Wow there sure is a lot of new music coming out all the time. This blog only covers Bay Area gangster rap and its satellite regions in the Midwest and I am constantly playing catch up with all these new albums dropping endlessly. It's almost as if I would have to make this my full-time job in order to adequately cover this scene's musical output. Unfortunately no one is paying me to do this and even if they were I have career ambitions beyond sharing my dumb music opinions on the internet. So anyways, I'm going to try and cover a bunch of notable new projects this week with a short post about a different new album each day. Let's start with F.A. and Young Lox's Bakc 2 The Baysics:
"BaKC" "BAYSICS" Wordplay is fun!
F.A.
F.A. "Push a Hard Line"
The raw, gritty production on "Push a Hard Line" really sticks out on this album, which is mostly comprised of smooth retro-inspired beats that sound like they were selected by Young Lox. You can hear very clearly when there is a beat that F.A. probably picked because it has a real edge to it, but those are few and far between. The lack of variety in the production is definitely a downside on BaKC 2 the Baysics and it would be nice to see more rappers working outside of their comfort zone to prevent albums from sounding so similar from track-to-track.
Young Lox
This track is important because it features a hook and verse from the now-deceased Lil Levi. Levi released an excellent duo album last year with Lil Stu, Real Recognize Real, that I highly recommend. He was only 18 when he was killed and it's a real shame that we will never get to hear anymore music from this young rapper with so much potential. Lil Stu was supposed to drop a solo project last Summer presented by The Jacka, but I don't know what happened with that. Hopefully it comes out soon and features some more Lil Levi material.
Bagel with Lox
These two rappers putting out an album through Blow Money Records (Joe Blow's "label") is interesting: Young Lox used to be a part of The Jacka's Artist Records along with Joe Blow and released his first album, Loxycotin, through the label. He was later kicked out of Artist Records after a falling out, but it seems he's still keeping himself as closely associated with the label as possible. F.A. released his last album, Standing on My Own 2, through Blow Money Records, so I guess Young Lox is still cool with everyone on Artist Records by association or something.
Young Lox has a decent following for a young artist and fans of his will enjoy this album very much. If you are a fan of F.A. then you will think this one is just ok.
Young Lox has a decent following for a young artist and fans of his will enjoy this album very much. If you are a fan of F.A. then you will think this one is just ok.
What do you bros think of this album????
Btw happy April Fools' Day. I'm not clever enough to think of some sort of elaborate joke for this blog like making it a Boy Band appreciation website for one day or some shit. Do the world a favor and don't tell someone something that is entirely plausible and then be like "APRIL FOOLS HAHA YOU ARE SO GULLIBLE!" No one likes that guy.