Image via YB Puerto Rico/Instagram
Harley Geffner says that the lasagna marketing team went crazy with Garfield.
“I ain’t hidin’, whole time I been slidin’”
For someone who was on the run from police, HopOutBlick wasn’t exactly laying low. After a shooting in Northeast Philly left three teenagers dead, a judge wrote a warrant for his arrest in July. Just this week, after releasing the song “Double Koffins,” recording this interview where the above quote comes from, and releasing this studio vlog, he was arrested and is currently being held without bail at Philly’s Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility. He vehemently denied involvement with the shooting after rumors had been circling since April.
There’s no point in speculating since details haven’t been released, but Blick is deep in the new wave of Philly drill and often throws shots, both specific and vague on wax, so prosecutors are likely to attempt to admit his lyrics into evidence when the time comes. His music is as haunting as it gets, the exact type of thing that would scare supposedly well-meaning middle-aged white jurors.
“Double Koffin” barely even has a beat to speak of – it’s more of an ominous drone with some claps to hold it down. The sound effects before a villain hops out in a movie. The whole song is suspense-building. It’s incredibly minimal with no real drop except when he hits different flows, but it holds your attention in that anticipatory stage.
Blick and his boys are dressed in black and white, some masked up, toting weapons in the dark with florescent lighting flashing on them. Blick raps about splattering brains on his New Balances. He’s quick to name names and misdeeds, and it feels like some real Tay K type raps. There’s something extra sinister about this one, and I can’t figure out if it’s the minimalism, the video, or something that hasn’t clicked yet that makes it especially eerie. These are hall of fame bodybag raps.
Philly’s drill scene is exploding with talent, and like HopOutBlick, a lot of it is this spine-chilling and sinister. It’s morphed into its own singular off-shoot and is unlikely to be recognized sonically as drill when you think of the classic Chicago or NY styles, but it’s all in that hard-to-quantify swagger of the music. Drill is less a singular sound than it is a thematic concept. And Philly’s version feels like if G Herbo and Drakeo the Ruler had a baby who listened to Inergee beats.
1MERE and YungLiv have great chemistry here, going back and forth on the specific plays they were running, like one time they made someone think they were his friends so he booked a studio session for them and they came and robbed the guy with his own gun. That’s some cold-hearted stuff right there. You can almost picture them in the studio trying to one up each other imagining new and crazier scenarios.
The concept of this song is hilarious, though incredibly irresponsible in a real-life setting. YB Puerto Rico handles a hook explaining that he’s not showing up for his court date and court is going to have to come find him instead, and each of the following rappers jumps on the idea to explain all the things they’re doing instead of court and why. They’re blowing 100 bands in Vegas during arraignment. Stunna 4 Vegas is more vendetta-driven, so he isn’t going to court until they free his bros. The lawyer caught COVID, and if he can’t even fight the virus, then YB reasons, how can he expect him to fight for him in court?
When Big Sad is at his best, his music feels like a cool summer breeze washing over you at a block party. It’s music to listen to outdoors – cruising the city or just hanging outside on the block. Sad describes these exact situations – chilling with the homies, passing 40s and other muddled substances, doing donuts on the major street cutting through his hood, and his adventures with women. There’s a dread-head who blows big smoke involved.
After going viral on TikTok, YN Jay’s religious chant about his love for percocet and the perky dance has a remix with G Herbo and Sexyy Red. It’s such a dance-able groove – it’s silly and fun like Jay, but Herbo and Sexyy add a little bit of bite to the song, while still keeping it upbeat. Both of them jump off the numerical patterns Jay sets up, rapping about numbers of percs and ages they did them, each taking cues from Jay but with their own twist. Herbo sounds gruff, and rhymes “perc oranges” with “copping whips off show floors and shit,” while Sexyy flips it to Yerkies and her Yerky dance.
Each verse is better than the next – Herbo was introducing the girls to percs at 16, serving out his mama’s house, then Sexyy comes in hot ripping bars about how she likes it when her man smacks her with a gun during sex. She calls herself so toxic that after her, a man will need a nun. Then Jay caps it off with some playful bars about free samples, grills, and how much he misses selling work. It’s endlessly replayable.
Since we’re on the topic of Sexyy Red, Neph has the officially declared best remix of “Pound Town.” It’s three people in here who all do their thing but Neph is just so damn charismatic – he calls heroin his side piece and crack his main love before fantasizing about all the different places he can sell crack. At the end, the beat plays out while Neph argues about whether the opps’ biggest fear is the diamond tester or being broke forever.
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