Season Finale

It feels like just yesterday when I emailed my blogs editor about a mixtape review-based blog. Not long after, I followed through with it. It was rough at first. Hell, it still is rough sometimes. But I slowly started building a blog-writing formula that I have stuck with week after week (for the most part). And I've honestly really enjoyed it. But with the school year coming to an end, so must this blog. But come August, Stack That Cheese will be back and better than ever.

The Good:

King Los - Becoming King

Los was a Baltimore rapper who gained a pretty decent following due to his quick delivery and wordplay. But Los is no more. He goes from Los to King Los in a matter of minutes on the title track of Becoming King.

He begins with just talking about his goals, saying, "If I can do one thing in the world, it would be to inspire just one person" as the beat filled with cymbals and electric guitar builds and builds. As he reaches the conclusion, he begins his rap. And right away, the listener just knows he witnessed a transformation from a rapper to a king.

From there on out, King Los just rides that momentum to put together a fantastic mixtape.

While the king could certainly do that on his own, he brings along company to prove just how royal he truly is. With features from some of the biggest names in rap, from Diddy to Wiz Khalifa to Ludacris, it's clear this king has quite the court.

"Disappointed" is the song that features both Diddy and Ludacris. While Diddy's just there for the chorus, Ludacris is there to spit a great verse. One of his best lines is, "I can get a little cocky / Pulling off in my Kawasaki / Thousand dollar bottles of Saki / Taking shots to the head like Rocky." But, just like a true king, Los doesn't get outdone by his guests. His flow is crisp and his lines are empowering, making him stand out the most. "I move different and breathe different / Niggas cut me, I fuck around and bleed different," he says.

Another quality song is "Dope," featuring Pusha T and Yo Gotti. Yet again, the featured artists go all out, showing just how much respect they have for Los. Pusha delivers one of the best verses of any featured artist on Becoming King, saying, "King Los with the king pin / King Push about to king him / King's ransom for a kilo / Took mine and built a kingdom."

But King Los can also put together a great song by himself. "Hard Life" is one of those songs. He does the chorus himself, thanks to a little help from Auto-Tune. But it doesn't seem overdone when Los does it. And his second verse is so ridiculously good it's unbelievable. He comes in hard and quick and continues this pace throughout the verse. It's no wonder he's wearing the crown.

And the production on Becoming King is good, too. But the great thing about it is that it just seems to compliment Los. The listener can't be drawn into the production because he's so busy being drawn into Los.

Becoming King is quite ambitious, actually. Not only has Los taken on a new persona, but he's changed his being. He really is a king now. Los wasn't getting noticed enough, but thanks to Becoming King, it's all but certain King Los will be.

The Bad:

Future & FreeBand Gang - Black Woodstock

I'm not going to lie. I've gone pretty hard to some songs featuring Future. Everytime "Bugatti" by Ace Hood or "Love Me" by Lil Wayne comes on at a house party, I can't control myself. I may start shouting, "I woke up in a new Bugatti." And once I start, I can't stop.

"Hello my baby, hello my
honey, hello my ragtime bitch."

But every time I find myself in this situation, as I'm going HAM as hell, I can't help thinking, "How the hell is this dude famous?" Like, seriously, how is this dude famous? I don't get it. Maybe if he was a rapper and purely a rapper, I could get it. But he's not. That's not his call to fame. He's a singer. But in order to be a singer, don't you need to have a good voice? Apparently not, because Future sounds like a drunk frog and he still manages to do it.

I wish I could say that's harsh, but it's really not. It's the truth. Take the song "Keys" for example. He sings the chorus and he sounds horrible. Like if there was a ghetto karaoke bar, he would be performing there. But that doesn't stop Future. He just shouts out, "I know keeeeys" like it's nothing.

And then he raps the verses, but he's incomprehensible in those. I try to understand him, but I can't. I saw a comment on the album from some random Hot New Hip-Hop member saying that Future sounds like he stole Mike Jones' flow. And I can't help but notice how true that is. But why would you do that? Mike Jones' biggest song is "Who is Mike Jones?" Even Mike Jones thinks he's irrelevant.

