New Rap Releases | Kenny Mason, Action Bronson, Swavay, Trap Dickey, BIGBABYGUCCI

This is Friday to Friday, your weekly rap wrap-up, going through our favorite releases in rap and hip-hop from Friday, May 8th to Friday, May 15th. My name is Jacob. I'm a mixing and mastering engineer and your host for today. I have with me producer hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Gav, aka Lunar G.

What's good?

And producer and artist manager hailing from Montreal, Canada, Matt Carrié.

Yo, yo, what's up?

Before we get into talking about our favorites from this week, here's the full list of projects released. We got 51 June with Gain, Action Bronson with Planet Frog, Adam Killa with Influencer, Albee Al with This Is For The Trenches, AZ with Do Or Die 3, Big Baby Gucci with Asleep At The Wheel, Big K.R.I.T. with Dedicated To Cali Briartz Deluxe, Black Milk with Ceremonial, Chris Brown with Brown, Denzel Himself with Neighborhood, Earl Sweatshirt with Supreme Magnetic 2, Flavor with Flyboy King, Eris with Hottest Boy In Philly, Jimmy D with Birds Fly Yonder, Jay Wards with Sound Therapy, Kenny Mason with Bulldog, Kid Milli with Mainstream, Like with Today Sounds Good, Lil Keke with Streets Is My Witness Part 2, Little Simz with Sugar Girl, Nims Star with The Gold Experience, OT The Real with Villain, Stik Figa and Heather Grey with Cold Comfort, Suave with The Prelude, Taylor Bennett with Time After Youth, Terminology and Royal Flush with Royal Terms, Ty Boy Digital and Sweden with Paradise, Trap Dicky with The Vill, and Werden with Magnum Opus.

Let's get into our picks for this week. I will kick it off with Action Bronson, Planet Frog. Amazing list of producers. I didn't check the producers before starting to listen to it, cuz I really wanted to see what it was, and then of course, like right away, you're like, okay, so Harry Fraud is definitely on this, right?

Yep, so you got Daringer has four beats and then the rest is spread between Harry Fraud, Kenny Beats, and then Young Mexico and Human Growth Hormone. But amazing beats, very almost cinematic with like all the samples and all the drumless beats.

Harry Fraud, and I think we just covered him last week too as well.

But—

Yeah.

I'm not mad.

Mhm.

Another one of those producers, keep dropping, I don't mind. It just, it sounds very full, and I was so hyped, like with the single with Lil Yachty and Paul Wall, like that really—

Mhm.

—like had me hyped for the project, and yeah, it really delivered.

I didn't check out the single at all beforehand, so once I got to Triceratops, this song, I was just like, what is happening? I was blown away. (laughs) I love the Yachty feature. So good.

Mhm.

One of my favorite Yachty features I've ever heard.

And Paul Wall in 2026.

Doing his thing.

Yeah, still sounding good, yeah.

I just went back and listened to it all in order and it does—the way it fits in still, like, I don't know, it does kind of sneak up on you. It's like, what is going on right now? It is a really cool feature.

A lot of albums that the single will usually be like the standout track of the album, or you know, like especially bigger artists like this, like it'll be like it sounds like the single's the thing that they put the most time into, but I didn't find that the single was the most standout track on the album, honestly. Like it was great, but really, like, there was a couple of other songs that I would go back to even before that one.

Mhm.

I think that actually was my favorite song on there. That for me, that was like the perfect single, yeah.

Huh.

Yeah, no, I think my favorite was probably Peppers and Olympic Fence Carter.

Yeah, Peppers was up there for me as well, featuring Roc Marciano. But not produced by him.

Yeah.

Oh, but just the beat is ridiculous the way that comes in.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know. It's definitely one of my favorite production-wise. And then Condor was really, really cool, too. And then My Blue Heaven. I liked the kind of like jazzy vibes to some of these songs. Like the samples and stuff were real, real jazz-influenced.

Yeah, we had a really similar list. Mine was also Peppers, Condor, and My Blue Heaven. Cuz My Blue Heaven had that really awesome drum part. And I don't think we've ever mentioned this on the pod before, but Gavin and I are both drum kit players. And yeah, it had this really awesome jazz drum beat and jazz keys over it, too.

Kind of beat, too, you know? It's like jazz groove. Like it's a very syncopated jazz beat.

Yeah, yeah.

The samples on this were insane. I didn't do any digging on them, either. I just—oh.

It would take days.

