Art via Evan Solano
Harley Geffner still wants to know if Project T-Pain is 03 Greedo’s best album?
Friday nights are amazing. The work week is over, there’s a palpable sense of relief, and it’s time to let off some steam. Go to the gym, go hoop somewhere, go get a few shitty cocktails and dance to some Bad Bunny or whatever. It’s great, but the sting from another week of work still hangs over the festivities like a stubborn fog. Maybe you’re even so exhausted from the week that you call it a self-care night and get to bed early.
You know what’s better than Friday nights? Saturday mornings. Saturday mornings are my favorite part of every week. You slept off whatever fog remained from your slog of a week, and it’s time to go and get it. You hop in the car, the sun is beaming down, and you almost forgot what it felt like to feel a sunny morning without the dread of the destination. There is a lack of constraints. It’s the one moment in time to pause and say thank you for the blessings, look at that majestic tree, you know the one.
What goes hand in hand with Saturday mornings is Saturday morning music. This is when you go for the upbeat feels, the shit that’ll make you bounce up and down in the car and feel like you’re ready to take on the world. The EBK stuff can wait until dark. Go listen to some Nappy Roots, or maybe even… this song.
NOLA-raised La Reezy’s “HARDHEAD” fits so squarely into the Saturday morning music playlist that you’d think it was made explicitly for this purpose. It’s a minimal beat with some aspirational-feeling horns, until the NOLA Bounce drums kick in about halfway through. La Reezy is only 20, but he raps like he can make any moment feel like that Saturday morning, and the type of wisdom that comes from real experience. He raps about running from anger, and how the only way to change the past is to change how you feel about it. He flashes a million dollar smile, like a young Magic Johnson, and seems so proud of his necklace with a flower on it. The song makes you want to wake up and go remind yourself why life can still be fun. Go to a barbecue, say hi to your neighbor, hop on a bike with no destination. La Reezy is here for all of it.
(Skip to 4:02) This is what rap is meant to be. This is the hard hitting stuff that can bring a tear to your eye as you consider the thin line between poverty and being internationally celebrated. This is the stuff that will make you think about your lineage, your purpose, and how to proceed with dignity and meaning. Chris Patrick, hailing from New Jersey, brought an emotional masterclass to Kai Cenat’s Mafiathon 3 stream, rapping over Kendrick’s “man at the garden” beat with the type of fire and intensity that you instantly recognize as special. It looked like watching the clip of Kanye rapping “Two Words,” when you could just see that everyone in the room was feeling the passion in his voice.
Chris starts by dedicating it to his grandmother, and begins rapping with a steady hand about beefing with dementia because of what it did to her. His eyes are focused and sincere. He continues, ramping up to the point that he starts physically shaking, the words pouring out of him like he’s bursting at the seams to get the trauma out. His voice cracks, he clenches his fists, and details everything he went through to be in the position to pursue his dreams. He was selling clothes to afford rent, he took a second job, and was surviving off protein shakes and adderall..
Finally, he reaches an almost prayer-like state as he reminds himself that, like Kendrick, he deserves it all. He resets, and dives back in, dialing up the fire, swinging his arms, celebrating his success but remembering the friends he lost along the way. In fact, he tried to call one to tell him about being on Kai Cenat’s stream, and then remembered he was gone.
Every El Snappo song sounds like you’re driving a luxury getaway car. His beat selection is very consistent, and they all lock into his flows so nicely. He could say literally anything on the track and it would sound good with the combination of his accent, flows, and beats. But he does have some fun bars here. This song is basically an ode to the glo up, and how success hits different when you come from nothing. He says that he was serving since he was an infant, and somehow, I believe him.
Talk about restoring the feeling. This is like crack to anyone who grew up in the jerking era, plus extra points for the Drakeo reverence throughout the entire song. Pin drops, cat daddies, the real OG Young Sam (remember THIS?). For anyone too young to have experienced this movement in real time during their adolescence, boy is this a great opportunity to go down a rabbit hole. Plus Yabbie, out of SD, adds his own flair to the style, both with his modified dougies and his slurry flow. It mixes together in a way that feels both old and new.
An addendum: My girlfriend now thinks I’m autistic because all day I’ve been walking around chanting, “Mr Mosely when it comes to this pape I’m too greedy,” in a sped up chipmunk voice.
One of my favorite openings to a song this year: “I got the type of money make the Benz seats Ostrich,” as a CGI ostrich wanders across the screen.
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