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Champain, the collaborative tape from Michigan stalwart Peezy and Baltimore rapper Yg Teck, has potently charismatic chemistry that Billboard-topping rappers can struggle to keep alive for two songs, let alone over a dozen. Yg Teck has a pinched-up pain coloring his triumph, occasionally resembling Nipsey Hussle with his crisp directness. By contrast, Peezy can sound like he’s muttering and humming oaths into your ear, one arm placed firmly on your shoulder so you know just how serious he is. Whether flexing their riches or taking stock of their failures, Teck and Peezy brand the tracks with their verses and bolster each others’ lyrics even when they’re not saying anything.
The most piercing moments on Champain are when the rappers put their past struggles in the present context. The tape’s title track offers a solemn prayer for all the hustlers who were once like them: penniless, desperate, and headstrong. “State Green” frets over the ever-looming threat of the justice system and marvels at how long they’ve spent under its hammer. But on “Work With It,” the rappers hint that peak performance doesn’t beget self-knowledge. “I came from nothing, I had to work with it,” Teck sings, “I ain’t have a whole lot I had to work with it / I invest everything, come from the dirt with it / To be honest, I don’t even know what I’m worth, n****.” His resigned delivery hits you in the gut before traveling back up to your brain.
Peezy, for his part, stresses a holistic view of wealth borne from a dire set of opportunities (“I’m from the mud, I came in this shit with nothing it’s all profit to me / We can’t get no regular jobs ain’t got no college degrees). He uses his verse to send a message back to his old self who doubted the vision (“Why get a job when I just made five thousand this week? / That’s how I thought when I was young, I was wild in the streets”). They're bitter memories, but they make the present-day triumphs all the sweeter.