I know. I'm like, and just listening to it start to finish. And like the saxophone solo sample in like My Blue Heaven, too. The whole thing is like a swing syncopated jazz song. It's sweet.

Right.

Shout out to that song, the second to last song, Chetney, featuring Human Growth Hormone. It has no vocals on it. It's just a cool-ass instrumental song. And I haven't skipped it yet. Every time it comes on, I keep just finding myself listening to the whole thing.

The Human Growth Hormone, I feel like it's like in-house production or something like that, but I found myself liking a lot of stuff that they produced, as well.

Oh, okay. Here's the deal with Human Growth Hormone. It's the live band that backs up Action Bronson. So, it's like, if you know The Free Nationals, how the Free Nationals are to—

Anderson .Paak?

Yeah, Anderson .Paak.

Also a drummer.

Yes.

Yeah. Oh my god, man.

Same drummer. They performed with him in his Tiny Desk concert from 2023, looks like, so.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, so you're right. It's essentially in-house musicians.

Mhm. Yeah, not production, but yeah.

And do you guys have anything else on this project?

No, loved it. Other than Olympic Vince Carter is stuck in my head, and I guess the hook, he'd call it, is very [expletive] catchy.

Definitely. That is Action Bronson with Planet Frog. That was a favorite from this week.

Yeah.

Matt, do you want to give us your pick?

Yeah, so the new Trae tha Truth album, The Ville.

Mhm.

So Trae tha Truth just signed to TDE back in March.

Right.

Which feels really random, but yeah, I really like the album. I didn't hear the TDE influence if there was any, but I mean it's well produced, well put together, so I mean, and for me stand out tracks is the song with the OJ da Juiceman, Definitely Getting Money, and then Keep Going as well with K Camp was good.

Okay, nice.

I like K Camp.

This is an interesting sign for TDE. He's a South Carolina rapper, definitely has a southern rap style, but it is cool to see that he only got signed in March of 2026 and he already has a project out in May.

Yeah.

That's awesome. That shows they're taking him seriously as an artist. It's really good to see, cuz a lot of time artists get signed and they don't get a project out on a label for years.

Yeah.

So to, two months later, have something out was pretty cool. Blue Devils is a remix of a song, I think, from before he was signed, featuring DaBaby.

Believe so, yeah.

That samples I Can't Stand the Rain by Tina Turner. That was a really awesome beat as well. I found myself being most into the songs with the features to be honest, so I really like Down South with Key Glock and then No Love with Big X the Plug. Those are my favorites on there. Yeah, I'm interested where he's going to go next from here. I'd like to see a little bit more TDE, not to say more West Coast, but just more TDE production and just the whole packaging feeling a little bit more TDE. It's just it's feeling a little disparate for me right now, but that could also just be TDE's new direction of being more versatile. So, we'll see what happens with Trapped Dikki. And this project was called The Bill.

Gav, you want to do a pick?

Yeah, I want to talk about the AZ album. I was really, really into this one. I found myself going back listening to it over and over again. Do or Die 3—Doe or Die 3, I should say. Doe or Die 3, but some really, really great features on here. A lot of production by Mike and Keys. But yeah, Jadakiss, you had Mumu Fresh, Amaru Noir, Nas. I found myself going back listening to the Nas feature a lot, surprise.

Yes.

That one was just—oh my god, dude. As soon as it comes on, I'm like, I'm in for a treat.

Yeah.

And then Still Jackie was another one that the beat just really, really grabbed me. That's Statik Selektah, and I just really like the way that he chopped the vocals and chords on that. Another one that sounds really, really good in the car, good on headphones. So, I thought this was a great project.

Yeah, no, absolutely same. And same, same like you, like the Nas song was just—I didn't expect it to like it that much. But I mean, the whole project has that kind of production anyways. Like every beat just feels very full. But yeah, that one with Nas was just a really standout for me.

Yeah, I thought Fresh Water is another one that I wanted to shout out just for the beat.

Mhm.

I loved it. Some of it had more like gospel or like R&B, traditional R&B like vocal samples and stuff. Whole thing was sick, but couple standouts for me.

Nice. That's AZ with Doe or Die. Excuse me for saying Do or Die in the intro. That's Doe or Die 3 by AZ. My next pick I want to do is Suave with The Prelude. Suave is a really incredible and slept-on Atlanta rapper that also produces himself, really talented producer. And one of the songs on this was my song of the week, the YDKM featuring Nas and Coop. Well, I'll say it's one of the best songs of the week cuz it was a great week, but I also loved Six Minutes. He tells a funny story. It's one of those songs where the very last line of the song kind of explains the whole reason behind the story. And then the way the second verse wraps back around to the first verse is really dope. I won't spoil it. Just go check it out for yourself cuz it's fun to hear for the first time and put the pieces together.

