A mugs love story

Courtesy of Drew Huge, rare cassette-only artwork for Akinyele's debut single The Bomb:

Can't imagine why Interscope wouldn't wanna blow this pic of yung Ak's mug up and slap it on the 12" version too?

That Tara Palmer-Tomkinson

Given that this is the year which has given us R.I.P, I'm 4rm Bompton, My N*gga, Fuck You and Next Bitch, who'd have thunk the best cuts from CTE's #ItsThaWorld 2 EP wouldn't be either of the DJ Mustard productions but a song where Jeezy does hoarse Jay-Z impersonations for 4 minutes over a Drumma Boy beat and a Doughboyz Cashout joint featuring the presence of Pusha-T rapping about beak in his irritating trademark scary-guy-on-the-phone-from-a-Scream-movie voice?

"I had 'em for the 2-3, n*gga, just like new J's
PURE WHITE COCAINE!
I can stretch that 62 about 4 ways
PURE WHITE COCAINE!
Cut it with the razor first day
PURE WHITE COCAINE!
Then I put that white gurl in the water, mermaid
PURE WHITE COCAINE!"

Doughboyz Cashout & Young Jeezy ft. Big K.R.I.T & Pusha-T - Pure
(From Young Jeezy & CTE's #ItsThaWorld 2 EP; 2013)


I'm loathe to enjoy anything featuring Pusha-T in 2013 other than Let Me Love You which I can jam as a fantasy unreleased Ma$e X The Neptunes track recorded for Double Up (Pusha has only ever been any good at sounding nonchalant over Neptunes beats so it's no surprise that him trying his hand at Ma$e's flow over a Chad & Pharrell replica by The Dream would result in his best song since 2006), but Pure manages to overcome the Pusha-T factor because it's a song about cocaine which would probably sound wonderful if you were actually high to your eyeballs on cocaine. Listen to those yawps of bandito trumpet and tell me you don't feel the bravura of a Zapatista general during the 1994 uprising in Chiapas.

Hold up, I show out when I show up

VERY RAER HIGHLIGHT FROM THE MIDDLE PORTION OF SLIM THUG'S LATEST ALBUM NOT RUINED BY NEEDLESS APPEARANCE OF THE TEXA$ TERMANOLOGY NOW HAS A VIDEO!

Slim Thug - 84s
(From Boss Life album; 2013)


Don't wanna be one of those hommes who gush over rapper's voices a little too enthusiastically, but, gosh, it's almost like Thugga's dulcet tones were willed into existence just to talk slick about vehicles and vaginas over spurious Pimp C productions by Big K.R.I.T like this, wonnit? Lemme venture to suggest that 84s is a top 5 song outta Houston this year alongside Z-Ro's Look Good, IONCAHH by BeatKing, Killa Kyleon's Cadillac, and Cake by UGK, Boosie & Big K.R.I.T.

Probably can't tell but I been through Hell

Stuff I know about about Stu Hustlah: he's from Fort Wayne, Indiana, and he's the type of traditional regional Gang$ta-Rapper who treats C-Bo with the same sort of reverence that east coast rappers reserve for Rakim; some lad called Conor did a guest post about his clique Murder Gang for Thomas' gaff; he's featured on a Feddy Da Sneak & Young Bossi song I'm very fond of; I discovered this certified jam in the related videos for that Freddy Da Sneak & Young Bossi song I'm very fond of; he could probably pursue a side career playing Turf Talk's stunt-double:

Stu Hustlah - Let Off Da Strap
(From It's Me album; 2013)



Really wish I'd heard this before the temperature's dropped and the sky's turned grey for the next 4 or 5 months. Shout outs to all the UK man dem who heard Stu's "it's me, it's me" ad libs during the intro and thought dook was gettin' in on that Carol Vorderman ISME.com advert loot.

