hell beefs with Curren$y? 

JID - God Does Like Ugly

Now earlier I said that JID “surprisingly” released a very good album, and I ain’t gonna lie…that WAS a shot! Listen, I don’t dislike JID at all. Since he’s come to the forefront in these recent years I’ve recognized that this is someone who can rap extremely well…the thing is I just never really like any of his songs! I always leave with this feeling of missing something, like the nigga is rappin his ass off but as a whole maybe this just ain’t for me. Another thing you gotta understand is J. Cole is literally one of my favorite rappers, and even when I would hear JID features on his projects my index finger would be itching for that skip button. And honestly I can’t even tell you why I listened to this shit…something compelled me to give JID another chance, and I’m glad that I did!

From front to back this shit jammin! And what I believe that I like most about it is feels like what a good hip hop album should sound like, and at the same time it still feels fresh! Like it’s not a boom bap album by any means but I think that any old school hip hop fan would appreciate it, all while today’s generation of hip hop fans could bop to it. JID is obviously rapping his ass off in it (again something I never questioned from him) but the songs are catchy, easy to listen to but also a complex listen, and also feature some dope artists as well who similarly to the other album with “God” mentioned in the title, prove as valuable additions to the project. This is a really good album! It’s one of those albums that as a kid you would open up the CD booklet and read and memorize all of the lyrics to. I’m looking forward to continuing to listen and letting it grow on me…and who knows maybe it’ll be the first “great” album in my opinion since 2020.

Hashi Senjoo - Everyone Won’t Like This, But ALOT Will

This project was an interesting one to come across! Unlike 90% of other artists I‘ve ever come across in my life, I found Mr. Senjoo on an Instagram Reel. He was freestyling and I was like, “damn…this nigga kinda wrecking that ho!” Senjoo is like a rap anomaly…you’ll be hard pressed to find someone similar to him and his style. Because of his background, you get a lil H-Town mixed with Dallas, with some New Orleans bounce sprinkled in. So all through this project you can “come dine,” South Dallas Swag, and get ferociously twerked on!  All in all this was a fun one, and honestly if only Texans and Louisianans (is that what they call y’all niggas?) liked it, Hashi would be successful, but I feel like ALOT more people actually will regardless of region.

Gauxstman - 28217

One of the best things about being an older millennial like myself was being able to live through “the blog era” of hip hop music. Artists and their music were more accessible than in the early 90s/early 00s and at the same time their growth and popularity was more organic than what you tend to see now. Just take JID’s line in the opening song on his new album for example:

“Niggas know I been killin shit for years, just took a fuckin ceiling challenge to show I’m above my peers, be serious”

But anyways I digress, one of my favorite things about the blog era was finding new dope music and putting your homies on. And if you had dope friends with different tastes, they would put you on to dope shit as well. For example, my patna Lou put me onto Wiz Khalifa around the time "Burn After Rolling" came out, and he had been on Wiz for a good while at that point. My college roommate Ricky put me onto Big Sean when the original "Finally Famous" mixtape came out. I’m pretty sure I put alot of my homies on to J. Cole and Dom Kennedy. So you get the point, it ain’t necessarily about sonnin’ niggas…it’s moreso about confirming that you have exquisite taste and that you recognized the greatness in these artists before the masses and looked out for your people by letting them enjoy their art as well. Don’t gatekeep art, share that with ya niggas and niggettes and let them experience the same euphoria you feel when it encompasses you! (THAT’S A WORD)

So having said that I feel like it’s only my duty to put y’all on Gauxstman (unless I’m super late here, I told y’all I ain’t been listening to music like that lately). But I also gotta make sure I shoutout who put me onto Gauxstman myself, and that’s Miss Shy Thugg! If you’re looking for a cool easy going podcast to give you some silliness on your commute to/from work, check out The Yappy Hour Podcast hosted by Shy Thugg! On a recent episode of The Yappy Hour, Shy Thugg had the Gauxstman on, and afterwards I decided to dive into the music and see what this nigga was talkin’ bout and therefore, #ThuggPutMeOn!

Now I’m not gon lie, this shit started out weak AF! I was a little worried for a second but it was mainly cuz the nigga was sounding he was auditioning to be the Quiet Storm DJ. But lemme tell you something…after that first track, EVERY SONG IS A CERTIFIED JAMMER! Like 100% from the field, Steph Curry shooting in a hula hoop, Shaq Diesel dunking on a Fisher Price type shit! One of my biggest things that I look for in up and coming artists is their beat selection and production. Because sometimes you hear these talented rappers over really poor instrumentals and it makes it hard for their music to stick, if that makes sense. So just having good taste in music in general is already a head start, and I think that Gauxstman knocked it out the park with this. Even on the first interlude, although I thought the track overall was wack, it did have a nice vibe to it! But what I really enjoy from my favorite rappers is complexity. One of the reasons I don’t listen to as much music as I used to, is because rappers/songs/albums are all sounding the same. You can have an artist drop an album and it’ll be 12 songs, with a couple of different song concepts, but the same layout, same rhyme scheme, same type of beats, same range of bpm’s, same type of samples, etc. And so you just get kinda mesmerized listening to the shit and nothing really stands out as a great song. Nobody takes chances. I’ve seen discussions on social media around the lack of the regional sound in hip hop now and that plays into it to.

The albums that I love to listen to are like roller coasters, not so much that it’s a few good songs and then a bad one hear and there. But that they take you through a wide range of emotions or keep you on your toes on what you’re gonna hear next. And that’s exactly what you get from Gauxstman here! Every song is jammin, and every song is different! He might be singing on this song but on the next you’re getting straight bars, or he’ll hit you with one flow on this song but the next is a completely different flow. And this is how you get to see how truly talented an artist is. How deep is your bag nigga? Can you touch on a wide range of subjects in multiple styles, all while sounding original and quite frankly dope as fuck? That's what you get here with "28217!" There’s all different types of rap fans who like different types of artists, and I can tell you most of them would like at least one song on this EP. There’s more that I’d like to say about this project but I feel like the more I keep talking the more time I’m taking away from you to listen to this shit! Just know when you turn it on you’re gonna hear some exceptional ass music. Oh and you can listen to it with the hoes around too, it won’t frighten any of em!

Alright y’all thanks for kicking it with me, sorry for the delay. This was one I had fun writing about and the crazy thing is I haven’t even gotten around to listening to the new Raekwon or Chance the Rapper. But in the meantime y’all go check out these projects and let me know what y’all think in the comments. Or if you’ve already listened to them and you think I’m trippin, let me know in the comments. Or if you got somebody you wanna put me on to let me…well you already know. Follow me on the socials @dizzlestax10k and if there’s anything that I want you to know after reading all of this is that I love you and JESUS LOVES YOU TOO!

Romans 8: 38-39