Yeah. It's also Six Minutes in length.

Oh, right. The song itself is Six Minutes. Yep. Yeah. Also, Tony's Dead is the last song and I'm confused by what happened with this because—

(snorts)

—the song—

It's intentional.

Right. Okay, so Matt thinks it's intentional. The song just cuts off all of a sudden like halfway through a lyric. To me, not in a way that sounds on purpose. Not in like a—like the rapper like trying to like do a thing. It really sounds like just a random cut to me. So, I was confused by that. But, yes, exactly. But, Tony's Dead. So, (laughs)—

He's dead.

But, the lead-up moment—

The engineer? Is Tony the microphone?

(laughs)

See, that's kind of what I was thinking cuz it is like his word. He gets his whole word out, but there's no space behind it at all. There's—it's literally like as soon as—I think it's the last word is like funny or something. He says like funny and you know, and then like—

It's strange.

The next song just starts immediately. So, funny.

Yeah.

Next song.

But, even if you're independent, you can re-upload if it's a mistake, right? Like if ever like he—it's been what, already about a week, right? Like it released last Friday.

Mhm.

So, I think it would have been fixed if it was like an error or something. Or I hope so. Maybe he didn't notice. Maybe we'll be the ones to tell him for the first time, right? But—

That's true. It probably is on purpose based off the clue that the song is called Tony's Dead. And maybe I just need to listen to the lyrics more to understand if there is some sort of sign that it's coming up, but it just feels so crazy and random. But again, that sometimes feels crazy and random, so maybe that's what he's—maybe it's on purpose. So, really interesting project.

It's very insightful.

And also I'm hoping the title of the project, The Prelude, is meaning we're having another full-length project coming up soon. Hopefully this year is what I'm hoping for from Suave.

To God, and I pray to God that we get some more songs that sound like Casket, because my god, the 808s in that are insane.

Mhm.

Yeah, speaking of death.

Yeah, exactly. That's probably one of my favorites, and then You Don't Know Me, YDKM.

Yes, that one is just so good.

All right, that was Suave with The Prelude. Matt, do you want to get to your next pick?

Kenny Mason, surprised that wasn't one of the first picks. So, Bulldog by Kenny Mason.

This is my favorite release of the week, for sure. Probably by far, actually. Not to overhype, but (laughs) this is one of my favorite projects so far of this year. It felt really complete. It felt to me like a JID album where it's like very theatrical, meaningful, purposeful. The whole lead-up to it with all the pop pack drops, like I just—I loved it all.

Yeah.

So many awesome moments.

I wonder if there's a certain like science or a vibe around him dropping on a Tuesday. I don't know if that changes the reception. To me, it felt like the album had its own day, if that makes sense. Like there was nothing else on that day really for me to listen to, right? Tuesday was an open day. It was just like there was nothing else to really look forward to music-wise. So, to me, like I feel like I really got to listen to the full album and then, you know, got to listen to it again Wednesday, Thursday, and then, you know, again even today I was listening to it.

Mhm. Me too. I've listened to this probably 12 times and it just came out like 3 days ago.

Yeah.

As much as—yeah, probably as much as the stuff that came out Friday, right? Like it's crazy.

More than.

Just one of a kind of project. Genre blending, so many different genres. It's rap, emo rap, rock, R&B.

Everything.

And so seamless.

He's one of those artists that manages to remove himself cleanly from a genre and his genre is just Kenny Mason.

Not like you're borrowing or picking up a hat and, yeah.

Another thing I'm noticing when listening through the album in full is that even the songs I don't like as much have such strong verses that help tell the full story of who Kenny Mason is, that I end up—when I'm re-listening to the album, I just play it A to Z, even the songs that I don't love the hooks on as much or the beats as much. There's going to be a verse in there that helps me understand who Kenny Mason is, and so I'll listen to every song.

Especially that it's so multi-genre, like there's at least half that to me is stuff that I wouldn't normally go back to, but because the whole thing just plays so nicely—

Exactly.

I've done just the whole thing A to Z. Like I haven't went back on like specific saves or songs or—just been a whole playthrough.