This theme continues throughout the whole mixtape. "Take This 4 Granted" is another good example. Once again, Future sings the chorus, but this time, it's even less clear than before. He continues his singing into the verse, but it's still not clear. If you're going to release music, shouldn't it at least be possible to understand you?

But this mixtape also belongs to his crew, who apparently goes by the name "FreeBand Gang." And it's just a collection of people who are even worse than Future. The song "Blow Them Bands" is a song by Stuey Rock featuring Future. I was hoping for this to be good because most songs featuring Future manage to at least get the listener pumped up. But the beat here is just cheesy and Stuey Rock is intolerable. He sounds like a mix between a bad hair band singer and a 14-year-old who just discovered how to use Auto-Tune.

There's also a rapper on Black Woodstock that goes by the name of Casino. He might be one of the better members of the FreeBand Gang, but his flow is basically just him shouting into the microphone. Try listening to three minutes of that.

I don't think I'll ever get the hype behind Future, especially after Black Woodstock.

The Re-dic-yu-lus:

Soulja Boy - Foreign 2

What better way to end Stack That Cheese's year than with Soulja Boy? Answer: probably a lot of things. But Soulja will do.

Soulja Boy's been on Stack That Cheese before, but I spent most of the time talking about his olden days of "Crank That." Now I actually have to listen to it and just make fun of current Soulja Boy. Ugh. 

Soulja Boy's kind of like the human version of Lil B. He shouts out random sylables ("Wah!"), he makes horrible metaphors and he's just laughable. The only difference is that there is no suspicion that he's just joking around. He's completely serious. Which might make him even funnier.

Cake and a pussy. It's Soulja Boy's dream.

Take the song "Yea Yea." I don't even understand where he's trying to go with it. Over a repetitive beat, he just shouts out lines like "SBZ, I should be on the Lakers." At one point he just says, "Cake cake cake / I want that cake, cake, cake." Wait, what?

"Soulja Walk" is another fun song. The beat is better now, with some nice bass and synths that actually make it somewhat tolerable. Until Soulja starts rapping, that is. The chorus just consists of "Walk, walk, walk / Soulja walk, walk, walk" and it goes about 30 seconds too long. And his lines are just plain stupid, like "Shawty right here / All on my pants / Shawty right here / Go and do your dance." And this is all while shouting every one else's catchphrases, like "swerve," "swag" and "turn up."

There is a song featuring Sean Kingston, so that's cool, I guess? If you weren't excited for the "Crank That" nostalgia, then you should be about that "Beautiful Girls" swag. And this song, entitled "Everybody Hoe," is just up there with the sweet songs of Kingston's past, as he sings "That's not your girlfriend / That's everybody hoe." Aww, how sweet, Sean. The best part about Kingston being involved is that it gives the listener a break from Soulja Boy.

This Soulja Boy mixtape was a lot less fun than the last one. I think the further I get in years from "Crank That," the more I hate it. I can't believe I used to like, nay, love that song. I guess we all have regrets. For some, it's that embarrassing bowl cut. For me, it's Soulja Boy. Yah, trick, yah.

-X-Prime, dropping the mic for now

@xprime_time

Post 11Fest Edition

I've mentioned Kendrick Lamar's newest album multiple times on Stack That Cheese. I love the thing. So when I found out Lamar was coming for 11Fest, I just about cried. So, to celebrate his recent appearance at 11Fest, I decided to dedicate a blog to him.

The Good:

Rich Kidd - In My Opinion

When I saw the title of In My Opinion, I was expecting to hear a weak album. The name just screams cockiness and a lack of creativity. And it was by some dude named Rich Kidd, I was even more put off. But then I heard it.

Rich Kidd doesn't have the most meaningful lyrics all the time, but his flow is ridiculous. With a deep voice and a quick delivery, he manages to make every song better.

