Image via CUZZOS/Instagram
About once a year, Donald Morrison desperately thinks he needs a PS5, despite never being a gamer.
Everyone stops to watch a burning car on the highway. It doesn’t matter that these fires are almost always linked to someone’s personal nightmare; it somehow taps into some sort of strange pathos and tragic beauty that mesmerizes humanity.
Before Kodak released the official video for “Catch Fire,” he released the official audio on Youtube – accompanied by shaky-cam footage of Kodak and his crew on the side of a road near a burning vehicle. Kodak holds a sheathed-sword and a roach clip pinching either a Black-N-Mild or small blunt. They appeared to have been driving by when they noticed the fire, parked their vehicles, got out and began a mixture of partying and ogling. It’s an eerie moment soundtracked by one of Kodak’s most poetic verses in recent memory. “I made my peace with my ghosts, so I can reap what I sow,” he says. The song is only a single shortened verse with an extended instrumental outro. A beautiful ode to feeling the pointlessness of existing without meaning, attempting to “catch fire” any way you can.
CUZZOS can’t lose this year. Their ear for beats, infectious west coast energy, and undeniable chemistry is a perfect formula for a post-new LA world. “Stay Safe” is further proof that cuzzos can easily hold their own for the entire length of an album. Hopefully, it’s coming soon.
Former Blue Sky Black Death producer Televangel got together two of the biggest characters in rap right now: Portland’s Milc and Seattle’s Nacho Picasso, for a 48 hour session of dope rhymes and debauchery. And Montage Music, available exclusively on Bandcamp, is one of the best underground tapes you’ll hear this year.
Depending on who you ask, Big Sad 1900 is the most consistent and hardest working rapper in LA. He’s creating a body of work not dissimilar to Nipsey Hussle’, a series of mixtapes with solo producers that all share a singular vision of life on the margins of regional gang culture. “I Eat Lobster” continues documenting Big Sad’s slow change from taco trucks to fine dining. He still has the best ear for beats in the entire LA County, and his ability to build a world through an onslaught of mixtapes is unmatched since the loss of Drakeo and Nipsey. My money is on Big Sad.
Blue Pesos and Duffy have overcome numerous setbacks, but never once turned their backs on the mission they came in the game with: to carry along the legacy of Drakeo and the nervous rap he created. “Undisputed” shows that Blue Pesos one of the most adept sons of Drakeo, mimicking and even adding to the slight cadence perfected by the Stinc Team general more than six years ago.
This is vintage Rx Papi. The infamous NY rapper has never stopped dropping albums and YouTube loosies. It can be hard to keep up with all the music. “Sidedoor Shorty” is a lowkey banger with RX pulling an almost whisper flow that reminds me of some of his earlier, less polished music, which has been some of my favorite of the past decade.
I haven’t been able to stop listening to the new El Cousteau albums, Merci, non Merci. Beyond the viral track with Earl, this is an extremely large step forward for the DC-raised rapper. What impresses me most is what El is able to do with his voice, whether it’s his inimitable flow or his high-octane adlibs. Every song is memorable.
There’s an eeriness surrounding the prescience of Gucci Mane’s verse in this Lil Durk song from 2022. That same year the feds are now claiming Durk was planning and executing the murder of Quando Rondo’s cousin in Los Angeles. It’s the beginning of yet another brutal chapter in the history of the Chicago drill scene. In “Rumors,” Durk and Gucci practically predict the future that certainty awaits Durk as he’s been charged with murder for hire in relation to the killing.
“Watch the shit you say, the feds be listenin’ to the music
And they gon’ take your lyrics and build a case and try to use it
D.A. dropped my murder, didn’t have evidence to prove it
I think my house is haunted, yeah, by who? The ghost of Pookie”
We rely on your support to keep POW alive. Please take a second to donate on Patreon!