I'm so happy that you guys are showing love to him cuz I've been listening to Kenny Mason for a minute. It was probably some of the older pop packs, like 2022, 2021, I think is the first. Yeah, I have Angelic Hoodrat. So 2020 is—the almost six years he's been putting out some pretty good stuff, but this one like really takes the cake for a lot of the releases that he has in my opinion. Like you guys said, there are so many different genres that he just kind of like floats throughout, and pretty effortlessly. Like Street Cars, probably one of my favorite songs.

It's a really rocky one.

Yeah, like Street Cars got the really kind of grunge rock vibe, and then Black Fit, that intro is so cool.

Mhm. Yeah, Black Fit was one of my favorites as well.

Yeah, you hear this like radio cut and it just goes into this hard kind of like punk hip-hop beat. I thought this whole project was really, really cool.

Yeah.

The last song, 7-Eleven, too, is this looping vocal chop that's really really sweet. I love 7-Eleven. It's like a fantastic summary of his career and how he's feeling now. It's a perfect song to end the album. There's no hook on it. He's just letting you know a lot about where he's at and how his history has changed his trajectory. And yeah, perfect last song.

Oh, and he's been doing this for some time and he's just—I wouldn't say like just starting to get recognition, but like I have a feeling this is going to be one of those projects that people are talking about for a while, or at least just like recognizing as one of the projects that kind of like catapulted him. I hope his trajectory continues.

Yeah, for sure.

Like it's hard, like if none of your music fits a specific lane, it's like which radio station is going to play you? Which specific niche of people is going to like listen to? So I feel like it takes a long time for that kind of artist to really get a listener cuz you're just basically getting a tiny amount of listeners for every single lane, and then slowly that builds up to like now he's almost like two million monthly listeners.

I do see your point, but I think that because he does—he includes like emo rap and emo rock in his music, if you include that, no matter what else you do, people are going to call you that.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's exactly. And then the singles that are more rap or more R&B that happen to pop are going to help and work for him, but—

That's going to be the more mainstream [expletive].

I think as far as like where to place him on playlists and stuff, I think it's easier than you might have made it sound.

And do we think that he'll keep working with, like—cuz he's been on both Dreamville projects, right?

Oh.

Which is way more like hip-hop and rap.

Absolutely, cuz he can sing. He's got that voice and then he can rap his ass off, too. And so I feel like Dreamville recognizes artists like that, that are versatile, and they like to kind of do a conglomerate.

And what's crazy is like he has a song with Lil Wayne on the first Dreamville album, which is like a crazy thing that—that's like a bucket list thing, right?

Yeah. Dude, and it's funny because I was going to say this album reminds me of like Vince Staples, IDK, Denzel Curry, and it's like—fans also, like I'm looking at his Spotify and it's like IDK, Vince Staples, Ravyn Lenae, Denzel Curry, SwaVay, Isaiah Rashad, Key Glock, Yatta—like it's just, in my opinion, I would call it alt rap.

You know, and that's like—

That falls under the umbrella of alt rap.

Yeah, I think he fits into the alt rap scene really well, like the fact that he collaborated with Paris Texas and, yeah.

Right. Yeah, that's another—and JID, Paris Texas. Yeah, speaking of that as well, you had Dominic Fike featured last week on Isaiah Rashad's project and then again this week on Bulldog on the song Find God.

I pray to God he drops something cuz like—

Me, too.

Oh, I'm sure.

Him just being a little—hopping on everyone's projects like, "Hey, I'm so happy now."

Hopefully he's rolling something out soon.

Yeah. But I have the exact same note as the song from Isaiah Rashad's album, which is that it just sounds like a Dominic Fike song with a Kenny Mason verse, the same way it was with the Isaiah Rashad album.

Which actually, like it might be that. It might be like Dominic already has a song written, everything, is like, "Hey, you want to have this song?" You know?

Yeah, totally. And I—yeah, that's—

That's how he's building his little like lane of singles, quote unquote.

Speaking of Kenny Mason kind of fitting better into the alt rap scene with those guys, Isaiah Rashad and Baby Keem and those guys. He's, you know, his related artist isn't MGK, which is like who it would be if he was, you know, super clearly in the emo rap rock thing. So, you know, maybe that's—maybe I was a little off base on that.

And now that I'm thinking and looking at Kenny Mason's sophomore, I feel like the Dreamville connection's probably through JID more than anything.

Mhm.

Cuz they're featured on a lot of each other's stuff, like Dreamville's done stuff with Denzel Curry, too. Kenny Mason's worked with Denzel Curry. He's got like three or four songs with JID.

