Shouts out to Combat Jack for hosting a Saturday barbecue on Grand Street in Brooklyn, where I was delightfully poisoned by a booze slushee that the caterer called "a Rihanna." Forty ounces deep and $63.38 in total Uber fare later, I was upright and exhausted on 144th Street, furious that a southbound M101 just zoomed past me like that, in literally my darkest hour. I was bumping that Barter 6 in my headphones, however, and all was right with the world.
Justin Charity is a writer for Complex. Follow him @brothernumpsa.
Lee Mazin "FAYF"
Released: April 11, 2015
My love for Meek Mill is well-document on this very website. Still, I kinda resent that Lee Mazin's vague affiliation with Dreamchasers has inspired her to rap like Meek on 93 percent of her songs. "FAYF" is the exception, however. From Mazin's latest mixtape, No Love Lost, "FAYF" is an anti-scrubs rant and obvious highlight that will hopefully, finally eclipse her 2013 collaboration with Lil Snupe, R.I.P.
Travis Porter "Twerk for Travy"
Released: April 14, 2015
I'm not entirely thrilled with this tape, but then I'm not one to turn my nose up at a contemporary tribute to that ol' "Percolator"/"Supersonic" bop steez. "Twerk for Travy" fills that prescription, and bonus points go to "Finesser" for sounding like an ice palace nightclub from Final Fantasy V.
Jaden Smith "Offering"
Released: April 14, 2015
Listen, I'm a natural born hater, and so it brings me no joy to be participating in the proliferation of a Hollywood trillionaire's bored kid. Thing is, said kid can rap. "I'm breathing like the weather" is the sort of casually supernatural stunt that neither Yung Lean nor L. Ron Hubbard could mimic, not even at the height of their powers. Are Kendrick Lamar and Jaden Smith bringing jazz back? Will Q-Tip feature on the remix?
Young Thug "Numbers"
Released: April 17, 2015
A scrap of the strongest songwriting on Barter 6 ("Wait, let me pick up his remains"), and my second-favorite beat. "I swear to God, I want tears from your mother" is the credible sort of threat that you read in the bloodied diary of a madman. Barter 6 offers more quotables than I could bother counting in my review of the album, which you can read here.
Just Blaze "Inhuman Nature"
Released: April 17, 2015
Ludacris' first verse over this beat is strong, but then it's a big waste once that showgirl hook sets in and Luda starts "living in the fast lane" and whatnot. If I wanted to live out the various cliches of an action protagonist of the 1980s, why, I'd just listen to the instrumental version of Luda's "This Has Been My World," which, in fact, Just Blaze released a few days ago. It's a "Human Nature" flip, and I'm surprised that Quincy Jones would let this live for longer than 20 minutes on SoundCloud, given Quincy's public record of distaste for hip-hop production.