And that's another thing about Rich Kidd--he self-produced all of In My Opinion. And it's very well produced, taking in multiple different influences to create a clearly unique mixtape.

Take "On My Face" for instance. It has African drums turning to an electronic breakdown before combining both of them. This makes for a crazy beat. It's really just a journey, never knowing exactly what comes next.

This also happens to be one his most meaningful songs, admitting just how hard he's been having it while trying to pursue his career. Really makes me think about his name.

Rich Kidd must've called in the Dream Girls.

Even his interludes are extremely interesting. The interlude "Can't Buy You Love" is probably one of the most intriguing, having a lengthy chorus to begin it with a Supremes-mixed-with-Aretha-Franklin group repeating, "Money can't buy you love." That made me think twice about his name.

Before I listened to In My Opinion, I didn't think I would like his mixtape. How stupid do I feel? Not only was he a pretty creative rapper, but an even more creative producer. And he had great flow and pretty good rhymes, too. Just teaches you never to judge a book by its cover, kids!

The Bad:

Kendrick Lamar - Hub City Threat: Minor of the Year

That's right, Kendick Lamar came out with a mixtape just days after 11Fest. But in non-Kendrick fashion, it's absolutely horrible. It sounds like he digressed to his 16-year-old self again. One of the cans thrown on stage must have hit him in the head and made him a bad rapper.

Psych! While Hub City Threat is a new release from the Compton artist, it's not a new mixtape. This was actually 16-year-old Kendrick Lamar's mixtape that was just discovered and released to the general public. And let me tell you, age has been very good to Kendrick.

You know the song "Backseat Freestyle?" You know, the one where Kendrick pretends to be 17 again and freestyles? And you know how it would be really bad if he was being serious, due to the fact that the premise is that of him being able to "fuck the world for 72 hours?" Well, imagine a whole mixtape of that--a serious 16-year-old being ratchet as hell.

It has exactly what you would expect from a 16-year-old, too. It has a couple songs with the beats from other, more popular songs of the time, such as "Go DJ" and "Drop It Like It's Hot." The latter is actually pretty entertaing, like a more rap-based version of Snoop Dogg's version. But when it features a chorus of "For my niggas that know right, K-Dot is hot," then it's hard to actually take him seriously. 

And his songs are very clearly written by a 16-year-old. They're sex-fueled, alcohol-fueled and drug-fueled, just like any teenager's thoughts.

It's an interesting listen, though. Knowing what Kendrick is now--a poetic master of storytelling--it's astonishing to think that he was once not awesome. And also, with good kid, m.A.A.d city being Kendrick's anti-drug epiphany when he was 17, it gives the listener a look into Lamar's life before it all.

He's actually not horrible, though. As far as teenagers go, he's pretty good. His voice sounds more like a young Juelz Santana and his flow is pretty interesting. It's just unsettling knowing how little of his potential he was living up to at the time. Thank Based God he's living up to him.

The Re-dic-yu-lus:

Young g da beast - The Competition

Names like Young g da beast are exactly why I write Stack That Cheese. It's so beautifully bad that it's perfect. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there's another Young g da beast out there, which makes it even better.

And it makes me even happier when the rapper is just as bad as his name. And Young g makes me very happy.

Speaking of "Backseat Freestyle," Young g has a cover of it entitled "Backseat Gstyle." What's even crazier than the title is that Kendrick purposefully sucking is better than Young g actually trying. For one, Young g is almost incomprehensible. He also copies a lot of Kendrick's transitions, but just follows those transitions with much worse lines. Such as his line, "I got 25 lighters on my dresser, yes sir / That old-school mix got a nigga feeling player." And that was actually supposed to rhyme.

He also covers Tyga's "Rack City." And once again, Young g is incomprehensible and worse than the original.

But Young g also has some original songs. Such as "mind state og." The beat is alright, but a little too bubbly for Young g's style. Young g's flow doesn't even match up with the song. I wish I could quote a bad line by him, but I don't think you understand how hard it is to hear him. He's that bad.