That totally makes sense, and Test Me featuring JID on this Bulldog album, one of the best songs on there, goes so hard. The beat is so crazy. There's some lines, too, where I'm like, he's kind of rhyming like JID, I think on purpose. So, I don't know if he wrote it and then was like, "Oh, I have to get JID on this to make it make sense." Or if he was like in the studio maybe with JID and he was like, "Okay, if I know he's going to do this on the second verse, I kind of got to figure out something that's going to match for the first verse." And either way, I don't know how they did it, but man, Test Me is [expletive] crazy. Love that one.

I didn't think there were really like any skips, so to speak.

Agreed. The only ones I haven't shouted out yet that I playlisted, cuz I playlisted a lot of stuff on this: Bull Killer, the very first song, has a really cool intro and then a beat switch. And then Be What I Want featuring Paris Texas. We kind of mentioned that. And then Come True has this great clean guitar riff. A distorted guitar riff comes in over the hook to fill it out and you kind of have this balance between like this clean and this distorted guitar. It's really cool.

Mhm.

Yeah. I was just such a big fan of this whole album. One of my favorite things that came out so far this year.

Yeah, no. And like especially on Come True, the vocals he's kind of like yelling, all of them staccato, like very short shots. So, it's just this cool contrast and then, like you said, that edgy distorted guitar gets laid over it and you're like, "Oh, okay."

I honestly don't even think we could put him in a box even if we wanted to. I think like every song has so many different elements that, like even if—like you can't listen to one Kenny song and be like, "Okay, that must be the Kenny sound." You know? So, I'm just—I'm excited to just hear more from him. Yeah. I feel like every album is going to be an entirely different experience that you can't expect.

Yeah, absolutely. Awesome, that was Kenny Mason with Bulldog. Gav, you got another pick for us?

Yeah. Did you guys get a chance to listen to the Bash for the World album? Man, let me say, everything that I've been hearing from this dude, I've found myself really liking. This was a really sick project. I ended up saving a lot of it, but some of the standout songs for me were 300 and Rich Me I Go's. Pray for the Ops was another one. Kind of southern trap, but it also like really fits the Shoreline Mafia vibe, so it's kind of like—it's just trap music is the best way I can put it, and it's good trap music. Like everything bangs. The production's really good on it. Something that just like I want to roll around with the windows down and have this very loud. It's one of those albums.

I'll check it out. And I see a Baby Drill feature on there, too.

Yeah, that's the 300. That's the—

And OG Z, of course, okay.

Rich Me I Go's, like—

Okay, so this sounds good, yeah.

I don't know who Tell Me 2 is, but all of them snapped on that song, too. 300, yeah, you guys definitely got to check this one out. Very good.

Well, seven songs, that's very—that's easy to digest. I love that. Especially like with the three new albums that we might discuss later that I had to listen to today.

(laughs)

A seven-song album is something that is very, very, very welcomed.

Borderline refreshing.

Each song is under three minutes. I'm seeing one that's two minutes. Perfect.

Trap. Man, I can't put it any other way. And it's like—I don't know, like I said, if it's southern, but he's definitely got like Latin influences.

He's from Texas, I just checked cuz I was curious.

I had a feeling. And it, dude, it [expletive] bangs. It's not Big X—

Okay, I know like—I need this in my life.

—that Texas trap, and it's not like lean rap Texas trap, either. It's definitely just like trap.

Yeah, I'm going to check this out, too. That's the name of the album, by the way, that I don't think we said it yet, is Dinero Dolores y Dios. That's by Bash for the World, one word.

So, my last pick of the week is Big Baby Gucci with Asleep at the Wheel. Yeah, super synth-heavy pulsing beats, auto crooning on like all his verses. Some really great hooks. The very first track called Bound immediately vibing with these super deep synths, super loud pounding kick, catchy hook. I felt like the very first song stood to just remind anyone listening who Big Baby Gucci is. It was kind of like, here's the song that defines my sound like, boom. If you're not going to be with this song, then you might as well turn the album off.

Yeah, I really liked it. There's a producer called Fish that works a lot with him too and they've done a lot of projects together.

Okay.

Their production is one of my favorite styles. That After Teen Spirit, that EP from 2020. Rest in Peace Miss Rose, Sitting Silence, Can't Feel [expletive]. Like he's just flooded us with releases.

That's so interesting cuz he's brand new to me. I only know The Leak and then this, Asleep at the Wheel.

I really recommend like going back—Send Help and Teen Spirit if you want to start with anything. That's a good place to start.

You can't forget that one.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

But I playlisted a lot of the stuff off those last two albums. So, I'm curious like how the sound changed over the years.

