Pocket Full of Stones is back to recap another great month of rap. Click the hyperlinks to bask in this great American art form and cure your seasonal depression:
Producers: AceLex On Da Track, Ashton Sellars, Bj Beats, Blake Slatkin, Consent2k, DiCaprio Beatz, Drum Dummie, FJ, Iceberg, Ill Will, Malik, Mook On The Beats, Nashi, Reuel Ethan, SpeakerBangerz, Tahj Money, TnTXD, Tre Gilliam, Trillo Beats, Tyler Javeon, Yung Tago
Label: Alamo Records
Standout tracks: “Close Enough to Hurt”, “Cuban Links ft. Kevin Gates”, “Counted Steps”, “Sky Priority”, “Dark Conversations”, “Abandoned”
Rod Wave is a St. Petersburg, Florida rapper with the voice and sensibility of a bluesman. Rod has been steadily building a buzz since he dropped “Heartbreak Hotel” in 2016, and he gets more sure of himself with each new release. The 21 year-old already scored two grassroots hits this year with “Heart On Ice” and “Popular Loner” (both tracks have over 14 million views on YouTube), and his latest album Ghetto Gospel takes his signature brand of heartsick rap balladry to glorious new heights.
Ghetto Gospel contains some of the most magnificent vocal performances I’ve heard in 2019. Across 14 thunderous tracks, Rod Wave belts and coos with such palpable anguish that even his most melodramatic hooks (“Having conversations in the dark / It’s just me, myself and my heart”) land with aplomb.
On the album’s strongest tracks, Rod Wave harnesses the emotive power of his voice and reflects with piercing clarity on a life marked by loss and inner turmoil: “No one could understand, I had way too much aggression / That built over the years from my abandoned adolescence / See I done been lied to, backstabbed and heartbroken / I wanted to cry, but I was too afraid to open”
Philadelphia rapper and teen sensation Oz Sparx has only been releasing music since 2017 and just came on my radar a few weeks ago, so I was blown away by the stylistic sophistication he displays on his delightful new mixtape Gunsmoke.
Sparx’s lyrical fixations - impoverished youth, gun violence, incarcerated friends and prescription drugs - are dead serious, but he delivers them such levity and flair that it’s easy to miss underlying bleakness. His ability to build and release tension with his voice by switching octaves or cadences at the perfect moment is truly a marvel to behold, and the production offers a tasteful mix of 808 piano churns and left-field digressions like the Hindi Zahra sampling “Hindi” or the “No Scrubs” interpolation “Love Me”.
Clocking in at 27-minutes with nine tracks and essentially no skips, Gunsmoke is a tightly constructed and deeply enjoyable tape from an artist who sounds like he’s only getting warmed up.
Producers: 17OnDaTrack, Aura, Beatmonster Marc, Buddah Bless, CashMoneyAP, DJ Swift, Dmac, Dremusiq, D-Roc, Drum Dummie, Dubba-AA, E-Trou, Gibbo, Guwap$ Of Beat Execz, Icy Chill Out, India Got Them Beats, J-Bo, JetsonMade, KK McFly, Louie Bandz, MarcussMuzik Of Beat Execz, Mike Laury, Mike WiLL Made-It, Money Montage, SIDEPCE, Skynny, Tahj Money, TnTXD, Wheezy, Yung Lan
Label: Atlantic Records
Standout tracks: “Make No Sense”, “Time I’mOn”, “Where The Love At”, “Self Control”, “Head Blown”, “Outta Here Safe ft. Quando Rondo & NoCap”
“I’m on the top of Youtube/ Fuck a new school, I don’t use no VEVO” - NBA Youngboy, “Carter Son”
In these strange times, it’s easy to forget that NBA Youngboy consistently outperforms the biggest pop stars in the world on Youtube or take for granted that latest his album AI Youngboy 2 debuted at number one on Billboard less than a month ago. Youngboy’s stratospheric ascent has coincided with a litany of increasingly serious legalissues, and his music remains acutely paranoid despite all his commercial success.