I didn't really expect anything better from a guy named Young g da beast. Okay, I at least thought he would know how to work recording equipment and wouldn't rap while playing chubby bunny. But no, Young g couldn't even do that.

King Remembered In Time

I'm going to do something a little different this week. Normally, I go over three mixtapes varying in quality in mini-review form. I do this because, while I have respect for mixtapes, I do realize they shouldn't be treated the same as albums. There are exceptions to this rule, though. Joey Bada$$'s 1999 was a major one last year. And this week, another exception has arisen, so I feel it's only fair to give it the full ACRN treatment. I'm going to review it just like any other album, because that's what it deserves.

Big K.R.I.T.: K.R.I.T. (King Remembered in Time)

Rating: 8.5/10

Community used to be something important--it was what people identified with. They were proud of their community and they would do anything for it. At least, that's what our parents tell us. With the rise of the Internet age, community became less about who we lived by and more about who we associated with online.

The same can be said about rap. Community used to be something. It was an influence on rappers, as they based their sound on their community. It was so important to some that they were willing to literally die for it. Now, not so much. Sure, rappers still “rep” where they're from, but it's no longer such a strong identifier. A Bronx rapper could sound the exact same as someone from Compton and no one would think twice about it.

But there are exceptions to the new Internet age. Big K.R.I.T. is one of those exceptions. K.R.I.T. is as Southern as Southern gets and he stays true to his roots, constantly mentioning artists like UGK and Outkast in his songs.

Songs like “Banana Clip Theory” are so Southern that they feature smooth jazz influences. As the saxophones lull the listener into a chill mindset, K.R.I.T. lightly raps over the beat in a hushed voice and lyrics that are as good as anything he's written. As K.R.I.T. raps the words, “Cause if you draw down first you'll be the man / Then you'll pop the trunk and demand / That respect, if they neglect,” the Southern rapper takes an introspective look at how closely assimilated guns and power have become.

Other songs, like “Good 2Getha,” sound very much like Outkast in their glory days, as K.R.I.T. channels his inner Andre 3000 to put together a fun, danceable song that could get anyone in their groove.

What makes King Remembered in Time so good is that K.R.I.T. combines the territorial style of his with that of the new-fangled Internet age.

The song “REM” is one of the most beautifully produced tracks that K.R.I.T.'s ever come out with, as the rapper shows his production chops off (just like he does on all but one song on the mixtape). The beat combines a surprisingly good piano riff, a quick drum beat and a James Blake sample to stand out as one of the best songs on the album. The fact that K.R.I.T. is more than willing to sample James Blake shows just how modern he is.

Big K.R.I.T. proves that he is one of the best up-and-coming rappers in the game. With his complex rhymes, deep lyrics and masterful production, K.R.I.T. manages to blend his Southern hospitality with modern concepts. This helps him become more than just a mixtape rapper-- he's a bona fide MC.

ACRN Week Special

This week, ACRN is turning 42. That's crazy! Forty-two years of music have gone by in the span of ACRN's existence. I've been alive for less than half of that impressive run, and Stack That Cheese has been around for an even shorter amount of time. While it would be nearly impossible to figure out what were the best releases in the span of ACRN's 42 years, it's fairly plausible to be able to do that for Stack That Cheese's run. So, why not do that? Let's look back at the year thus far and hand out awards to the best and most re-dic-yu-lus mixtapes that have been covered in Stack That Cheese.

The Best:

This was extremely difficult to figure out. There have been a lot of quality mixtapes that I have covered in Stack That Cheese's relatively short existence--so much so that I felt I had to split up this category. Because mixtapes can come from much different circumstances, I figured it would only be fair to separate the major releases from the mixtapes that barely made a splash.

The Best Major Release:

OCD: Moosh & Twist - Back to the Basement

This is one of the newest "good" mixtapes and that means that this award could have been affected by my emotions surrounding it being fairly recent. Hell, I'm pretty certain that's the reason I still like this mixtape so much.

