I spent a cumulative 14 hours riding shotgun with relatives of various age and musical tastes. Lucky for me, I spent 95 percent of this ride-time with my younger cousin who favors Meek, J. Cole, and Logic, with occasional tolerance for Mary Mary. As we minded speed limits, seatbelts, and our business, our bass kept highway patrol the fuck back.
As an extended, four-day weekend, Thanksgiving is, for me and many others, a strange context to be digging for new music, insomuch as my mother only plays gospel and Richmond Power 92.1 only plays the hits. For once in my life, however, the wi-fi at my mama's house was in five-stripe condition, so I could keep pace with this surprisingly busy week of holiday mixtape releases. This past weekend's earworms come courtesy of A$AP Ferg, Lupe Fiasco, Ludacris, Miguel, and Charli XCX.
Ludacris f/ Miguel "Good Lovin'"
Released: Oct. 31, 2014
Ludacris sounding chopped as Paul Wall, and with a heart-snatching Miguel hook that kneads it all tenderly together. I'm more so here for the production, with Da Internz having woven elements of Kanye West's College Dropout, Late Registration, and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy into a singularly nostalgic track that weeps. A Ludacris resurgence in 2014 isn't the most promising prospect, when not even Nelly can get right; but I gladly accept "Good Lovin'" as Luda's best effort yet.
Lupe Fiasco f/ Ty Dolla $ign "Deliver"
Released: Nov. 9, 2014
Lupe Fiasco is "lost in the Atlantic," possibly because he's six singles and leaks deep in promo for Tetsuo & Youth, yet he still hasn't figured which direction he wants to row. As of late, the reverberating constant of Lupe's re-launch are his charismatic collaborations with Ty Dolla $ign, previously "Snitches" and "Next to It," with "Deliver" being their third song together this year. Lest you suspect that Lupe is looking for an easy R&B cash-out a la "Out of My Head," mind that Lupe's songwriting is as somber and sociological as ever, down to the hook of "Deliver," a warning to the pizza men and women who serve America's projects and trap houses.
Charli XCX "Gold Coins"
Released: Nov. 17, 2014
I hear "Gold Coins" and feel like I'm surround-sounded by the closing credits of a '90s high school dramedy. That's an appropriate vibe for a week that I spent away from New York, back in my central Virginia hometown, where everyone listens to pop and sermons. On my way back up I-95 after Thanksgiving, I was predominantly blasting Meek Mill in the Civic, a playlist sequencing that wasn't quite hospitable to Charli XCX. I'm bumping "Gold Coins" at my desk now, however. God save da brat rock gawd.
Yung Gud "My Guns"
Released: Nov. 25, 2014
Sad Boys producer Yung Gud dropped his debut beat tape, Beautiful, Wonderful EP, just a week before he and Swedish rapper Yung Lean take an encore tour lap of the U.S. Truth be told, I'm no more or less gassed for Lean than I am for Wiz Khalifa, who (with a dash of Lil B) is the Swedish teen rapper's U.S. precedent. Yung Gud's project, however, is chainsaws and blue flames, imported from Stockholm.
A$AP Ferg "Reloaded (Let It Go Pt. 2)" f/ M.I.A. & Crystal Caines
Released: Nov. 28, 2014
If you were lucky enough to attend M.I.A.'s Matangi tour this past summer, you'll have guessed that a collaboration between the headliner and her tour companion, A$AP Ferg, was in the works. "Reloaded (Let It Go Pt. 2)," like much of Ferg's latest mixtape, Ferg Forever, is specifically dedicated to his not-so-precious slab of Manhattan: "Dead: casualties in Harlem/Draw guns like galleries in Harlem/No life; they'd rather be in coffins." This isn't M.I.A.'s greatest rap about A.K.s, but it's up there.
