As someone who wrote off Boi-1da as a trendy one-hit producer, I think the pulsating “Lookin’ For Ya” is his best work since “Best I Ever Had.”
Big Boi explained to The Verge that Jive Records wouldn’t clear Andre to appear on Sir Lucious Leftfoot: The Son of Chico Dusty:
I was outside the studio just chillin’ and Erik Sermon from EPMD rolled by the studio and said, “Yo, I got some music for ya.” I was like, “Word.” So he came in and played a beat, and then he played the Boi Wonda [sic] beat. I was like, “What’s that?!” So he was like, “We’ll let you get that one, then.”
The whole time I was working, Dré would come in and out of the studio. Like, he heard “Royal Flush” and said, “I wanna get on that.” And he heard, “Lookin For Ya” and said, “I wanna get on that.” The following day, he jumped on it. Two verses apiece, just raw lyricism. OutKast to the fullest. It was slated for the album. We tried to get everything solidified but Jive said, “Naw. Y’all can’t rap together.” Then I was going to take Dré off and make my own version, but then I thought, “No. Fuck that. If he can’t be on it, then I’m not using it.”
“You Should Go Home” is Statik Selektah’s most convincing attempt at a radio record yet and a vast departure from the Lil Fame assisted buzz single we heard… two years ago? 1982 drops October 26th.
Chicago duo The Paxtons have relocated to New York and are back with a new mixtape. They’ve wasted no time joining NY’s legacy of lyricism with eye-watering flows that would make Twista do a double take. The beats are half original, half borrowed from the likes of Diplo, The Neptunes, Dam Funk, and Chuck Inglish, but the guys are at their best over their own production. The title The Manhattan Project refers to The Paxtons’ intention to annihilate the competition, but given the sorry state of NY hip-hop, the task may have been easier than they expected.
Chase N. Cashe is best known for co-producing Lil Wayne and Eminem’s emo soiree “Drop The World,” but he first caught my ear on FKi’s “Weed & Arizonas,” whose artwork credited him as “Chase and Cashe” and made me think he was two people. But the beats on the upstart producer’s new tape are clean and crisp enough for the radio, yet weird enough to dwarf the routine backdrops of today’s commercial rap. Chase N. Cashe has a polished sound worthy of rap’s upper echelon hitmakers like Boi-1da and J.U.S.T.I.C.E. League.
If his 27 track mixtape was overwhelming, you might fight Chip Tha Ripper’s new EP From Me, To You easier to rock with. Chuck Inglish of the Cool Kids provides slow, deliberate thumpers and Chip Tha Ripper cuts through the haze with a husky flow. Kid Cudi meets Rick Ross. There’s a great “Fat Raps” remix that makes Asher Roth shake the fratboy image for a minute and sound more than tolerable. Chip’s album Gift Raps drops later this year.
Gimmick free music is especially rare on the younger end of hip-hop’s generational gap, so this club-leaning jam from Baltimore crew Z.O.M.E (Zoo on Mars Entertainment) is a special treat. The trio takes advantage of the empty spaces in producer Murder Mark’s synth-clap beat with manic rhymes about how unfuckwitable they are.
Q-Unique of Arsonists pays tribute to Brooklyn, the Bronx, and then Brooklyn again on this regal self-produced track from his album Between Heaven & Hell, out September 7.
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