Consistent with previous releases, AI Youngboy 2 is an intense, emotionally fraught album. But every time it starts to feel like overkill, Youngboy lands some devastating lyric or melodic flourish that draws you back in. When he’s fully in the zone (“Make No Sense”, “Time I’m On”, “Self Control”), the artist born Kentrell Gaulden embraces the cathartic power of getting your troubles off your chest and channels it into flows your favorite rapper couldn’t dream of.
Producers: The Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt, Mach-Hommy, Ovrkast
Label: Tan Cressida / Warner Records
Standout tracks: “MTOMB”, “OD”, “EL TORO COMBO MEAL ft. Mavi”
As the sound and substance of Earl Sweatshirt’s music has grown increasingly removed from his Odd Future days (and rap’s sonic/thematic zeitgeist as a whole), his prodigious writing skills have only gotten sharper.
On his latest 15-minute LP Feet of Clay, Earl leans into the inscrutable low-BPM sound of his 2018 project Some Rap Songs and contemplates demons of a drunken past with sobering clarity: “I remember Endo when he wasn’t remembering much/I remember love healing the ruptures/Feeling rushed, grew up quick/Trip around the sun, this my 25th, give it up/Gin and rum, we wasn’t ‘posed to be alive, no funny shit.”
Earl’s proclivity for off-kilter beats has alienated some hypebeast factions of his fanbase, who quickly latched onto to the ridiculous accordion sample on Feet of Clay’s second track “East” as evidence that Earl’s music has become too self-indulgent. But there’s a difference between jumping the shark and trusting your vision, and Feet of Clay is a richly layered monument to the latter that both demands and rewards careful listening.
Standout tracks: “Send Me On My Way”, “Go Away!!”, “TBT”, “RIP Act”, “Me Myself & I”
LUCKI is a Midwest mainstay with an offhand rap style and sad-boy tendencies whose music has been quietly flourishing since his debut album Alternative Trap - a low-key masterpiece that established LUCKI as a forebear of Chicago’s artsy rap scene in the the early 2010s.
If LUCKI’s February album Freewave 3 was his most drugged-out and despondent music to date, Days B4 III sounds like the high after the hangover. Across 15 contemplative tracks, LUCKI peppers his narcotized flows with black humor (“My lean man he love me/I pay him in big bills!”) and dreamlike production from DJ Eway mollifies the anxiety creeping beneath the surface.
Like Oz Sparx, Lil Muk is a Philadelphia-bred teenager whose music only came to my attention a few weeks ago. His latest single “Best For You” - a heartfelt tribute to fallen friends with a music video* that’s quickly approaching a million views on WorldStarHipHop - is one of the most compelling rap songs I’ve heard all year.
Muk, who raps like a hyperactive East Coast version of Roddy Ricch, pours his bereaved soul into “Best For You”, letting wounded lyrics bleed over the margins and layering his vocals for maximum emphasis. With the gravitas of an artist twice his age, Muk elucidates a tragic mission statement for his music that doubles as a rationale for violent retaliation: “This for my guys who ain’t get a chance to live their lives”.
*The music video, which features a deeply affecting shot of Muk and about two dozen high school friends belting the chorus in unison, is the only medium that captures the emotional weight of “Best For You”.
Yung Bans is a 20 year-old Atlanta artist who came up in the early days of SoundCloud rap, cutting songs with the likes of XXXTentacion and Playboi Carti long before any of them breached mainstream consciousness. He went on to release five self-titled EPs (I recommend Yung Bans Vol. 2) and establish himself as a favorite of the No Jumper / Lyrical Lemonade set through his collaborations with director du jour Cole Bennett.
While many of Soundcloud rap’s first generation became streaming sensations who redefined the music industry, Yung Bans remained something of a cult figure. Bans’ debut album and first real crossover attempt Misunderstood was an overproduced mess that foolishly attempted to translate his understated, noncommittal flows into fully realized three-minute songs.
