Four Good Rap Albums? Nah, Right?

It's a rare time in a young man's life when the winter turns into spring, he lands a new job writing, and has tons of good rap music to listen to. If I seem overly positive here, there's a good reason why.



I think everyone has been pleasantly surprised at how well E-40's latest effort turned out. Remember how his last two sucked? Full of tons of garbage club music and wack Southern guest appearances that were two months too late?

The success of Revenue Retrievin is how it resembles a free mixtape more than an album made to appeal to label executives, which is what seemed to go wrong with 40's last two. It could be cut down, sure, but so could any mixtape. It's full of guest appearances, but at least they're regionally appropriate, and don't drain the budget of the project like a Lil Jon beat or Juelz Santana verse might have, circa 2006.

Revenue Retrievin isn't exactly a return to form, but it has a little bit of what we all look for in a 40 record: the sinister story telling track; the inspirational/religious life-in-the-hood song; a Mike Marshall guest appearance; and Bay Area beats that SLAP. Cause I swear, if he kept going the way he was, we would have had some sort of sing-songy Kid Cudi/New Boyz inflected record on our hands.

For my money, Day Shift is a superior record, and I'd like to see how it does against Night Shift on the SoundScans. Here's my favorite track; 40 hasn't made one of these since Loyalty and Betrayal:

E-40 "The Art of Storytellin"



Brotha Lynch's new album, Dinner and a Movie, clearly has a lot of money behind it. I even think I saw someone write on twitter about seeing a TV ad for it, which is virtually unheard of. Especially for a rapper who raps about killing and eating people, and isn't a white dude from Detroit.

The whole album is incredibly well put-together, with excellent voice acting from First Degree the DE, and some really creepy raps from Lynch. I hope he gets to finish the planned trilogy of albums with Strange Music - Tech N9ne's label - because the higher production value really makes the whole "siccmade" aspects of his rap more compelling.

Here's a great example of why you should buy Dinner and a Movie:

Brotha Lynch Hung "D.O.A."



I've been listening to Danny Brown for about a year now, but I've never posted any of it, because I was given all these tracks that were advances from this album, and had to promise not to post them. Only two of maybe twenty made it, which goes to show just how much music Danny Brown has been making lately.

He's from Detroit, and he's the best new rapper I've come across in a while. His album is called The Hybrid, because he's a hybrid of different styles. He's not quite a gangsta rapper, not quite a backpack rapper, not quite a punchline rapper, and he dresses like an archetypal "blipster". He's all the best elements of those three styles - plus the sick dress code - rolled into one. Don't believe me, check out my favorite two tracks off of his latest, which you can download here:

Danny Brown "I'm Out"

Danny Brown "New Era"



I should probably hate these guys, based on stances I've taken in the past, but it's really hard not to like them. Almost like Danny Brown, they're hard to pin down. It would be easy to label them hipster rappers, but their "project" is patently different. It's some sort of blend of post-colonial bullshitting mixed with a love for contemporary rap, and a sincere desire to make something fun to listen to.

You could also just call them cultural tourists, and maybe they are, but their love for rap seems sincere, and people who actually listen to rap will be rewarded by little offhanded references to somewhat obscure rap songs and lyrics. Not once, but twice on Shut Up, Dude one of the DR guys references Big Pun's classic "dead in the middle of Little Italy..." couplet from his cover of "Deep Cover".

Their style is this schizophrenic, free-associative sort of rap that has become more and more popular as of late. You could attribute it all to Lil Wayne's influence, but then when you listen to their cover of Ghostface's "Nutmeg" or Dipset's "You Oughta Know", you realize that you guys like all the same things, and they sound like what you and your friends might make if you made rap. Except better. And none of your friends went to Weslyan. Bottom line is, they're really fun to listen to.

Das Racist "Rainbow in the Dark"

Das Racist "Nutmeg"

I'm out, cause I have to get back to the writing that I'm getting paid to do. To anyone affiliated with Sic-Wid-It or Strange Music, your music was posted for promotional purposes only, and I'm happy to remove at your request. Don't get me deaded, is all.