Future, Juicy J & Project Pat, PFG & J Cole, Bizzy Crook, Raz Fresco

This is Friday to Friday, your weekly rap wrap-up going through our favorite releases in rap and hip-hop from Friday, July 10th to Friday, July 17th. My name is Jacob. I'm a mixing and mastering engineer from California and your host for today and I have with me co-host, producer, and artist manager hailing from Montreal, Canada, Matt Carriker. >> Yo, what's good? >> Before we get into talking about our favorites from this week, here's the full list of projects released. We got Future with The Real Me, Raz Fresco with Y equals self, EBK Young Joc with Man in the Mirror, Chuck Strangers with Glory of the King's Hand, Sosamula with Young Plane Crash, Juicy J and Project Pat with Them Goats, Slayer with Avant Nova, Youngin Ace with Pain and War Is Art, BFB Da Packman with God Blessing All The Fat 2, OTM with Cold Demons 2, Trae Loaded and Bankroll Got It with A Long Way From No Way, PFG with Never Say Die fully produced by J. Cole, Lil Cliff with IDK I Just Got Here, Kevon Money with She Love Me Not 2, Slimedup Twin with MIC, Bizzy Crook with Underdogs Win Eventually, Lance Skiiwalker with #inviteonly, KB with This Cannot Be Sold, Sango with Rhythm & Melody, Baby Smoove with Baby 2, and lastly, Rack Baby with Still Spillin. We're going to talk about a few of our favorite releases starting off with PFG Never Say Die. This was an interesting project because this is completely produced by J. Cole. It's the first project that he's produced for another rapper and we're continuing to see it be a year of a year of producers this year. But, PFG is a relatively unknown rapper, but he is from Fayetteville, same as J. Cole himself. Uh, it's interesting to me how Cole was just talking on The Fall Off about having this leftover hate and like this beef for these rappers from Fayetteville. He had that song about that, and this guy isn't like a new act coming out of Fayetteville, like Sai for example. PFG is a couple years older than J. Cole. So, it's wild that he's like waiting till he retired to put this guy on. I mean, it's a little confusing. I'm just It's like It seems like it's all love, but I'm just curious what the story behind that is. Did he know this guy since forever and he's just now working with him, or is this someone that he like patched it up with that he used to not be cool with maybe? >> Mhm. Could be like just a time and optics thing to Like, when you're at a certain level, it's like you can't always be helping every single person and like >> Yeah, he needed to do everything he needed to do in his own career till he had the time to prioritize other artists, sure. But man, it was wild watching PFG's monthly listeners skyrocket over the week. >> Yeah. >> When I first saw the project right when it dropped, he had less than 500 monthly listeners. And when I checked, uh, like halfway into the week, he was at 50,000, and when I just checked today, day of recording, he is at 130,000. >> Mhm. >> So, he just like blew up overnight from this project. So, shoutout to Cole for giving him such a big look. There's some fire on here, too. I like Mighty Mouse is one of the songs featuring J. Cole. He had J. Cole had a few verses on here. I like Mr. Bigs in Rotation Left, End of the Day. And then the song Whole House, it's a very J. Cole-style trap beat. It really sounds like something off of KOD. And then 910 We Get Active. Yeah, like I really like that that first half. >> Mhm. Those are all really strong for me. >> In rotation left with such a like a Cypher type beat. It would it would have been nice to kind of hear features on it but also like maybe that just wasn't what they wanted through this project. But it's so weird and interesting just to hear again a guy that we've been hearing rapping for God knows how long and then to hear him or not to hear him like the production and see just from that standpoint what he can do. It's honestly it's it's it's kind of impressive. It's like it's not that the beats are super complex or anything but the sound selection and what was picked everything sounds good. Nothing was like you know weird production choices. >> Yeah, I like the production choices. A lot of it reminded me of like A Tribe Called Quest inspired with some of the sample choices. >> It sounded fun. Like it sounded like he's having genuine pleasure in like putting beats together and figuring out and And I mean like hey if that's what if he's at a point where that's what he could just do all day every day to for other artists. That's I mean that that sounds like the life for sure. >> Yeah, he definitely loves producing you can tell. Yeah, so that is PFG with Never Say Die produced by J. Cole. All right, let's get into the big one. Let's go ahead and talk about Future The Real Me. I'm not going to call this a highly anticipated album. I think it it got announced two or three weeks before it came out and it had only one single I think, right? >> Oh Radio, that's what it was Radio. And I and I remember specifically thinking again it was a good song but like it's it's it just it wasn't sticky. It wasn't