New Rap Releases | Vince Staples, Navy Blue, Freddie Gibbs, BONES, Keyze AriZona, Qwel

This is Friday to Friday, your weekly rap wrap up going through our favorite releases in rap and hip hop from Friday, June 5th to Friday, June 12th. My name is Jacob. I'm a mixing and mastering engineer from California and your host for today. And I have with me producer and artist manager hailing from Montreal, Canada, Matt Carrier.

Yo, what's good?

As well as artist, producer, and DJ hailing from the Twin Cities, Minnesota, Terry V.

Yo, what's going on, y'all?

Last but not least, we got producer hailing from Detroit, Michigan, Gav, aka Lunar G.

What up, though?

Before we get into talking about our favorites from this week, here's the full list of projects released. We got Apollo Red One with Demon Heart Radio, Baby Stay Down with Lil Yachty, Boy Wonder and Canada Soccer with What If It All Goes Right, Big Walk Dog with Until Then, BSG Rambo with Sincerely Beezy, Bones with ETC, Hurricane Wisdom with Weather the World, Keys Arizona with Christmas in Spring, Lizzo with [expletive], La Tyler with Destined for Greatness, Lute with Hard to Reach, Navy Blue with Surrender, Paul Wall with Fortune and Glory, Pablo Skywalking with Thinking About the Old Days, Protect with Slime Dude 2003, Quell and Nightwalker with Divided Times, Scarlxrd with All For Nothing, Scorcher with ADM D, Surf with Black Napoleon, Trunk Boys with Right Back In, Vince Staples with Cry Baby, Wax and DJ Hoppa with Highway Hotel, and Who Shot Scott with Harry.

So, let's get into our favorites from this week. I will kick it off with Vince Staples Cry Baby. This was kind of the thing I was most excited about from this week.

Yeah.

There was a Tyler the Creator interview from I think 2023 where he took Vince on tour as his opener for the Call Me If You Get Lost tour. And Tyler was saying he loves Vince and he felt like he was about to get to something amazing. And Tyler was guessed that it was his next album. For me, it wasn't the next album. It was a couple after that, but this is it. This is the one where I'm like he finally, I think, reached like a precipice of his sound in a way that I was really happy with on this. He's always sharp with the pen, but sonically something has been missing for me for a while with Vince projects. And this rock sound is like a missing piece that I've been looking for. So, yeah, every song does exactly what it needs to do, says exactly what it needs to say. Just Vince Staples songwriting delivery plus now the music behind it is sonically kind of caught up to what he we already know he can do with the pen.

Yeah, I think it was a interview that he did with either Pitchfork or Pigeons and Planes. And he was talking about his sound and how he was like, "Back when we were doing Big Fish Theory," he's like, "I tried asking them if I could put electronica in the album." And by them he means his label. He's like, "And my label said absolutely not." So, I think there's a little bit of that cuz this is his first indie release, too. He's off his label. This is all him. So, he's got a lot more creative control on this. This kind of felt like since you were talking about Tyler the Creator, it kind of feels like his Igor almost. He's going to probably hopefully do more of this or at least keep stuff like influenced like this.

Right. Yeah, I like that. It's kind of like his Igor.

Yeah, I like the comparison. I really enjoyed Cry Baby. I listened to this album more than I did any project this week, I think. I had this record on repeat. I even played it around my nephew just because I wanted him to like sonically hear just a different sound and exposing to different things, but and he's not old enough to get the lyrical concept and things that's happening all throughout this record, but I think this was a really genius idea to do this with kind of this punk rock sound because, you know, with punk rock being anti-establishment, like this project is very much so, even with the cover art, but it's very anti-establishment and also it's needed now with just how, you know, not to get political, but just with the state of the culture, the state of the world and in politics and geopolitics and all these things.

It is dope coming from a hip-hop artist cuz originally, you know, that's one of the elements of hip-hop is like speaking to people and also anti-establishment, but it's genius with the punk rock because that's where, you know, punk rock started, anti-establishment to combat like, you know, big companies and stuff like that. So, with Vince on here talking his [expletive], my favorite, man, I like Cotton, I like TV Guide, Go Go Gorilla, um Big Bad Wolf, but 7:00 in the Morning hits different. It really blew me away. I was really surprised um cuz I didn't know how the record I know we played some you talked about some of the singles earlier in the year and just like that sound, but like he really gets into it like lyrically, he really gets into it which tied this whole thing together. Like this is dope. This is really dope.