Like heat. Like 2018, 2021, it's absolute heat.

Wow.

I would honestly say if you like the sound from the last two albums—now, this one is very reminiscent of earlier projects. So, I have a feeling you'll definitely like them, but this is a little more like back to that kind of like Molly rap synth music. I love this [expletive].

Also loved—the other two tracks were Glass Table Girls again, with just these huge synths and kick drum, and then Fake Friends too. I just had that hook stuck in my head. I really liked that Fake Friends hook.

What did you guys think about Alpina and Chardonnay? Chardonnay was totally different than a lot of this album, but I—it's one of my favorites to listen as like on its own.

Yeah, Alpina had like that vocal sample thing going on, kind of, yeah.

Chardonnay is the one that starts out with just a super, super simple ambient bassy synth.

There's not many that fit that sound at all. Like I don't have anyone that I can tell you really fits the Big Baby Gucci sound like that.

No, the hook too. "I don't want lean, I just want Chardonnay." Like it's just super catchy. The whole album's a vibe, but—

Like when I was listening to him like back in 2020, I was like there's no way this guy is not going to blow up like crazy. And I'm pretty sure at one point he had a million monthly listeners. Now he's back to 150,000. I don't know what—cuz like Drop Top Lexus was a huge—Drop Top Lexus did really, really well. Can't Feel [expletive] is another one if you want to check that out. Okay. And then it just kind of quieted down for a bit. Half of his top 10 are songs that I've saved from when they came out. I really like this album.

Pressure and Layers. Yeah, man. I found him a little bit later than you're saying. I think I found him probably like two or three years ago.

He's hard to find.

Yeah, I don't know how I found him.

That's the truth of it. Like he's not marketed. He's not like—it's not someone who's—I don't even know how I stumbled on him.

You know, he's not one lane. It's really cool.

So, that was Big Baby Gucci with Asleep at the Wheel. Matt, do you have another pick?

I don't have another pick of something that I liked. I did want to mention the Chris Brown, Brown album. (laughs)

I don't have anything—

So, I wasn't going to listen to it because Chris Brown albums—I mean here's the thing, they're typically like 40 songs, and typically what happens is I go through the album and I see where there, you know, there's cool features that I might enjoy. And then sometimes I get those saves and sometimes I don't.

Yeah.

This I saw was 27 songs, which is short for a Chris Brown project.

Oh, right.

But what I saw first was—

(laughs)

—Pitchfork saying that it was a piece of [expletive]. So, when I saw Pitchfork saying that, I was like, well, I've got to listen to it. I read the review and they talked about it being soulless.

Right.

I listened to the album. I won't say that it's a piece of [expletive], but I did understand where they came from when they called it soulless. In the sense that Chris Brown is a talented guy. He's good at what he does. To me it sounded like there was a lot of AI instrumentals. I checked out the producers and it's the same producers that made like No Guidance and a lot of previous hits, but for some reason there was something that seemed Suno about—

Interesting.

Yeah, and that's why I wanted to bring it up. Just for the idea of, check out the album, make your own opinion. If you love it, you love it. But if you can hear that kind of AI (snorts) sound, I don't know, maybe you'll agree. But—

Interesting.

Yeah, I might have to, you know, have like nothing else to do to check it out. Just to be entirely honest with you. Yeah, no. I think this is going to be just like a pass for me. And I won't say that everything that he's put out is or something. Like I don't totally hate his music. The Young Thug album that he did, I liked that. There were a couple songs on there that were standouts for me.

Young Thug.

Exactly. So, there are definitely some projects that I've been able to get behind, but this is not one that I think I'm really going to go out of my way to listen to.

I didn't want to call it a piece of [expletive] cuz I think that's just—it's harsh, and I think that any music, especially of that magnitude, of that money put behind it, couldn't possibly be that bad, right? And it wasn't terrible. It's just, again, that felt very like generic elevator music kind of thing, you know? Even though all the features did their things, like every feature sound like—the vocals in the features don't sound AI, but it's the production, I guess, around it. And like the NBA YoungBoy feature, like it also is one of those things where it's like you can tell that the beat was not made for a rapper and then they created that kind of rapper pocket for him to do his like his 16 bars. Like again, like you go on Suno, you put your beat, say, "Hey, add a, you know, hip-hop verse to this." It feels forced.

Yeah, it's like, "Oh, here's the remix with Juice WRLD on it." And you're like—

We need a rapper on this. Yeah, someone called Juicy J. Like, yeah.

