


I don’t know how he can tell what’s a for-the-streets song and what works on an album, since it’s not like he stopped talking about selling drugs on either of his albums.
2 chainz mixtape cover plus#
So the construction of Freebase - six songs plus an intro track - is just about perfect. The new Freebase EP is 2 Chainz’ first mixtape since he got famous, and it makes the most of his strengths while utterly disguising his weaknesses.Ģ Chainz is still a somewhat limited rapper, a great guy for guest appearances but someone who can get a bit tiresome at album length. albums could work as mixtape tracks, and actually the only time he ever loses the thread is when he tries to devote entire songs to talking seriously about his struggle. Just about any of the tracks on his two B.O.A.T.S. His jokes and references were broad at the outset, his flow had an appealingly goofy I-know-this-is-dumb-but-that-just-means-I’m-going-to-yell-it-louder lunacy working for it, and he’s had a natural gift for hooks every since he learned to stop taking himself seriously. Rare among the current rap A-list, 2 Chainz has barely done anything to switch up his mixtape style for mainstream rap consumption. But 2 Chainz is a star because of mixtapes, because of ridiculously catchy smart-dumb earworms like “Spend It” and “Riot” that took their time crossing over and convincing the world that the middle-aged guy with the dreads from Playaz Circle was going to be a thing now.
2 chainz mixtape cover windows#
But I gave it this week to 2 Chainz’ big mixtape-world return Freebase, using the logic that it’s more consistently fun than any of the others and I’m more likely to be banging it out the car windows in a month or two.Ģ Chainz was a rap-industry hanger-on for so long that it’s still hard to believe that he’s a straight-up star now it’s been a solid decade since the nascent rap internet was guffawing about the idea of Tity Boi trying to beef with T.I. Next week, if things are slow, maybe one of them will get it. Any of those tapes could’ve justifiably gotten the nod, and there were a few others that I didn’t even get around to checking out. The low-key Atlanta rap weirdo Rome Fortune teamed up with the great producer Dun Deal for the Drive, Thighs & Lies EP. Low Pros, the duo of A-Trak and Lex Luger, came out with the tough, frenetic dance-rap experiment EP1. Beyoncé production mastermind Boots came out with WinterSpringSummerFall, a deep-dive into his own production ideas that features some appealingly terrible rapping. This week, though, we got a generous handful of mixtapes worthy of your attention.

Last week, for instance, was so barren that I ended up giving the nod to the Devil’s VIOLENCE, a violent experiment that I might actually hate. Some weeks, there will be absolutely nothing exciting happening, and some weeks we’ll get so many good mixtapes, often on the same day, that I practically bust an eye vein stressing about which one I’m picking. It’s funny how this Mixtape Of The Week business works.