You guys pretty much said everything, but I mean for me it was like every song being its own experience like entirely was was really cool, definitely. And I do feel like now you don't get that especially in the last couple years where like really every single song is its own project, I guess. I really liked it.

Definitely. I want to shout out it's mainly produced with Saint Mino and Mike Hector. Those were the two main producers besides Vince pretty much that are credited on most of them.

Okay.

Beats are really good. It's all again all stand out. It's all like unique. And Vince Staples master of sarcasm and irony in his songwriting. Yeah. Especially on Only in America, but all over this project he's using terminology and sayings of the people that he's revolting against. Ironically using chants like army chants ironically and stuff like that all over this album that's really clever and it really works. Also, I wanted to shout Big Bad Wolf samples Slick Rick's song Children's Story.

Yeah.

Children's Story, yeah.

Yeah, which is a classic.

It was a classic in our family. (laughs)

There's a lot of self-reflection on this one, too, which I like a lot. Like he's always kind of talking about his life or how he's changing or evolving. Like I know not a ton of people loved his last album. I personally really liked that album and felt like this kind of carried that theme just a little bit of like still talking about life and like reflecting, especially on like Do You Know the Devil? But I thought this whole project was really really sick. I like Big Bad Wolf, Blackberry Marmalade. I pretty much could have saved the whole thing.

And funny enough, it kind of translates like commercially, too. Like even though it's supposed to not be commercial, a lot of it would sound like something I would hear on the radio, too.

I think that's how the irony lands so well is that you actually could play it on the radio. It's like it's adjustable, so

Yeah. I think it was genius to go with this sound with this type of album with the lyrical content that he had.

Great call.

Yeah. Punk rock absolutely hearkens that. I mean, it's founded on just [expletive] you to the man, basically.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think they chose the singles well, too. I think Blackberry Marmalade and Cotton were two of the strongest songs on there. And I also love White Flag. And yeah, just overall, you could definitely save every song on it cuz they're all their own vibe and they all kind of have their place on the album.

Mhm.

Yeah, White Flag. He has a lyric where talking about getting slammed by the police, and like though I haven't had or fortunate to not have had that exact um experience, but I do it made me remember like when I was little and I was shopping at Rainbow Foods and I'm going to bag and then this lady like slaps my hand and then she's all like, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were trying to steal my purse." And so it's all like just the imprint of just how racism is and just how sometimes people are just casual with that type of [expletive]. It's just all like the type of [expletive] that we have to live with. Like as a child, you don't fully understand what's happening but then when you get older you connect the pieces and stuff like that.

But it's, yeah, this is I highly recommend listening to this album whether you're a fan of punk rock or hip hop, really cuz I think there's something for everybody. Like Matt you were saying just how even some of these beats can sound good on the radio. So like if you want something that's sonically good, you have that. You want lyrical content, you have that or if you just want something different, like it touches on a lot of different areas.

I hope that this really gives him a good commercial success that he deserves.

With this next project are y'all looking for something similar like a Crab Ragu 2 or

I don't love everything but I'd be open to more of this, you know. I'm not going to be like one and done.

For me I want this to be the direction like I hope he's like found his sound with this and this isn't like a one-off album.

Yeah.

Yeah. And I agree, like I'm open to anything else he does going forward but this was such a dope, like you were just saying, Gav, like with how he is with his wit and his humor, like I think this is a perfect route in terms of, you know, displaying his artistry, getting his message across, reaching into his experimentation but then also just providing like really dope content. So

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Definitely album of the week or not that we do that but my favorite of the week.

(laughs)

Yeah. No, I would give it that. Even though for me most of it isn't my typical kind of music that I go back to. Like every single song is well crafted enough that I would give it album of the week, for sure.

Maybe we should introduce that. We maybe, you know.

I mean, [expletive] we always talk about it anyway.

Yeah, you know

We do. We do, okay.

Yeah. It wasn't just good beats. It was like him also like his part was as intricate as the, you know, the instrumental, so

That's it.

I thought the bass work on this was [expletive] insane and just like homage to punk rock as well cuz some of the basslines in like '80s just hardcore. I grew up listening to that, so it's like this to me, I mean this is my favorite kind of [expletive]. And it felt generic. I find a lot of like attempts at this kind of end up sounding like it's just like packs that were downloaded online for like that sound, you know? But no, this was well done.