you know I I didn't save it but that's kind of how I feel about the album too where it's like everything was okay and good for what it was. >> Mhm. >> But I I didn't get that like like usually off a Future album I get those two three four saves where I'm like this is going to be something I'm going to run for the rest of the year but >> Mhm. Yeah, yeah. >> Yeah. I didn't I didn't get that. I It does feel like there's something missing, especially if Radio is the only, you know, single, but >> Yeah, and Radio we were talking about how that was kind of a safe choice for a single, and so I was expecting it to not be a standout moment on the album, but surprisingly, when I got to Radio, I was like, "Actually, this kind of is one of the best songs on here." Which is like, you know, >> Is that a good thing? >> Yeah, is that a good thing where where where it's a safe choice? It's kind of hard to say. >> This was a weird listen, honestly. To me, it kind of felt like, I don't know if you had if you remember the Lil Uzi Vert and Future album that they put out together. >> Yeah. >> Where the entire time I was listening, it just felt like there was something missing, and that's the kind of same feeling I got where I think the concept of the album and it being Future getting more raw, I think to me is more appealing than what the actual album sounded like. >> Yep. He was going for something, and it's a cool idea, but the reality of the music isn't like necessarily the best Future album. It's not the worst. I mean, there's nothing bad, but it's just also not exciting. It took me a bunch of listens through the album to even like decide if I wanted to playlist anything, because there wasn't like big standout moments where I was like, "Oh, this is like a Future heater right here. This is the one I was looking for." Nothing compared to some of the standout stuff in Future's catalog. But, you know, to talk about some of the some of the good tracks on here, Trench Coat was a super fire ATL Jacob beat. Radio we mentioned. 2018, I don't I didn't like this song, but it was just pretty hilarious with Future hitting that ridiculously high voice that he did. I guess was that 2018 that uh >> Yeah, with the la-di-da-di-da. Yeah, it's all right. >> Yeah, yeah. That That was 2018 when that came out, so I guess so. Yeah, that was That was pretty funny. >> It sounds It's It's crazy how long ago it was, but yeah, that was the whole like the Black Panther album and that was a real era. That was crazy. >> I liked Money Over Everything and Kick. Those were kind of just like trap bangers, like nothing special, but cool. And then Alice was the first moment like all the way at the end of the album, he finally gave us a unique Future song. >> Yeah. It's Alice. >> I thought that was that was a really cool song. >> Yeah, Alice felt like going a little bit more out of his comfort zone, which was nice. >> Yeah. [music] So like Alice, there was also Konnichiwa, I I kind of felt like it was maybe seeing it so much on social media I kind of got stuck in my head for a second, but then after a couple days I was like, oh no, I'm I'm cool on this. Alice, you're right, yeah, I definitely heard right away it's standing out, but then again I felt like usually Future gives us a few of those songs. And then even the the Ronus too like this album's supposed to be about again the real him, I feel like we've gotten more Future Ronus on previous projects. Like to me there there wasn't like a a codeine crazy level song on this or like even even I remember when Wizard dropped a lot of people, you know, at first weren't a fan of that project and then that project grew on a lot of people. So I don't know if this is going to be one of those, but yeah, it just felt like like you said, Alice was the first one that was like, oh, this is very different, but like that's track like 22, right? >> Yeah, it's track 21 at the end. >> But I mean hey, maybe it'll grow like like that's the thing like for me for Future, there's songs that, you know, when uh mixtape Pluto dropped in 2024, I didn't like it as much as like there's songs I found now that I I like that I didn't like before, so maybe that might happen. And I mean that's the thing with good production, right? Like that can kind of catch you like whenever, you know, on a on a different day or whatever, different year. Cuz the beats were good. That's the thing. Like production-wise >> High high quality production. Now as expected. >> No features at all. >> No features. Yeah, that's a good thing to point out. Interesting. I mean he goes with the theme. Could have used a couple, but you know, I mean >> Well, I'm okay with it. Like, I don't need a phone then 21 Savage hook. I'm I'm good. >> Yeah. No, that's that's for sure. >> Last thing I want to say too is shout out to Gav. He couldn't make it to the record tonight, but he was a really big fan of this project. And we wanted to have him on this week, but it didn't work out. But Matt and I didn't have the most amazing things to say about it. I just wanted to shout out that you know, that Gav actually did really enjoy this. So, >> I