Since his days as part of Chicago's Cool Kids, Sir Michael Rocks has been a master in the art of casually fucking around. His recent solo mixtapes have featured enough slick songs and entertaining hooks to fill plenty of lesser artists' catalogs, but they've also faced a bit of a branding problem in positioning Rocks as someone other than a breezy charmer capable of coasting on his good looks, reputation and sense of style. Many fans have no doubt missed the eager chemistry that marked his early days playing off of Chuck Inglish.
Rocks recently moved to Miami, and it seems he's been busy fucking around in the best way a rapper can: By having a good time making dumb jokes with the guy who lives around the corner. That guy is Pouya, an associate of Robb Bank$ and a member of his Smart Stunnas label. Today, the duo of Rocks and Pouya released the low-stakes, six-song EP "Gookin," which features production from Kodyak, Trill Spector, Eric Dingus, Raiden and DJ Smokey. Rocks explained the genesis of the project on Twitter a few hours after its release:
I moved to Miami a lil bit ago, Pouya live around the corner so we made a mixtape at my crib. We just havin fun yall.
That spirit of just having fun is clear, and it's also the EP's biggest asset. The amount of fun the artists were having is palpable. Full of straightforward, stupid songs about girls and drugs and drugs and girls and nachos, it's an entertaining case of two rappers having a great time playing off of each other. By virtue of not mattering very much and just being loose, it manages to be one of Rocks's most compelling releases in a long time and a great introduction to Pouya for those outside of Miami.
"When we work, man, it's not like on no professional shit," Pouya told the Miami New Times last month, about the project. "It's more on the fun side. As homies, 'Oh, you want to do a track? Yeah, let's do it.' And fucking laugh in the studio, bring some bitches through and just chill."
For a sense of the inside jokes that clearly went into making it, it's also helpful to read the acknowledgements on the EP's Bandcamp page:
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Download it for $2.99 here or stream it below:
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