(laughs)

We'll add 16 bars. Drop the chorus, you know, we'll add drums.

Yeah, add some hi-hats to this, you know, change the bass guitar to an 808 for 16 bars and, yeah.

Oh, man.

Yeah, that was Brown by Chris Brown.

Did either of you guys have any singles?

Just two.

Cool.

Yeah, let's get into a couple singles.

Yeah, I saw that Scrim put out a single, half of Suicide Boys. So, I was super, super excited to see that. He always does really interesting stuff solo. It doesn't normally sound like Suicide Boys, which is interesting cuz he's the main rapper and like main producer for them as well. So, I think it's kind of his chance to do something different that he wants. So, Code of Honor is another kind of like alt rap song where it's mainly acoustic guitar and there's not really drums for probably half the song.

Oh.

Um—

So, there's not like the usual, like I'm going to say Three 6 Mafia kind of Suicide Boys drums?

No, no. And if you listen to any of his solo projects, some of it sounded like TikTok music is the best way I could put it at one point. Like, he was doing just like trendy what's popping, like kind of underground sound, which was not bad, but not my favorite. His solo stuff. Yeah, he's got an album coming out, Runaway, actually.

Though, is—I'm checking now—the single that you're talking about is already hit the first most listened to song on his Spotify, which is—it's hard to do with the new, when you get a new single.

My god, dude, it's good. And it's just his vocals sound amazing. Yeah, the drums come in like 2 minutes in and it's like a 3-and-1/2 minute long song. A lot of like him sampling himself doing like vocal layers and a of singing. And I thought this was a really cool one. I'm excited for the album that's coming out called Runaway. Comes out in like 2 weeks, so we'll have a chance to cover that in a couple weeks, but yeah, this is the first song that we're getting on it. It's a 59-song—

Yeah, I was just—I—that's what I just saw there. Holy hell.

So, we'll see what that's all about.

Okay. 59 songs with no features.

Yeah, that's new. He just put an album out last year, too. I know he's been sober for a while, so maybe he had some devilish urges and needed to work them out in the studio, but we'll see how that goes. That might be a two-parter, I don't know.

Interesting.

Yeah. But then I did have one other single, Precious by AG Club and Jody Fontaine. I love AG Club. Really, really sick. It's a lot harder than I thought it would be. It reminds me of like an old Beastie Boys beat, like the drums. There's this really weird like radio transistor vocal loop in the background and these just like really crispy, punchy snares that's like super '90s hip-hop production. Jody Fontaine snaps on it.

I love that sound, too. And like he said, it's like it's Beastie Boys, but without feeling old.

Yeah.

You don't want to—like it doesn't sound outdated. It's like a modern kind of like, also like, um—

JVB.

Can't say modern Beastie Boys without mentioning Joey Valence Brown.

Yeah.

I hope they have a new project coming out soon. That's all I've got to say about that one, though. Definitely go check it out if you haven't.

Good [expletive]. Couple singles in there, and that's all of our picks for this week.

Let's get into plugs. This week, I mixed and mastered a track for my boy Bloodlink, Jersey rapper, and you can check out frequencyoverflow.com, or you can check us out for beats or loop kits or mixing and mastering everywhere at frequencyoverflow. That's all I got. What do you want to plug, Matt?

I've got some beats online, check them out. Matt Carrié. Check out my artist Lucius P. Thundercat. And yeah, probably going to upload some new beats soon.

Dope. What do you got, Gav?

Nice. I'm right around the same thing. I've got some new beats that I'm working on right now for one of my boys, Link Sinatra. Went to one of his performances for a local radio showcase. So, been doing some stuff locally in the music scene and yeah, feel free to check me out pretty much everywhere. Instagram, TikTok, YouTube @prodbyLunar.g.

We have a lot cooking in the background and by the way things are looking, we're going to have a lot more to talk about in our plug section coming up soon here, but—

Yes, sir.

To get into releases coming up next week, we have Benny the Butcher with Genesis FM, Genesis Owusu with Red Star Woo and the Worldwide Scourge, Lucky with Drugs Are Bad, Maluma with Loco X Volver, Tay Young with Wild, JPEG Mafia with Experimental Rap. This one comes out on the 21st right at the end of the week. There's a chance we will cover it the following week because I just want to give it more attention. I really like JPEG Mafia. We'll see. Might need an extra week to digest cuz it's just—

Oh, it's 25 songs. Oh, yeah, no, I'm going to need a—

Right. We also got Leelo with Mastiff Pink Tiles. I'm not sure if this is a deluxe of Mastiff or if Mastiff was just an EP of the upcoming Mastiff Pink Tiles. Either way, this is a full-length project from Leelo.