Generic list post: 2013 edition

15 2013 singles, deep cuts, and loosies which really should've gotten more luh IRL and on teh internet:

The Lox - Summer's Too Hot
A-Wax - Buffalo Bill
Travis Porter ft. Jeremih - Err Damn Day
Mouse On Tha Track - Mr Lump Sum
Doughboyz Cashout & YG - Hella Ice
A-Mafia - Block Hugga
HD Of Bearfaced - No Pretendo
Fredo Santana ft. Blood Money - Take Risks
Mic Terror - West Coast
Kap-G ft. Young Jeezy - Jose Got Dem Tacos remix
Dom Kennedy - Nothin' Like Me
Roach Gigz ft. Kreayshawn - Pu$$y Magnet
BeatKing - IONCAHH
Chinx Drugz - How Can I Lose?
Suga Free & Pimpin' Young ft. Nate Dogg - 15 Minutes To 5

Related: Dom Kennedy should consider working with DJ Mustard more because Nothin' Like Me is so much better than his regular stuff, especially the much overrated My Type Of Party which just sounds like a 2011 A$AP Rocky Karmaloop commercial before they added the token corny faux-Screwed hook.

(T_T)

After his brief pisspoor flirtation with Ryan Hemsworth (nowadays "selling out" for a rapper means letting some Canadian Tumblr DJ turn your music into a half-baked facsimile of something from a 90s Mo' Wax Trip-Hop compilation), $tarlito is back to atone for his sins with some real Sad Boyz Rap. Keep The Change from his new album features 'lito doing 'lito over lugubrious production which sounds like steam wafting up offa rain sodden streets, while Troy Money is a decent enough weed carrier in a Young Dolph Jr. kinda way and I particularly enjoyed his "had to change how I live so I could change where I live" line:

"I'm sippin' pink and smokin' purp
Sellin' weed, no felonies, a spelling bee when I go to work
OZ's QP's, HQ's of O.G, yeah I go beserk"

$tarlito ft. Troy Money - Keep The Change
(From Fried Turkey album; 2013)


Tha sample sounds kinda like an outtake from Bernard Herrmann's Taxi Driver OST. I'll be your BFF if you can identify where it comes from.

Cadbury's milk Trae

A list of the rappers who appear on Trae's new mixtape I Am King: Puffy, Jeezy, T.I, Krayzie Bone, Roscoe Dash, Lil' Reese, Kevin Gates, Lupe Fiasco, Snoop Dogg, Meek Mill, Lil Boss, Wiz Khalifa, Jadakiss, Jay'Ton, Yo Gotti, Dougie D, Da Brat (!), Big K.R.I.T, and B.o.B.

By my reckoning there are 7 people in that list who have any business being on a Trae full length, the rest amount to the most generic assemblage of industry cameos since French Montana's album. So it's astonishing to find out that the immediate standout track and the only cut which sounds like it was recorded by a Texas rapper is the one which features guest vox from a journeyman hack like Snoop, who'd probably jump on an Admiral Crumple song for a quick cheque at this point. Nursery-rhyme beats, Trae still making boring car-talk tropes sound compelling, and a Snoop verse that's clearly ghostwritten by Trae FTW:

Trae ft. Baby Houston & Snoop - Old School
(From I Am King mixtape; 2013)



Looking on the bright side, at least Trae spared us a cameo from his Grand Hustle label mate Iggy Azelea. Bruce Samazan, James Murdoch, and Robbie Unkut are the only Aussies who should be allowed anywhere near Rap music, IMHO.

Erm, where's the Freeway & Jacka album then?

The snippets for Highway Robbery were up on Amazon and that shit was scheduled for release on november 12th. Then the page vanished, the album didn't drop and Jacka announced it'd been pushed back until 2014.

Why he do dat dere? I was particularly intrigued by the snippet of a Young L produced slap featuring Husalah called Shuckin' & Jivin' which sounded like it had the potential to be the new Sleep With Da Fishes (Boom Clack):

Husalah - Sleep With Da Fishes (Boom Clack)
(From Mob Trial compilation; 2006)