Mixtape: What Da Streets Need 8
Produer: Stunt N Dozier
New Orleans' DJ Dow Jones dropped the latest installment of his What Da Streets Need mixtape series this past weekend and, as with previous editions, it's a showcase for the artist who hosts it mixed with a few exclusives, a handful of Dow Jones' own favorite deep cuts from recent times (Gucci Mane's much-underrated "Ring The Alarm" from Zaytoven's Birds Of A Feather OST mixtape makes a welcome appearance here), and an obligatory song or two by Texas' Lil Pooh.
Gunplay's chief weed-carrier Peryon J Kee—the Lil Snupe to Gunplay's Meek Mill if you will—is the master of ceremonies for this current edition, and the jury is firmly undecided on him as a solo rapper on this showing. He is, however, a convivial raconteur if paired with another rapper as evidenced on Gunplay's own "Get Like Me" and today's Deep Cut: the "Trigger Man"-sampling Memphis horrorcore homage "Smoke Up" with Lil Pooh.
In the wrong hands, this kinda stuff can come across as Three 6 Mafia night at your local karaoke bar and a chilling reminder of the kind of wretched rap music championed on Tumblr in 2010/2011. Thankfully, Lil Pooh is a much better rapper than all of those artists, and the song's producers Stunt N Dozier were behind the boards for classic singles by Trae, Slim Thug, and Mouse On Tha Track so "Smoke Up"'s beat has enough subtle tricks up its sleeve and enough knock in its drums to avoid sounding like a music school production project and more like an instrumental which was originally destined for Project Pat.
[Via DGB]
