Until I peeped his AllMusic page last week, all ya boy knew about Lev Berlak was that he was the Oakland producer who'd notched up credits for Dru Down, Mac Dre, and the Mob Figaz, and helmed A-Wax's Thug Deluxe album from top to bottom. Turns out Lev was also responsible for a shitload of deep cuts I'd never realised were his beats and a shitload of great tracks I'd never heard before. What's more, his studio The Grill has been the go-to spot for mixing & mastering in northern California since the late nineties, making him the Mike Dean of Mob Music. Lev Berlak? More like Lev BerSlap amirite:
Gonna hazard a guess that there's also a handful of Lev Berlak tracks spread out across all those noughties Messy Marv albums with no production credits. Plz tell me he was behind "B" or Cheese You Out?
Much like there are multiple different edits of Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid, Trap Queen is a song which exists in various incarnations: there's the O.G version uploaded to Soundcloud which is absent of Fetty Wap's rap verse and the closing monologue by his mate Nitt Da Gritt; there's the 1st retail version featuring Nitt Da Gritt's monologue but no Fetty verse; there's the video-turnt-2nd-retail version featuring the verse and the monologue; and there's at least 4 different remixes, including the UK mix with Azealia Banks which is probably some sort of punishment on this country for inflicting Ed Sheeran on the U.S.
While Peckinpah stans still can't agree on which of the current cuts of Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid is the best, you've gotta to be a right moron not to consider the 2nd incarnation of Trap Queen as the definitive one, even if it was Trap Queen mk 3 which ultimately became the all-conquering global hit. There's no cumbersome attempt at rapping by Fetty to kill your buzz, but you still get the pleasure of Nitt Da Gritt on his Don King type shit to end the song on a victorious high:
"Everything 100, my n*gga
Took my phone off the charger at 100 percentage"
D-Rek ft. C Plus & Nef The Pharaoh - WTF
(From Soundcloud; 2015)
Very much feeling this Hyphy/Ratchet hybrid movement Nef The Pharaoh seems to be spearheading right now. Nef raps about bringing zombies back to life and eating eagles on WTF but that "I got the Furly Ghost, you feel me, cuddy?" line is the key lyric here because this track is pretty much Hustle 2k15 in everything but song title.
Related note: how on Earth did Derek C & Derek D manage to get first dabs on the best DJ Mustard beat since Post To Be? Moreover, how on Earth did they manage to convince Jeremih to fly over to the UK and appear in the video when he refused to shoot a promo for Don't Tell 'Em? Every country gets the Costco value knock-off of Bash Bash's Certified Freak it deserves.
Styles P ft. Max B - Kill That Faggot (remix)
(From Max B's Million Dollar Baby 2 mixtape; 2008)
Hat tip to ANU for reminding me there was a Max B remix of Styles P's Kill That Faggot where Biggavelz spat some of the foulest raps of his career. Bumped into Styles in a hotel last year and suggested to him that Kill That Faggot was the hardest shit since MC Ren. He agreed and lamented how the suits at Koch wouldn't let him include it on his Super Gangster (Extraordinary Gentleman) album because of the song's title/hook. Oh what a difference the letter M coulda made.
Styles P - Kill That Faggot
(From The Ghost In The Shell mixtape; 2007)
Lil' Chris ft. Sasha Go Hard - Ohh Na Na
(From the internet; 2015)
Wherein the Mr. Darcy of polyphony Lil' Chris goes Quiet Storm stadium-rap and Sasha Go Hard returns from the wastelands of Ryan Hemsworth cloud-rap collaborations/Alex MacPherson FACT Magazine reviews where he complains about her getting pregnant. Throw this on repeat with your significant other tonight and you might just have your own little bundle of joy to clog up your friend's Instagram feeds with in 9 months time. "Pussy so good that I wanna sing to youuuuuuuuu..."
True story, my best of Lil' Chris compilation still decimates anything that's been uploaded to Livemixtapes or DatPiff in 2015.
LOL @ 'Murica shamelessly biting the U.K's juiciest news scandals. Bruce-turnt-Caitlyn is just a half-arsed rehash of the Frank "Kellie" Maloney story, minus the UKIP side-narrative and the Ricky Hatton soundbites.