I'm pretty sure there was like a guitar player like in session with him that he was writing with because it was too solid.

That's not no splice packs, for sure.

I mean the drums sound programmed, you know? They're very on beat, but like aside from that, it feels pretty natural, which I liked a lot.

I couldn't tell with the drums. Do you think they sounded programmed? I was thinking some of them could have been recorded. I'm not sure though.

Maybe. I'm just thinking of like at least the singles, like the songs that are kind of stuck in my head.

It would definitely not be every song that be recorded, but maybe a couple of them would have been.

Yeah, like a studio drummer or something. It's not that hard to get them in there. It's not like these drum parts are outrageous either, so

But even still though, that was kind of why I listened to it. I'm all like how did they come up with the production for it because it doesn't, like you said, it doesn't sound looped. Or a lot of it doesn't sound programmed. A lot of it sounds like it was done live, so

That's like you go into work like you're going to the studio at like 6:00 a.m. and you're having like six months or whatever of working on a project, you know? Not like putting like a trap album together in a week and yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, like

Which I love sometimes those weak trap albums, but like

Oh, me too. But yeah, I know what you mean. (laughs) It's the difference of like a bands from the '70s just talking about like they'd only release an album every few years and they'd spend 6 months at least just in the studio every day just writing from scratch like that.

Break up like three times in the process, you know?

They'd be all this drama and then they'd tour it for a year and break up again.

That has to be so fun, man. Yeah.

Oh, that's all part of it. It's all part of it.

I've (laughs) I've been there. I've been a drummer in many bands and it's not that fun.

Yeah.

(laughs)

You get yourself a Yoko Ono, you know?

Yeah.

(laughs)

That's crazy. All of our tips have just been like, "Yeah, let's do it." We come together one day and after that everybody has something else going on. So, it's like that.

(laughs)

Like that was sick.

All right. So, that is Vince Staples with Crybaby. Next, let's talk about Keys Arizona with Christmas in Spring. Lots of great features on this. It's the first thing that caught my attention. Suave, Reason, Westside Boogie, Mick Jenkins. Those are some heavy hitters right there.

The production was crazy.

There was live production on this from what I can tell. Mainly cuz a Sabre Agnew. That dude, I'm pretty sure he plays saxophone or something. Like composes and stuff and he was featured on a couple songs.

Yeah.

Yeah, so there was definitely like some live instrumentation.

And honestly, a great follow-up to like if you just listened to the Vince Staples project, this is like it queues up right after. It's like the instrumentation is a different route, but it's the same kind of craft and beauty, right? Like it's really really well done.

Dude, the opening track I had never heard of this dude. I had not known what I was getting into. Similar to what Jacob said, I saw the features on there. I like Mick Jenkins a lot personally, Reason, I mean, everyone on there, but anytime I see Mick Jenkins featured, I like to listen to it cuz it's usually like jazz rap or something kind of different. And so, what I saw it was also split into like four discs, so I was like, "This is kind of cool. I'm just going to check this out." Dude, Virgo Blue is beautiful. That grabbed my attention immediately, and then listening through the rest of it, it doesn't disappoint in my opinion.

Yeah, no. And it's me, too. This is my first time listening to him, and I found that the entire time I just kept trying to kind of it's sometimes when you listen to a new artist, like you're trying to figure out who they sound like or what they sound like, and I found that this guy was so their songwriting resembled so many people that in a way was his own lane kind of thing. Uh I mean, the influences, like you can hear them, but it's all merged, you know, kind of all really well. I would just want to hear more of this guy on different kind of things, just cuz he sounded so versatile that I found it almost like that's his box is just being versatile that way, you know? Like every song had like these almost like Kendrick Lamar-esque like hooks. Like everything was really really well crafted together. Um honestly, this just made me want to kind of take a little deep dive in his catalog.

That's dope.

Definitely agree.

It was refreshing.

It was refreshing. I didn't expect that. Favorite, personally, of the week. And Vince Staples was right there with it, too, but yeah, they're the exact like just like you said, Matt, the same but different, you know? Like it fits, though.

Yeah, and it kind of really feeds a good thing where it's like Vince Staples brought a lot of emotions to his project, right? And like I said, it's it's weird. It kind of like he had like a kind of Kendrick Lamar-esque like way that he would write hooks and stuff with the emotion that he put on the album.

Yeah.