Misunderstood left me and other fans concerned about Bans’ creative trajectory, so I’m thrilled to report that his latest single and Cole Bennet collaboration “Parta In Crime (PIC)” is a rousing return to form. Over a heavy bounce and some goofy-ass flutes from producers Dez Wright and SIDEPCE, Bans tightens up his signature sleepy delivery and croaks out a hook so catchy you’ll forgive the Foster The People interpolation he follows it up with.
Anyone who’s talked to me about rap music in the past year has likely heard me gush about the preternatural talents of Lil Tjay.
The 18 year-old Prince of New York released his debut album True 2 Myself last month, but my high hopes for the project were dashed when I realized it was mostly comprised of old material. The album’s 17-song tracklist features seven previously released singles, plus two remixes of songs that are more than a year old (“Leaked” and “Brothers”). It’s a shame that True 2 Myself was weighed down by this cynical marketing strategy, but those willing to look between the rehashed old favorites will find some of Tjay’s most impressive performances to date.
If True 2 Myself album is a trial balloon for his next piano-laden hit single, my money is on “One Take”. From the track’s opening salvo, “I got a plan to run up some bands/They tell me I can’t, I tell them ‘I am’”, Tjay maneuvers in and out of cadences with the swagger of a high school basketball star who knows the other team can’t guard him.
“Mixed Emotions”, another True 2 Myself standout, offers a more muted interpretation of the Lil Tjay Piano Banger. Over a remarkably gentle Remy beat, Tjay croons with such effortless charm that lyrics like “Got no love for a thot/I’m just chasing the guap/Hollow shells for a n**** cuz we play with them glocks” sound downright romantic.
*If you’re still not convinced, check out Tjay’s live performance of “One Take” on Genius Open Mic, which is even more textured than the recorded version.
Ghetto Sage is a hip-hop supergroup founded by three of the most promising young voices in the Midwest: Noname, a Chicago-born former slam poet who cultivated a loyal fanbase without signing to a label, Saba, another independent Chicago rapper with an introspective streak and a passionate cult following, and Smino, a Saint Louis native and kindred spirit whose grandfather played bass for Muddy Waters.
It’s not clear who came up with the idea of Ghetto Sage, but the trio makes intuitive sense. These three already have a pair of seamless collaborations with “Ace” and “Shadow Man” - they even performed “Ace” on Fallon last year - and their decision to join forces feels more like the product of genuine creative chemistry than a marketing gimmick.
“Häagen Dazs”, the first single from Ghetto Sage, is a loose, propulsive romp that finds each member firing on all cylinders. The song peaks with a knotty exploration of black sexuality from Noname, who is steadily evolving into one of the brightest writers of her generation: “I scatter roses on my metaphor, cuz the world shot Nipsey/When a girl got tipsy, I went to Ben and Jerry’s, got my berry on/Whole world steady crashing and burning, n****s just carry on.”
20 year-old Chicago rapper Calboy has been low-key killing it all year, and “Ghetto Lullabies”, his single with fellow Calmut City native 147 Bubz, is just one of several strong solo videos (“Psalms 23”,“12”) and collaborations (“Falling Down” with Mack 11, “Risky” with Christian Royce) he’s put out recently.
When I first came across Calboy’s breakout single “Envy Me” in 2018, I couldn’t get past how much he sounded like Lil Durk, and I quickly wrote him off as another young Chicagoan imitating his drill music heroes. After giving his 2019 debut Wildboy a few spins, I started noticing nuances in Calboy’s vocals that set him apart from Durk and drew me into his sound. He has a beautiful way of blurring his consonants to make his words more expressive, and he raps in this anxious, quavering timbre that registers emotion like no other voice in rap today.
Calboy’s style is still rough around the edges, but recent loosies like “Ghetto Lullabies”, “Psalms 23”, and (my personal favorite) “Birds” show he’s making huge strides as a writer and stylist.
