Image via Mudbaby Ru/Instagram
Harley Geffner wants to know what they even do in the Met Gala.
In August 1943, at the Quebec Conference, a bunch of suits from Washington met with a bunch of better-tailored suits from the U.K.. They agreed that there was a need to draft a declaration that would call for an international organization to keep things stable once the war ended – one that would succeed the obviously failed League of Nations. At the Moscow Conference in October, 1943, they hammered this into a formal declaration that would need yet another conference to actually create. In August, 1944, world leaders finally met at the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, in Washington, D.C., to discuss how a postwar planet might look.
This conference had to be broken into two separate portions since the Soviet and Chinese delegations refused to sit at the same table. There were Hollywood movies playing for free throughout the conference, everything was tapped by the FBI, and there was nightclubbing and cocktails with Nelson Rockefeller involved. A book by Robert Hilderbrand would later describe a “negro quartet singing spirituals,” for Russian and U.K. delegations to prime them for the negotiations and satiate their bloodthirsty need to be thought of as superior to an underclass of servants and entertainers.
On October 7th, 1944, all parties agreed on a tentative set of proposals that would form an organization that would become the United Nations. Five countries – the French Republic, the Republic of China, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and the United States – were granted permanent seats on the Security Council and the power of a veto over any resolution brought to the table. These countries are known as the Big 5, the Permanent 5, or P5. They are the 5 nations with the first and most nuclear weapons.
I imagine there were multiple conferences of similar magnitude and coordination in order to organize the formation of the ‘Critical’ Remix. The Big 5 – RXKNephew, Rx Papi, Sada Baby, Tony Shhnow, and Quadie Diesel – united forces to ensure that there would be no misuse of the powerful weapon that is this insanely funky and danceable beat from Brainstorm.
There would be no haphazard slapping of other verses onto a pre-recorded song for this remix – Neph recorded a brand new verse, wherein he explains all the ways in which he feels like the other 4 members of the security council. Neph feels like Tony Shhnow when he kicks his girl out, Sada Baby when he pulls his blick out, Papi when he brings the dogshit out, and Quadie Diesel because unc missed out, whatever that means.
The 4 other powerhouses come out swinging as well, with every rapper borrowing a Pap-ism and claiming to “walk in this bitch,” like many different things. Pap raps that his dance moves hit harder than Ike Turner, and Sada Baby responds that his own dance moves hit harder than crack in the 80’s, Tank Davis, and someone’s first ever blunt. Tony Shnoww claims he has real shooters, whereas his opposition has shooters from the (unfairly) much-maligned streaming platform Tubi. In the closing verse, Quadie Diesel says “shimmy shimmy ya, I got Os, I got E / Zaza, candy for your nose, ven aqui.”
If this new Big 5 were actually running world affairs, I would have more confidence in the resolution of conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and the rest of the world than with the world’s current roster of fraudulent problem-solvers.
Sheff G has a real talent for shrinking novels into compact one-liners. “Butterflies,” like much of his discography, pares the drill sound down to its bare essentials while still telling complex stories. He packs it into lines like “she say that it’s love, but this ain’t this,” and leaves the listener to fill in the blanks. This is a talent that’s on display all throughout his newest album, Proud Of Myself, which contains a few other fun tricks.
The intro song is 3 minutes where he samples about 15 seconds from each of the tracks to come, which seems simple, but this is only the second time I’ve heard an artist do this (the first being G Herbo’s intro to Welcome To Fazoland). You’ll also notice the use of spatial audio mixing where ad libs and other lines hit your ears from different angles. Another standout from the album: “Day And Nite Freestyle.”
One of the greatest and most innovative musical stylists of the past decade from one of the largest cultural and musical hubs of the world dropped a 36-song project a few weeks ago and I’m not sure it’s been written about in any major publication. 03 Greedo’s Crip, I’m Sexy is a sprawling, slightly messy (in the best way possible), and often electric body of work from the man with “Living Legend” tatted on his face.
It reads like a collection of loosies with an absurd list of feature artists from Philly’s walking demon, Skrilla, to maniacs from Flint and Detroit like Bfb Da Packman, Skilla Baby, Icewear Vezzo, Peezy, Louie Ray, and more, up to the Bay for collabs with ZayBang and DaBoii. There’s Doe Boy from Cleveland, and Wallie The Sensei and BLXST, right at home in the LA area. Did we mention Lil Uzi Vert is on two of the tracks? Production is handled by an enormous swatch of talented producers: Pierre Bourne, Lex Luger, Turbo, etc.
Aside from the death row of collaborators and guests, Greedo is just rapping his ass off from start to finish. The literal chains came off almost two years ago, but this rapping feels like he ripped off anything else that may have been weighing him down. He’s loose and lighthearted, but still snarling and sharp with pinpoint accuracy.
Every few days, there’s a new frontrunner for my favorite track. “My Gun,” with Peezy and Louie Ray sees Greedo doing his best T-Pain impression, singing his heart out with the melody from “I’m Sprung.” “Song 4 U 2,” with 22nd Jim and Zaybang is maybe the best song from the tape, with a beat that sounds like what would happen if you turbocharged a haunted children’s choir with elixir mixed by Mac Dre himself. On “Empty Pill Bottles & Bottega,” his melodies feel both stretched and tightly wound at the same time. Greedo is punchy and silly on tracks over the Flint beats like “Good Timing,” where Skrilla and Grindhard tear it down too.
Today’s favorite though is one of the two B-side cuts with Roy Woods and Wallie The Sensei. “Back End Freestyle,” has a shifting center point around which the song both revolves and evolves. He charges up for 40 seconds, repeating the mantra “Bands on me, solo dolo, wasn’t tryna flex,” like a hymn over a humming VHS reversal sounding beat. He extends the wailing from the outer layer he was building to tilt the atmosphere on its side before the Ferrari revs up and the beat turns the whole soundscape into a track meet. The hymn continues, as he adds slight tonal variations, before he launches out of a cannon to start the verse: “Bands on me, and my fit today cost a PATEK / Thom Browne, hard-bottom shoes when I step!” Just in songwriting and form alone, the song is inventive, but he’s executing the ideas like the Joker, throwing little twists in just for the hell of it.
There are moments throughout the tape where Greedo is sweet and sentimental; there are songs that feel almost sultry, and then there’s straight pedal to medal rapping that would compete with the best rappers, dead or alive. Greedo is freewheeling here, mixing finesse with power in a way that only someone like Magic Johnson in the 80’s could. The project is easily his best post-prison release, other than Project T-Pain which was actually recorded years prior, and it should be a shoo-in for one of the top slots in our year-end rankings.
West Memphis, Arkansas’s Mudbaby Ru has a bouncy step that makes everything he says sound incredible. He could make a lecture on Hello Kitty sound like the hardest shit out, with the combination of his drawl and natural charisma. That’s not to discount the bars themselves, which contain sharp jabs and playful flexes, but that wide-eyed delivery is a real superpower.
Throw this in the bucket with Seiji Oda’s “lo-fi hyphy” gentle gigs. The Oakland art kids go right from a spiritual journey with a powerful healer into flashy muscle car shows to do donuts in the streets. It’s a perfect amalgamation of the city.
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