really wanted to like it, but yeah, you know, it is what it is. >> Right on. Well, that is Future with the Real Me. Next, let's get into Busy Crook with Underdogs Win Eventually. Busy Crook is a songwriter that came up with Leon Thomas. He helped write his massive hit Mutt and his other I think most of his big hits and now Busy is getting his turn on this full length now that he signed under Ty Dolla Sign. And this is a pretty standout project. There's a lot of a really strong storytelling and you get this kind of interesting perspective of someone that has gained the financial success, but it's all been mostly behind the scenes. So, now we're seeing him go solo. Not that he's going going solo in the sense that he's not working with Leon Thomas anymore. He is and there's a few Leon Thomas features on here, which is a really good look for him. But I was a fan of this. This is really cool. Standout tracks for me, Risky featuring C Stunna and Rick Ross. Where I Know You From, I like that one a lot and It's Never Over was great storytelling about his come up. >> What did you think of the the Benny feature? I liked that one. >> Mhm. Yeah, yeah, there's there's the Benny feature, which was nice. >> And it wasn't like it it wasn't a usual dark I think two songs later there's a song with Ty Dolla Sign on it and somehow the vibes like it didn't feel jarring and switching from a Benny song to Ty Dolla Sign it really fit well together. It was nice to hear Benny on like on something a little bit more upbeat like that. >> Yeah, that's that's a good point. Yeah, on the song Justify that was different kind of beat for him. Cool. So that was Benny Quick with Underdogs Win Eventually. Next I want to talk about Ras Kass Fresco with Y Equals Self. Ras Fresco is a Canadian rapper and producer. I saw on the credits he not only produced everything but he also mixed and mastered it all. I'm always a huge fan of that. Standout tracks for me a lot of them the Living Light, Mayday and then he had this series the three songs The Blind, The Deaf and The Dumb were three of the best songs on there. And then he ends with Euphoria's Formula amazing soul sample, amazing lyrics. Strong boom bap project. I was a big fan of Ras Kass Fresco Y Equals Self. Lastly let's talk about Juicy J and Project Pat with Them Goats. What did you think about this one? >> Yeah, I liked it. I love Project Pat so it's it's just to me Project Pat like it's not a guy that really does bad verses just because of the type of flow he uses. He could rap on anything so like the standout beats really stand out. To me like everything was it's I mean it's it's Juicy J production so everything is is you know consistent but the Free My Dogs specifically I found Project Pat's verse and rapping was just felt really really like in pocket and just perfect on that one. Um and then Tap with Caribou. The The song was good but specifically the hook I found that the Juicy J hook he's a writer he's a songwriter he's he's he puts together good hooks you know. Um that one I really felt it yeah. >> Nice. I had two different ones. I really liked Southern Hospitality and then cut all that. Those are my two favorites. But yeah, it was cool to get some of that that Memphis flow this week. >> Mhm. >> Awesome. Well, that was Juicy J and Project Pat with Dem Goats. That's all of our favorites from this week. Before we get into releases for next week, let's do plugs. This week we just dropped our first single produced by Frequency Overflow and also mixed and mastered by us with rapper Killer Tracks. It's called Neo Geo. It's out on all platforms. It's streaming everywhere now and you can also follow us everywhere at Frequency Overflow. And yeah, that's us. What do you want to plug, Matt? >> Yeah, so just been producing, working. We did just upload a beat today where I made a beat off of one of the cleaned up public domain loops made by Frequency Overflow. Oh, we had and we have a new website, f2fpod.com. >> Oh, yeah, that's >> f2fpod.com. >> I knew we were missing something. [laughter] >> Yeah. f2fpod.com and we're going to plug that in somewhere. >> That's right. Yeah, Matt has been going in on our website, so we have a full website launched to mention this week as well. So yeah, that is plugs. Releases coming up next week, we have Brian Ennals and Blockhead with Boat Shoes, Rick Ross with Set in Stone, Rome Streets with Socket to my Pocket, Tricky with Different When It's Silent, Dave Blunts with I'll Believe It When I See It, Icewear Vezzo with Rich Off Pints 4, Larry June with Who Choppin, and Gang Green with Better Than McDonald's. Thank you, listeners. You can check us out on our website at f2fpod.com. You can follow the podcast on Instagram at Friday to Friday Podcast. You can save the official Spotify playlist to hear the best releases from each week before the episode comes out. You can find that link in the description. Our intro and outro music by Lunar G. Find him at prod.bylunar.g. Podcast edited by me, Jacob from Frequency Overflow. Join us every week to stay in tune with hip-hop releases from Friday to Friday. Peace. Peace. >> [music]