Uh so I feel it's like you get both sides of the emotion but one is obviously way more against like the industry and trying to be anti-commercial but be commercial at the same time. I'm just interested to hear more. Honestly, I saw he had a couple other albums. I think it's like his third or fourth.

Yeah.

Um yeah.

But it looks like um a lot of these are like 4 minutes or about 4, 5 minutes. So is he giving us three verses, too?

So I that's

Small songs. Oh yeah.

Yeah, they're full songs.

That's yeah.

Yeah, like the last thing I wanted to say was that this is kind of a concept album. There's like interludes, skits. And there's a lot of emotion in this one, too. Like he's got little parts of like him talking to his mom and stuff about like not being able to pay the bills and [expletive] like that and like just relatable life stuff that makes this feel really real. And then add in live instrumentation, like I don't know. It just felt like another one of those projects that these guys were probably sitting in a room together trying to figure this [expletive] out.

For the amount of listeners that he has, like this sounds like a more expensive album than what I would assume someone with those listeners could afford to make. So I don't know if he ate like, you know, ramen and like nothing for like months but like everything is so well crafted. Like it's

Someone knows exactly what they're doing, you know? Like

So he's independent as well.

He's independent and

Jeez.

By the way, he is uh based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Okay. So he's Midwest, yeah. Not far from us.

Indiana, okay. Yeah.

I guess the uh the group that he plays with, he plays with a live group called the Sutherland Collective. So shout out to them.

Oh, that makes sense.

Okay, so that's where I heard Xavier Adleu cuz I heard that name.

That's sick. Okay.

That's what's up.

That was Keys Arizona with Christmas in Spring. Next I'll talk about Navy Blue with Surrender. I'm not sure if you guys had a chance to check this out, but I just learned that dude is a pro skater as well as a rapper. That's a little fun fact about Navy Blue. He skates under his real name, Sage Elsesser, but

Okay.

raps under Navy Blue. And uh yeah, this is a really cool project. It's super introspective, sort of abstract rap. And I liked how the whole project is dispersed with these samples of It sounds like James Earl Jones reading an audiobook. I'm not sure what book, though.

All right, we got Darth Vader.

Yeah. It adds a lot of drama and attitude to the album and kind of gives it a similar theme. Makes it feel more like an album. But I really like a lot of the production on here. There was a couple joints by Alchemist, my favorite of which was Baron. And then uh Navy Blue produced a couple tracks himself, like uh I really liked Pricedem, produced by Navy Blue and featuring Armand Hammer. Also really liked uh Reflections, produced by Jason Wool and Mario Luciano. Also If God Had Legs, produced by Jason Wool and Bahamadia Irfon. So yeah, a lot of really excellent production on this. And uh of course there's this Earl Sweatshirt feature on here, the song Belladonna.

Yeah, that's Alchemist.

And Earl is doing a sound I haven't heard him do in a while, which is like a super clear vocal tone and purposely complex wordplay, kind of more like stuff he was doing in like the early 2010s, which, you know,

Yeah, yeah. Okay.

he's just overly capable of doing that when he's in the mood for it. And somehow Navy Blue got him back in that pocket with his own dense wordplay. Like great verses from both of them on Belladonna.

Love that [expletive]. Ah, okay. That's my favorite Earl, too. Like, that era, just absolutely spitting. Super clean, crispy, raw, like no processing, just crisp clear vocals.

It's pretty personal, but I think his stuff is always pretty personal. So, if you're a fan of his, you can check in where he is at the moment, but the lyrics are so abstract that it's not like too concrete what's going on in his life, so

Interesting.

Overall, I would say it's a strong project from him compared to his other stuff.

Okay, dope.

Yeah, it's pretty good. I recommend it for fans of kind of slow, moody, abstract hip-hop. That is Navy Blue with Surrender. So, you guys wanted to talk about

Bones.

Yeah, let's do that.

That's a Michigan boy.

Yeah, let's talk about Bones with ETC.

Yeah, howl Michigan, not Detroit. The boonies, I'll put it that way.

Oh, okay, okay, okay.

Crazy, like his high school has a [expletive] spot in the auditorium for him in the bleachers that's like just reserved. He's that big of a local star. It's so cool, dude.

Oh, that's dope. I mean, that's what you get in the game for, right?

