Welcome to Mixtape Saturday, a weekly roundup of great rap tapes around the web hosted by FADER contributor Meaghan Garvey. This week, she talks about Ca$h Out's puppy impersonations, Ibn Inglor's devastating debut and RJ's Khia fandom. Read more and download the tapes after the drop.
Ca$h Out, Ya Feel Me?, September 24th, 2013
Ya Feel Me? is GEN F alumnus Ca$h Out's third tape, and evidence that he's learned a few things since his March 2012 debut, It's My Time. For one, he's forgone quantity for quality. Ya Feel Me? is concise at 11 tracks, without any unnecessary skits. Perhaps because no song on his second tape, Keisha, was as successful as his breakthrough "Cashin Out," it seems he's studied what makes a hit in 2013, and hedged his bets accordingly while staying true to his own style. He's always been bolstered by a strong roster of producers, but he's especially nailed it here, with multiple appearances from Dun Deal, DJ Spinz, and Metro Boomin. Dun Deal's two contributions, "Pull Up" and "Addicted To Your Love" (co-produced by Spinz) are probably the tape's best beats. For his part, Ca$h Out has stepped his ad-lib game way up following a summer dominated by Migos. He peppers "One Call Away" with Nextel chirps and "Skirr" with skrrrts that sound like puppies. If anything here has the potential to rival the ubiquity of "Cashin Out" it's "Pull Up," which has a guest verse from Rich Homie Quan, an obligatory white girl, Miley Cyrus line and "turn up" written all over it. Will it take off on a national scale? Probably not, to be honest, but this is definitely Ca$h Out's most consistent tape so far, so he shouldn't be worried.
Highlights: Dun Deal and Spinz' production on the restrained, sophisticated drug-love ballad "Addicted To Your Love," which is sort of Ca$h Out's Miguel moment. Ca$h Out proclaiming on "4 Sho" that all his girls Smoke weed, watch Belly. Call me.
WTF: Once you hear the ghost of ATC's "Around The World" in "Why You Do Dat," it is impossible to unhear.
Ibn Inglor, New Wave, September, 20th, 2013
On his partly self-produced second tape, New Wave, Ibn Inglor rejects any likening to Kanye (he yells fuck comparisons on "Black Print / Justice"), but he knows it's coming. How could he not? The 20-year-old South Sider made a dark, sinewy, industrial tape that rages against the machine, complete with a bounty of Yeezus screams, not to mention a reference to Late Registration-era Kanye with the 18 years, 18 years line on "Waxxx." But where Yeezus directs its fury towards the systematic oppression of America at large, Inglor is focused on the suffocating violence of his hometown. This is why New Wave works, without feeling like a rip-off. Though it doesn't sound much like anything currently coming out of the city, New Wave is Chicago to its core, the resigned nihilism of drill expressed through scuzzy electronic experimentations. Chicago is the perfect setting for the Inglor's dead-eyed, instinctive lashing. Lyrically, he concisely nails the harshest aspects of life there, from the relatively benign (on "Cold Storm," he talks about riding his bike through a snowstorm) to the sickening (on "Scared," he bitterly rejects a girl's sexual advances because his friend just died.) With just nine songs, many of them under three minutes long, New Wave is lean and powerful. It explodes in a burning howl, then suddenly it's gone, leaving you in a cold sweat.
Highlights: The last minute of "Welcome" sounds like a Brenmar remix of Vatican Shadow. Inglor's devastating voice crack in "Everything." The verse from Drea Smith, the tape's sole guest, on "Fire."
WTF: "Everything" final left-turn 30 seconds, a Daft Punk-inspired breakdown that somehow works.
O.M.M.I.O. ("On My Momma I'm On") is the DJ Mustard-hosted debut tape from RJ, the Los Angeles rapper signed to YG and Mustard's Pushaz Ink label. RJ previously appeared on YG's Just Re'd Up 2 tape earlier this year, but other than that is pretty unknown (not to mention un-Googleable). The risk with a tape like this is that, by associating himself with Mustard's well-known sound, a low-profile rapper might come off almost negligible, serving predominantly as a vehicle for the beats—sort of the carrot sticks to Mustard's ranch dip. So it helps that RJ's style of rapping is interesting. While decidedly West Coast, there are moments where he leans towards a late '90s Cash Money flow: "Ride Wit Me" in particular contains more than a hint of BG influence. A handful of fellow new West Coast guys show up for features, including Pushaz Ink labelmates TeeCee4800 and Reem Riches, as well as ratchet & b up-and-comer TeeFLii. On the whole, RJ's not doing anything especially groundbreaking here, but if you like this vibe—spare, low-key, with slaps—he delivers.
Highlights: DJ Swish's straight G-funk beat for "Real G." TeeFLii's minimal hook on the Mustard-does-italo "Get It." How RJ really goes there with "Dickmatized"—you know you're doing something right when you're taking notes from Khia's book.
WTF: "From Time," off Nothing Was The Same, is audibly playing in the background of his "Relate Skit." I feel you, RJ.