We are recording this on the Friday that a lot of stuff just dropped. So, I have some late additions here. We have Ron Savage with Reaper's Son, 414 Jungle Baby with Jungle This Jungle That, Nick Grant with Smile, Shitty Boys with Back to the Basics, Party of Two with America's Next Top Party Extended Cut, Quando Rondo with Until I Return, Kevin Gates with The Lost Files The Collection, T Dark with Set Your Sites Higher, Papa Rod with Picture Day, Nutso Thuggin with Voice of the Clan, Lord Sco with Elevator Music, Chip Fu with Invisible Footsteps, and lastly, we have Drake with not only Ice Man, but as we now know, two other additional albums, Abibti and Made of Honor. So, that's going to be a lot to cover next week. And before we get out of here, why don't we give a little first impression on Ice Man?

I'll just start off by saying that it's pretty good.

(laughs)

I like it. I was so ready to not like it, but I'm like—the beats are so good on it. It's just so funny how like hypocritical all the [expletive] talking is. Like so much shots fired. It's crazy. I haven't checked the other two albums at all yet, but Ice Man itself, I'm probably going to listen to it a bunch this week, which two days ago I wouldn't have said that was going to be the case, but after a couple listens, I'm like, all right, I'm interested.

I did all three albums. So, I actually—I was up at midnight last night, and I was like, you know what, I'm going to do Ice Man at midnight, like for sure. And you know, I checked the Spotify, and I see three albums. So, I said—I went to bed. Like there's—

(laughs)

Away.

[expletive] that.

So, it's 9:00 a.m. Yeah, never mind. At 9:00 a.m., I was like, let me do all three albums. How it felt like to me was, it was overwhelming in the sense where, like for me, so I'm Canadian, I'm like, okay, I got to support Drake, you know, like I got to give him my attention, I got to check out these albums. It just felt like doing groceries when you're hungry, where it's like you don't know what to save. There's too much. Like you're distracted. You're just thinking about like whatever you can get your hands on, whatever sounds good now, right? That's a lot of music to go through. I wish that it would have maybe been like, I don't know, one album today, one album next week, maybe another one another week. That would have been like a cool kind of like Billboard takeover, you know?

Yeah.

Cuz there's no way that anyone's going to go through like 38 songs and pick out their favorite. And like there's going to be some songs in there that maybe in two years someone's going to say actually like this song was actually good but we couldn't give it the attention it deserved or whatever, you know?

Yeah.

But I'm glad you started with only Ice Man, cuz I started with Made of Honor. I went with the order that it was in on Spotify. Yeah, it was just—it was a lot of music. I couldn't even tell you which one I like yet, but on Ice Man, definitely like that one, the one with Future stood out, just because it's nice to see them back together and the beat was just—

United.

Nasty.

What do you think, Gav?

Drake doesn't hold my attention very well, unfortunately, so I kind of skip around a lot, which is not something that I normally do with albums. I usually try and listen to them all the way through, but I just—so much of it feels like, yep, this is Drake, that I have a hard time really, really getting into it. But I do see what you guys are saying about the beats. Hearing that Made of Honor is more like Honestly, Nevermind—I haven't had a chance to check this out yet, but that's—I will say the one that I'm more excited to listen to, just cuz I really actually was thoroughly impressed by Drake's attempt and take on house music.

So as much of a downside as it is to release too much music at once, I like that it's like albums in different styles instead of just being a huge flood, like Scorpion kind of felt like this huge flood of just like, okay, now I'll figure out and playlist the 10 I like, I guess. But this is like, oh yeah, Ice Man feels like one vibe.

Separated.

It's separated because I see myself probably not really caring about the other two. And so for me it's easier to just be like, I like this as what it is without having to have it be diluted with these other vibes. We will get all the way into the trio of albums next week, but that'll be all for this week. Thank you, listeners. Like and subscribe on YouTube. Rate us five stars on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. You can follow the podcast on Instagram @fridaytofridaypodcast. You can save the Friday to Friday Spotify playlist to follow along with what we're listening to throughout the week. It's what we use to listen to the weekly releases and you should too. You can find that link in the description. Our intro and outro music by Lunar G. Podcast edited by me, Jacob from Frequency Overflow. And please join us every week to stay in tune with hip-hop releases from Friday to Friday. Peace.

Peace.