Yeah. (laughs) Dude, it's wild. So, Bones for me, I have kind of gone in waves, not just because of the artistry, but more just like personally listening habits and stuff. But this felt like old Bones. This felt like Sodium, like Sesh Hollow Water Boys Bones, like 2018, 2017, even earlier 15. There was a lot of different eras of his sound on this project. You got to I think you can probably tell even without knowing what his sound has been, like just there's differences throughout the album. Those are all kind of like different album sounds. So, this was kind of cool to see like some of his older stuff, like kind of the sad boy sound, some of the really like low quality production, like under-produced, just kind of slow [expletive].

Mhm.

So, I liked it a lot. This is very much what I expect out of Bones and it's not a sound that everyone loves, but like if you like this sound, this is exactly what the [expletive] you should be listening for. There were some really good ones on here.

I listened to this mainly when I was in the gym. I liked the first half of it. The second half wasn't bad. It's just that just like you were saying like there was like different genre, different sounds as you go throughout this project. But the first half was like really heavy like trap and like DØSH. Or even Mospberg had like a little boom bap vibe to it, but like those first few records I was like, "Okay, bet. I'm in. I'm in. I'm in." And as it continued on, it didn't dip for me, but I was like, "All right, it's cool. You're getting like a little variety of everything." But first half was really strong.

Yeah, it's like more sad boy vibes at the end. Which Mospberg is still pretty like sad boy, but the beats are a lot heavier. Mospberg, Get Richer Die Tryin, those two were pretty like hype kind of heavy songs. Parked Out, Home Is Where the Hatred Is, and Voicemail. I liked all of those, but those are like more his older kind of sad boy style, which are just like slower, different than the first half like you said.

Yeah.

Right on. So, that is Bones with ETC. Next I want to talk about a cool project by an artist called Surf. It's a little hard to find because of his name. It's just s u r f. But if you look at Black Napoleon, the name of the album, then you can find it for sure, but I couldn't find much about him besides he's from Atlanta. Definitely not typical Atlanta trap though. Clever bars, good hooks, and he keeps it unique with his own flavor. Tons of samples and interpolations of other people's songs, so that was really interesting.

How did you feel about the mix? Like I'm not an engineer, but I found some like a little bit of like it was rough on certain songs.

Um not enough to like be critical of it, but I think there's some room for improvement. But it's not jarring or anything. Like it's not a bad it's just like a

It's not even really bad enough for me to like be like it's just not as pro

you know, it's like amateur indie. It's just kind of a yeah.

I don't know how I missed this. Man, I know Surf and I didn't really realize just cuz like one word artists I forget sometimes, but like I have a whole project from 2025 saved like another single from 2022.

I liked a lot of songs on it. 424, Mad Max, Security, All Stars, and Bite Down are my favorites, but a lot of interesting stuff on it. I was not familiar with Surf, but I'm glad I came across this one cuz I enjoyed Black Napoleon a lot.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I got to check this one out.

I could hear what you meant, Matt, or listening to the 424 like the mixing doesn't sound bad, but it's like eh cuz yeah, I heard it a lot on like the bass and certain vocals, but also like the bass like sometimes that rough bass has that appeal to like the 808s that are like kind of rough. So, I don't know if it was like maybe intentional. But the samples and the interpolations were wild. Like at one point he did the full No Friends in the Industry My Brothers Been My Brothers like the Drake hook I'm pretty sure.

Mhm.

And like he just like yeah, there was like quite a few things I was like oh. And I didn't check him out before listening the project, so I was like oh, maybe he must be like your favorite artist maybe he just has like friends and he's able to do all these samples and stuff, but no I guess he's just doing it just to have it a part of his sound and

Yeah.

I guess it's just a come up move, you know? And if the song pops, hey you take it down.

One of those good problems.

Exactly.

Yeah. Surf with Black Napoleon. Next, let's talk about I didn't really have anything to say for the Freddie Gibbs. Did you guys want to talk about that? Anything good to say?

Not about anything other than I like the first interlude and the three songs that came out earlier this month, so

(laughs)

The guy can flow, the guy can rap, like his flows are good, like it's Freddie Gibbs, right? Like it's not going to be bad, you know? But I need different instrumentals, (laughs) like

I don't like this Freddie though. I don't like this sound, the like kind of more commercial, like I'm trying to be more like everyone could like me sound. Like I like his boom bap [expletive]. I really like his Madlib and Alchemist stuff, so it's This is always kind of like not bad, but

