Image via Bishop Snow/Instagram
Donald Morrison chooses Key Lime over Pumpkin, and it’s not even close.
I haven’t seen anything like CUZZOS since Pink Dollaz and Vixen Ent defined the first wave of jerkin’ fifteen years ago. The all-caps rap crew is a quintet of Los Angeles-raised women who went viral a few months ago with a stupefying rework of YN Jay and Louie Ray’s classic “Coochie.” “GOOCHIE MAYNE” finds Big I-N-D-O, TEAAWHY, Milly Mo, Jasscole and BB introducing themselves to the world as fully formed stars, complete with the comedic timing of well-trained actors. “Girl, post a pic, make him sick … I bet he wants to eat your ass,” Jasscole says in the skit that opens the video.
Most, if not all, CUZZOS videos begin with a skit. Take “I H8 HOME” for example, which shows a woman fighting with her man before exclaiming “I literally hate home!,” and walking out of the house, only to get into a packed Mercedes Benz filled with all her homegirls. The beat is pure West Coast bliss, with TEAAWHY matching the laidback energy, “my booty like an athlete, body on gym, and my brain like a mathlete.” Also featured on the groups 2023 tape TAKE 25, is a song called “U CAN DO IT,” which samples the Ice Cube hit of the same name, showing that the ladies have done their homework when it comes to studying the work of West Coast rappers who began their careers in pioneering rap crews. Yes, CUZZOS is the new NWA, I said it.
CUZZOS just released a new EP, STAY SAFE, complete with features from New LA luminaries like Remble and BlueBucksClan. It’s a short but sturdy offering that shows the group’s range while also giving each of its members time to shine apart from the pack. “INNA FIELD” featuring Remble is an immediate standout, “I hate a weak bitch in fishnets, looking like Patrick Star,” TEAAWHY says. Remble’s verse is almost laugh out loud funny to me. He’s mastered a flow that sounds sort of nerdy, well-studied and overly-eager. He begins his verse by just rattling off qualities of his dream girl and dream automobile in the tone a child uses when asking for presents from Santa Clause: “Dark skin, 23, 5 ’10, with no children/ Baby Benz, CLK350, no ceilings.”
There was near-pandemonium when Veeze brought out surprise guest Loe Shimmy at his show at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale last month. Loe is well-respected throughout Florida as your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper, a true artist in the sense that he can use his voice to convey complex emotions in ways others don’t even attempt to. He’s like Florida’s answer to Wallie The Sensei or Shordie Shordie, although you can hear the Kodak Black and 03 Greedo influence as well.
Loe Shimmy just released an excellent tape, Zombieland 2, with one of the most effecting and haunting intros I’ve heard this year. “Pray For Peace” is downright beautiful and inventive in almost every way. The flow is soothing yet inimitable, locking in and harmonizing with the sample at the center of the beat. It sets the tone for a record with few features and fewer misses. The video for “Dirty Soda Junkie” was shot at the aforementioned show in Ft. Lauderdale, with the rappers seen flexing money and freestyling outside of the tour bus immediately after performing.
Loe adopts to Veeze’s Walking-Dead-like flow, sleepwalking his way through a verse dedicated to cups so dark it looks like they’re drinking straight bitumen. Veeze himself continues his string of no-bad-verses, saying “I just mixed the red with the Wok, it looks like science class.” The other special guest that night was Florida rising star Wizz Havinn, who also makes a cameo in the video.
Maxo Kream’s music has grown more and more personal over the years. His best songs are stuffed with so many specific names and places that the listener has no choice but to believe what they’re hearing as true. It’s rare for me to believe anything a rapper says these days, but with Maxo it’s different. His vulnerability and clear-sighted perspective when recounting traumatic events leads me to believe Maxo is a reliable narrator, albeit not an altogether innocent one.
His meditations on the importance of family and all the bullshit that comes with it have been particularly poignant. That’s why I was sad to find out Papa Maxo, who graced one half of the cover of Maxo’s 2019 album, Brandon Banks, passed away in February. “No Then You A Hoe,” is a tribute to Maxo’s old man, a complicated figure for him, yet one he looked up to nonetheless. Maxo lets us in on his last moments, saying he sped down Highway 59 to meet his mom, Josh and Ju at the hospital, only to find out his father had passed ten minutes earlier.
“And I’m thankful for them talks we had over dinner at Pappadeaux’s
Real street legend, to me you was my papa though
Heart attack, a couple strokes, blood pressure, dementia
Papa Maxo was a soldier and through me forever living.”
Lefty Gunplay, also known as the famous gangbanger, is like a mix between the verbose Crip Mac and the late great MoneySign Suede. He’s known just as much for his rapping as he is for his interviews and online presence. So it only makes sense he would link up with LA’s greatest truth teller, the Stinc Team general Ralfy The Plug. “The Plug did 100 million on iTunes,” Ralfy brags on “Famous Joint.” Lefty more than holds his own, but the song definitely belongs to Ralfy at the end of the day, who’s lackadaisical flow better matches the production. A full tape between these two would be like 9/11 for 13-year-old No Jumper stans.
Bishop Snow starts rapping a few moments before the beat drops on “No Hitter,” giving his breathless-flow a momentum of its own separate from the simple piano loop that sounds as if it’s desperately trying to catch up to him. His delivery is both intense and emotive, reminiscent of West Coast greats like Tupac and Brotha Lynch Hung. Both Bishop and Doggystyleeee have a knack for channeling the immediacy and hunger of 90s rap, something that’s desperately missing in certain scenes today. The production, handled by AC3Beats, is sure to please anybody who’s spent a little extra on their stereo system this past year.
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