PLUGGED IN: May 2021
Your monthly dose of essential rap music listening (does NOT include the rest of the essential records of the month covered through other written content, podcast reviews and interviews, or Patreon-only content).
2 Dolla Will & BLOODBLIXING - BUTTE BEER: GANGSTA EDITION
The track titles of BUTTE BEER are stylized in the same way as Mach-Hommy’s famed albums The G.A.T. and Luh Hertz, that is just about the only thing about this album that you can get from somewhere else.
BUTTE BEER is a ruthlessly addicting and exhilarating 21 minutes, with an energy that has not been replicated by anything else I have heard all year.
On one hand, Butte Montana’s 2 Dolla Will makes me laugh (often) with his soccer mom and tweaker stories, equipped with a confident self-aware charisma that allows him to pull off such an out-there style. Additionally, Will’s word choices and way he tells paints a picture is top-notch, and makes this a genuinely impressive lyrical effort.
On the other hand, the entertaining lyricism is paired with gritty and psychedelic masterpieces of sound, laced by legend-in-the-making BLOODBLIXING.
Some moments impress due to the trademark dirty in-your-face drums from Blix, but others wow me due to the insane psychedelia stemming from these samples. Blix has a phenomenal knack for manipulating sound, with the higher frequencies getting heavy use, with insanely bright soul samples and warped synths (I think?) that are SO infectious.
Track 10 is a song of the year candidate, with mesmerizing production and great raps that define exactly what makes this album so brilliant.
The icing on the cake are the features, with great features from all of the guests, particularly yung regis and the incomporable Iceberg Theory to close out the album.
You need to listen to this album, and tap into a burgeoning movement of highly creative rap being made in the underground… and make sure to turn the volume UP.
RMPP Preferred Cut: “BUTTEEEEEEEEEE!”
Stream/Buy on Bandcamp
Check out my interview with 2 Dolla Will here.
Check out my interview with BLOODBLIXING here.
Cadence Weapon - Parallel World
(dropped on April 30th, but close enough!)
Canada isn’t some post-racial model society. Yet, both within its borders and outside, it is often portrayed as such. For people of colour in the country, this kind of rhetoric can be an eye-roll at best, and genuinely troubling at worst.
Toronto-based rapper sets his sights on shining a much more realistic light on the country, with biting lyricism that touches on racism, governmental corruption, and its relationship with technology usage… a very apt angle to an album that sounds like it could’ve came out in 3021.
Simultaneously, he is also hell-bent on pushing the typically drab melancholy R&B/rap Drake knock-off Toronto music scene forward (can you tell I don’t like this kind of music??), cultivating a sound that is futuristic and high-energy.
These instrumentals are tremendously dynamic, laced with electronic keys, trap drums, all put together with a refined attention to detail that sees these songs evolve and progress in a very climactic fashion.
From the buzzsaw of an opening track that sets the tone, both lyrically and instrumentally, Parallel World never loses steam. Cadence’s impassioned flow and cutting-edge production certainly contribute to this point, along with skillful songwriting found in the structure of songs and the hooks.
Tracks like “SENNA” and “WATER” feature so many entertaining elements that make these songs so catchy and explosive as hell.
Parallel World flows remarkably well, sporting a trim 27 minute playtime that still gives you enough to chew on lyrically… ultimately painting this picture of a dystopian future very vividly.
RMPP Preferred Cut: “WATER”
Stream/Buy on Bandcamp
2 Dolla Will & Iceberg Theory - Butte Chips
2 Dolla Will had a busy and very productive May. Will’s collaboration with Iceberg Theory was another supremely entertaining album from the Butte rapper.
This time around, instead of being given loud psychedelic production from BLOODBLIXING, Iceberg Theory created colourful jazzy production that was remarkably smooth and classic in feel. Being introduced to Iceberg through his impressive rapping catalog with August Fanon in particular, it has been amazing to see this artist produce so much work, and get better with each and every project. Butte Chips is the BEST production Ice has delivered to-date. Silky smooth brass, nicely layered samples and drums make this album very satisfying musically.
Will does what he does best, dropping more bars on his hometown of Butte, MILFs, soccer moms etc. But, in comparison with Butte Beer, Will leans into the smooth-talking more than ever before. Likely due to the production, 2 Dolla really waxes poetic on this project, always knowing what oddly-specific details to include in these hilarious stories of encounters with wild soccer moms.
This is a great listen front-to-back, so make sure you check this one out… and look out for Butte Chips 2 coming soon!
RMPP Preferred Cut: “George Costanza”
Stream/Buy on Bandcamp
Check out my interview with 2 Dolla Will here.
For more quality hip-hop content, listen to/watch The Rap Music Plug Podcast wherever you’d like: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / YouTube.