I listened to the deluxe version. Like I didn't listen to the regular, so I listened to the deluxe version, like the full hour joint. And as I'm listening to it, I like the concept of what he has going on for the project, but it's good rapping, but it's just like that's basically it. Like it didn't leave a bad taste in my mouth, pause or whatever, but (laughs) it was cool. Like it was cool for what it was. It just didn't do anything like special for me. Like again, it's not a bad album. It's like something like if you [expletive] with Freddie, I feel like you'll enjoy it. You won't be disappointed, but it's just nothing, you know, to write back home about.

wise, there was a lot of Freddie, like I was like, oh, like a lot of verses, like [expletive] like this is, you know, like he can flow. That's undeniable. But when someone is that good, you need the production that can carry that, that I don't want to call it greatness. I don't know if I can call I don't know if Freddie Gibbs is one of the greats, but

That's what he was saying throughout this album. If I took anything out this album, is that Freddie feels that he's the greatest and he's one of the top, and I feel like and they say like if you're artist or rapper, you have to think that way, which I don't necessarily think is true, but that's just me in my own mind. But yeah, like outside of that, it's just like it could have been a mixtape and I wouldn't have been mad at it.

It didn't make me feel any different about him. I don't like him more, I don't like him less. I'm just going to forget about this album and keep going to the same albums that I'm sure all, you know, we all keep going back to and like I was going to say all four of us, but I think it's everyone, you know. It's just he has those classic albums that everyone loves. So, I don't think this was really Unless it's for an audience that maybe we don't belong to, you know, cuz I did find it was a bit slower-ish. So, I don't know, but

Yeah, like Roofless was more like a I think that he wanted that to be a hit or like a big single from the album. Um but I don't know. And I'm pretty sure there's going to be somebody in the comment who's all like, "You guys are tripping. This is like the like and if that's your opinion, but it was cool. I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Yeah. And like if someone wants to hate, like at the end of the day again, Freddie has that body of work where like there are those albums that you can pick like I feel like Freddie has those albums that someone can put in like a top 10 favorite hip-hop albums and I'd be okay with it. So, for a guy to have albums like that, have this, like it's just I don't know. I mean, there's Bandana, you know.

(laughs)

You don't have to go back to Bandana.

Freddie Gibbs can rap his ass off. That's what this album proved. He can rap his ass off. He can. I mean, there's MCs that could just rap and then there's MCs who can create like conceptual like amazing projects and albums and I think that's more or less what I'm trying to say. Like conceptually as a project, and not so much. Like again, but I like the attempt, you know, with the talk with the devil on your shoulder and going back with that, but yeah, it's just dope rapping, man.

Yeah. But yeah, I know. I mean, hey, if you enjoy this album, cool. Again, not bad. It's just

Yeah.

I've got my Freddie saves. I've got a whole playlist of Freddie. I don't need stuff that's Anything under like an eight out of 10, I have 10 out of 10s from Freddie, you know, so

Yeah.

Yeah, that's fair.

It's here's his flowers, you know, and it's like a little backhanded, but you know I mean it.

Well, that was an interesting review of Freddie Gibbs

(laughs)

You Only Die Once Deluxe.

for Alfredo 3. That's what we're ready for.

Yeah. Yolo.

There's three new

Three new songs on that, by the way.

Pretty original.

So, next I want to talk about Quelle with Divided Times. Chicago rapper runs his own label, Galapagos 4. Uh really not your typical rapper when you see the dude, but uh very skilled lyricist that's been in the game for 25 years, over 25 years. He's been absent for some years, but he's back with producer Night Walker who has some pretty solid beats on here. Standout tracks were Divided Times, the title track, also like Good Morning Jesus, Buy More Clocks featuring Denizen Kane and Jam One, and Golden Plane. Those were my favorites for that.

Buy More Clocks was sick. Beat was super cool.

Mhm.

Yeah, that was cool beat.

Yep, that's Quelle with Divided Times.

We need to talk about Rubbers.

Okay. Okay.

This [expletive] sounds interesting. It's grown on me a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's grown on me, too, and I've shown it to multiple people to get their opinions on it, and I've gotten Eh, it's okay. I've gotten Oh, this is terrible. Anyways, this is Rubbers by Phoenix Flexin. It's his new single going viral right now. It's not rap. This is like 80s weird 80s pop music.

Yeah.

But it's fascinating.

The content, though, the lyrical content, he sticks to the hip-hop, which I like.

That's true.

