Spring break is so close I can taste it. The beach, the babes, the bodies of water. All of that's in Columbus, Ohio, right? But, as you know, the only thing with a higher priority than midterms and vacation is mixtapes. That's what Stack That Cheese is for.
The Good:
I was going to make Cigarillo Music by Delaware-based group Base Gang my good mixtape this week. I had it all planned out about what I was going to say about it. "The album cover was just so indie, I had to listen." "The beats are so good, it's hard to stop listening to them." "Their flows and lyrics aren't the greatest, but the production more than makes up for it."
But then I came across Televisionn. Even though I already had a good mixtape picked out, I figured I could still give it a listen. If it was good, I'd download it. But good doesn't cover it. Televisionn is great.
That's not an overstatement. This mixtape is really that good. It might be my favorite since starting Stack That Cheese.
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| I imagine Marty McFly is responsible |
Televisionn is a very futuristic mixtape. With largely electronic production and Allee's eye on what's to come, it's clear the Indiana rapper is focused on more than just the present.
While the beats are good, Televisionn's real power lies in Allee's brilliant lyrics. From listening to him spit, it's clear he has a different perception of the world. He just sees it in a different light, and it reflects in his lyrics.
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| Binary code in your bloodstream can't be too healthy, though. |
"Evolution" is one of the many examples. His words are layered over a rising electronic beat. And throughout the whole song, Allee is on his A-game. Just look at this string of rhymes about 25 seconds in. "'Til my speech is impeached / I will preach over beats / I will reach out of reach / 'Til I sleep with a sheet / Take a seat in a jeep / And retreat to the streets of Indy where I compete with elites." That's a Das Rascist level rhyme scheme, but serious. And throughout the song, he sprinkles his clever wordplay, such as "Losing all my memories / 'Tile music's my identity" and "You know I don't exist in books and library souls / Slit my wrists and I bleed binary code."
But he doesn't stop at "Evolution." Every single song has this same amount of brilliance. And it's mostly done by just him. The production, writing, rapping, everything. He gets a few features on here that, surprisingly, match up with him pretty well. It makes one wonder what's in the water in Indiana if these kinds of rappers are just all over there.
It's honestly hard to explain just how good Televisionn is. It's so much better to just listen it. It's well worth it.
The Bad:
Congratulations to Caskey on becoming the first person in Stack That Cheese history to make it two consecutive weeks. Kind of. He was on Rich Gang: All Stars last week, and even though it was listed as Birdman's mixtape, it was still a compilation album, so I'm giving the honor to Caskey.
What's weird is that Caskey's song on Rich Gang, "FBGM," was one of the better ones on the mixtape. I actually like "FBGM" better than most of the songs on No Complaints. There's just something that's in "FBGM" that isn't on No Complaints.
Caskey is one of the newest signees to Young Money. He actually seems to be a little out of the ordinary for Young Mula, baby. Mostly because he has talent.
When Caskey raps, you can tell he has potential. His rhymes are pretty nice, his voice goes with the beat and he carries himself well. The only thing he's missing is flow.
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| Flow the iPod game probably wouldn't help much. |
Flow. That's all. If he had flow to accompany everything he does well, he might be in the good category. But that one thing makes you forget about everything he has going for him.
Take the song "Words." It starts off with just spoken word. If you do spoken word, you probably should have flow. (I'm assuming there's a less rap-like term for this with spoken word, but I'd rather stick with flow.) And yet his words seem to just run into each other, making it hard to distinguish what's important and when he wants to begin and end his thoughts. In spoken word, the flow has to serve the same purpose. But on "Words," that's all his rhymes are. Not a poem. Not art. Just words.
It's too bad, because he carries a really heavy message for hip-hop, talking about, well, "nigga." "You can say cracker, but I can't say nigga / So we get into conflict when we both sip liquor," he spits. It's hard to find someone addressing that in a song.
That's what I'm talking about. He has so much going for him. If he just had the flow, he could be a good rapper. He's worth keeping an eye on, but he still needs to improve.
The Re-dic-yu-lus:
Do you realize how many mixtapes are on datpiff? The answer is a lot. It shouldn't be hard to find a mixtape that re-dic-yu-lus in the sea of mixtapes that is datpiff. But today, it was nearly impossible. Every mixtape I found ended up just being bad. Sure, I thought about just saying they were re-dic-yu-lus, but I know how much ending up with the "re-dic-yu-lus" label on a mixtape can ruin one's career (Have you heard from Kyoto since this? Granted, you probably didn't hear from him before then, but still.) So I kept on searching.
And that searching paid off. Band Camp might be one of the most re-dic-yu-lus mixtapes I've ever heard. It's everything I could have ever wanted. Bad production? Check. Poor lyrics? Check. Features from little kids? Oh my God, check!
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| Lil Poopy will always be my favorite pre-pubescent pussy popper. |
There's just something about shitty lyrics rapped by a high-pitched preteen that I love. Ever since Lil Poopy, I've just been obsessed with pre-pubescent pussy poppers.
Before I continue, let me just clarify that 80 Bandz is not who I'm referring to with all this "pre-pubescent" stuff. He's definitely not very old, but his voice has at least dropped. It's his frequent collaborator Lil Duke that I'm now obsessed with.
Don't worry, 80 Bandz is plenty bad. "Fuck Em All" is one of many examples that back that up. In it, 80 Bandz overpowers the hood-rat beat by turning his vocals all the way up and not even following the beat. I can't even follow him.
But as soon as Lil Duke shows up on the same track, I'm suddenly more okay with the crappiness. His rapping style is mostly just yelling with his high voice and saying "nigga" a lot. And it's kind of adorable. I just imagine a little kid with braces and a squirt gun trying to be hood in the booth.
There are even features from other youngins! Like Loudpack! And Lil Budda ("I kill your whole family"). This is like the Cruel Summer of elementary school. I wish my elementary alma mater had a rap group. But I guess St. Monica's just wasn't as hood as 80 Bandz and Lil Duke.
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