But it's still such a good mixtape. I wrote about why I liked it already, obviously. But I might as well explain why it beat out it's biggest competitors.

One of Back to the Basment's biggest competition was Action Bronson's Rare Chandelliers. As I said when I reviewed it, it was just so brutal. And in the best possible way. Action Bronson is just an overall scary person and it comes out on Rare Chandelliers.

This was the hardest to decide. For one, Rare Chandelliers by far has the best cover of any mixtape that I reviewed. How could you not love a .gif for a mixtape cover? Secondly, Action Bronson has one of the best Twitters of any rap artist. His randomness is up there with Tyler, the Creator. However, if the things I remember most about your mixtape are your cover and how it led me to some great late-night tweets, then there are probably some better mixtapes out there.

The other dark horse for this category was Hoodie Allen's return to quality rap on Crew Cuts. This one was much easier because as I was deciding just which mixtape was the best, I realized the song I go to most on Crew Cuts is the one featuring OCD. And if OCD was the best part of Crew Cuts, then a mixtape of only them must be great.

Best Underground Release:

Blake Allee - Televisionn

This one wasn't even nearly as hard. In fact, the reason I made this a category was because I didn't want to try to figure out whether I liked this mixtape better than Back to the Basement or not. It just sounded like a daunting task that I wasn't ready to conquer.

This one is easily Blake Allee's to lose. Televisionn is the most creative mixtape that I've listened to all year. The beats are so different than what anyone else is doing, his lyrics are riddled with clever wordplay and complex rhymes and it has a really intelligent theme.

Sure, there was competition. Rubixx's To the Third and Cinos' #ChaosControl2 were among the biggest standouts. But neither were nearly as creative as Televissionn, along with having their own problems. So, the fake award goes to Allee.

Biggest Disappointment:

Pusha T - Wrath of Caine

I already went over why I didn't like this mixtape all that much, so I'm not going to bore you with me explaining it again.

Instead I'm just going to say why it was so disappointing.

Pusha T has always been a good rapper, going all the way back to his Clipse days. Wrath of Caine, though, was really his first major solo release. After being such a great rapper beforehand, both as one-half of Clipse and in various guest spots, it was expected to be fantastic. Instead, it was just mediocre. 

Now, if this category was the worst mixtape, Pusha T wouldn't be even close. It was probably among the best of "the bad." However, it shouldn't have even been bad. He's better than this. But on Wrath of Caine, he didn't prove it.

Most Re-Dic-Yu-Lus:

Lil Poopy - Coke Ain't a Bad Word

Was there anyone else who even had a chance against Lil Poopy? He's like a mini French Montana who's not even that good at a normal size and after actual experience. That's perfect. The only thing cooler would be if 2 Chainz had a mini-me. Now that would be amazing.

Another thing to say for Poopy is that he got me hooked on these little kid rappers. They're hilarious! Screw Degrassi, little kid rappers are my new guilty pleasure.

Sorry, Drake

Most Based:

Lil B - Pink Flame

Ok, some one could have beaten Lil Poopy out for most re-dic-yu-lus. But that's not fair to Lil Poopy if I put him up against Based God. And I'm not about to pick on a little kid. (It's funny, because by judging an eight-year-old's rapping skills, I am kind of picking on him.)

This might have been the toughest category to judge over all. I mean, how does one even begin to judge a mixtape's basedness?

Well, for starters, it must be by Lil B. That narrowed it down to three.

After that, I was lost. What makes a Lil B mixtape so based? Is it his clever wordplay? His brilliant lyrics? His bumping beats?

After many days of intense thought, I realized that basedness is not a measurable quality. It's something that's just unexplainable, like the size of the universe or whether the chicken came before the egg.

So I left it up for the Based God to decide. I printed out a picture of each mixtape cover and threw them up in the air. And then, Pink Flame was struck by lightning, thus symbolizing that it was so based.

That and "Eat" is one of my favorite Lil B songs of all time. Thank you, Based God.