He does really and it fits so well cuz to me this is like it's I that's my second favorite genre is that kind of genre like the '80s like disco and stuff like that. And so like when you sent it to me I was like, "Hey, this is perfect." And at first I didn't know how I felt about it because of the lyrical content and then I was like, "No, you know what? Like

No, it grabbed me and I was

of it because it's real, it's authentic. He wasn't trying to fit that lyrical content of the '80s. He just really went So it's like it is hip-hop he's rapping just his cadence and flow is like I don't know what you want to call it. There needs to be a new word for it.

Swiping cards and stacking chips.

Right? Like that's

(laughs)

Like that's not something that like Ab-Soul would say, you know? Like it's very like it's still hip-hop but I don't know, man. Like it's a lane that like I don't know if it's fair to say that he's carved out maybe a little bit of a new

They're trying cuz dude, Perrps If you look at Perrps' Instagram, he was going off. He was like in the streets of I don't know what looked like New York, I don't know where, some city and he was like, "Man, I don't want anyone on my [expletive] beats, not just like anybody. I want real [expletive] artists." He's like, "Watch this [expletive] run I'm about to go on." He's like, "Real artistry only." And [expletive] and then it's the next like 20 stories are him in the studio with Phoenix Flexin doing Rubbers. And what sounded like other tracks. So, I'm excited as [expletive] because it sounds like he's about to be dropping projects. It was very much like we're about to flip this on its head kind of feeling.

I remember hearing a Shoreline Mafia interview where Phoenix Flexin was talking about doing a solo project that was going to be more in like a rock sound. Uh cuz that's more of what he listens to. You know, I think he's just showing that he has a very diverse listening taste and he wants to make music that's not just rap music.

Yeah. And like you said, Matt, the lyrical content was definitely what he knows. It's very like on brand with past Phoenix Flexin projects. And so, I don't know. I think this is really cool. It's a really crazy blend. Hip-hop has always been blending things, but this is sweet to see it getting so much attention, good or bad, in my opinion.

Small note, though, I saw a lot of people saying that it was AI, which I find is such a stupid thing to say. It's so stupid. The second there's something that's a little too well photoshopped, people scream AI AI AI. As if people forgot that like some people know how to actually Photoshop, right?

Photoshop is an art.

And so, (laughs) for this it's like this is a sound that I And again, I'm into that sound. And I haven't heard new of that sound since pretty much 20, 30 years. So, I feel like people don't know it exists. That's why they called it AI because it sounds maybe what they would imagine is like how do I know, Madonna pop level commercialness.

No, I'm listening to this now. It sounds like something that would be in Scarface when they was

(laughs)

doing coke at the at the Ocean View Hotel.

I said this immediately. I'm like, Matt, Matt, you got to listen to this.

I'm literally I'm mad I didn't get to it first cuz it's been about like I've been like, man, I've been 5, 6 years I'm like, I want a sound that's kind of like 80s, (laughs) but that fits hip-hop and like I've actually been looking for that.

For me, I prefer the Shitty Boys version of the 80s and hip-hop blend, but it was cool. It was interesting. It did grow on me as the week went on.

Yeah.

Hell yeah.

It is giving me Pet Shop Boys vibes. If you don't know who the Pet Shop Boys are, this I feel like that's the closest to that sound.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

That I Yeah, from ladies.

And I think Shitty Boys was more like upbeat disco kind of. That one was like it's the type of singing, which I guess is maybe why a lot of people think it was AI, but no, like people were singing like that at one point.

(laughs)

That's that Western Western girl vibes.

That's it. That's literally, yeah. Like almost like a ballad, but

and it at the time when it came on, I mean, I wasn't around back then, but from what I've heard, that sound of the '80s was very hated, right? Which is then punk and everything came out after. So, it's funny now for it to drop and like you go on YouTube and it's so much hate comments. So many people are like it's AI, it's AI, and then like just shut up and enjoy the music and like just stop hating (laughs) cuz like it's

but show it to multiple people this week, though, because I was so fascinated by it, and it's so polarizing. I think that's helping it go viral right now.

It is a rage bait song. It is like you are showing someone hoping that their reaction is like, "Oh, what the hell is that?" you know?

That's what I did.

(laughs)

Yeah. But that's that sound, like it's not many people liked it when it came out, and you know,

Yeah.

But the people that love it really love it.

Hell yeah.

I can't say I really love it, but I like it. Then I've just been seeing like clips of it, and it's absolutely clippable for TikTok, like and it's just growing on me.

What made me like it more is the freestyle. Did you see the he did like the on the radar freestyle? I don't know if you call it a freestyle, I guess a performance.

I got to see this.

Having that visual of him doing the rapping and the cadence

And I saw a couple other um shorts of him dancing that went viral, too.

That's what I saw. I didn't see the performance.

I encourage people to try it cuz the flow like it is as much as we're all like it's catching everything, like the way he's flowing, like every word is really like a melodic kind of singing without singing. So, I mean, hey. That's what it sounds like to be AI, I guess, like

Just to piggyback off your point earlier, like I think a lot of people do need to like just shut up and enjoy the music. Like where we're coming to a point where, you know, if it's not what's popular or what everybody else is doing, then like it's bad or all of a sudden it's bad and that was never the point in creating or music or art. Like it's not necessarily something that's made so that everybody can universally like it or universally sound like this and this is the road map to it. Like No, create what you create and then let people digest it however they digest it. I think that's when you get dope [expletive] is when you take all of that other, you know, all that other [expletive] out.

Made me think of though like this is kind of like there's a few songs when they come out where they become so popular and they're different where the new listeners it's almost like they want to hate it just because of they want to be contrarians, right? And so I think of like I think of Panda, Designer, I think of Lifestyle, Rich Homie Quan, Young Thug. I think of those songs that like when they came out, people wanted to hate on it. And then a year later the those songs are, you know, playing in all the clubs. Then they're all over the radio. 3 years later people are still requesting it. 4 years later you're going to birthday party and there's people asking the DJ to play it. Like and I remember Lifestyle was like the beginning of people saying mumble rap is, you know, is garbage and like [expletive] these Atlanta people. I can't understand what they're saying, you know, and it's like

They were doing the same thing with autotune, too.

Yeah.

But I think that also comes from like hip hop purists because like there's somebody who I'm close to who has a like a love and affinity for hip hop and they kind of hate a lot of younger and newer acts because it's not the hip hop that they know and love. Stuff evolves over time and you have to let stuff evolve and then you also got to remember like where you were like you know you've grown and you may have changed and elevated and become this more mature person. But at a point in time, you were on some young dumb party stuff, too. So, it's all like you got to let artists live. Don't hate the wave. If anything, give them an ear so then you can help guide them, but that's a conversation for another day.

No, agreed. I agreed.

Your point.

You can enjoy KRS and Young Thug. It's fine.

Exactly. I promise you the world won't blow up.

(laughs)

Yeah, I love that Phoenix Flexin is just pushing boundaries though and

Yeah.

He's creating interesting conversations by

How Polarizing.

Yeah.

Or this song is. So, that was Phoenix Flexin with Rubbers single. Before we get into releases for next week, let's do plugs. For me, I mixed and mastered a track just last night for Terry B. It's going to be another single we're going to line up here for some point for you guys to hear. And then also did a couple tracks for Bloodlink. He's a Jersey rapper that I work with often. Pretty talented guy. So, hopefully you'll get to see that come out soon. Besides that, you can just find me at Frequency Overflow everywhere and find our beats at frequencyoverflow.com. That's me. What about you, Gav?

Yeah, you can find me anywhere and pretty much everywhere at prodbylooner.g. Instagram, YouTube, pretty much anything.

Cool, Matt. What do you got to plug?

You follow me at Matt Carriker everywhere and Silk Velvet Records.

What about you, Terry? What do you want to plug?

I'm just working on some new songs for some new material. You can follow me on social media at YoTerryB and that's all platforms, Facebook, Instagram, Tikki Takki, and all that stuff.

All right, excellent. So, releases coming up next week, we have Blast with Labor of Love, Kodak Black with Kodak the Blessing, Wiki with Ancient History, Baby Chief Do It with Rise Against My Broken Odds, Hot Boy with Cut Fan On 2, Head Honcho Amir with All My Intentions Real, Jim Jones with the Landlord, EBK Young Joc with Westside Tequila Volume 1, Fly Anakin with the Forever Dream Deluxe Edition, and Jay China with If You Knew.

Thank you, listeners, for joining us this week. Like and subscribe on YouTube. Rate us five stars on Spotify and Apple Podcast. You can follow the podcast on Instagram @fridaytofridaypodcast. You can save the F2F Spotify playlist to follow along with what we're listening to throughout the week. You can find that link in the description. Our intro and outro music by Lunar G. Find him at prod.by.lunar.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.

Peace.