Deep Cut: Giftz "Movie"

Chicago street rap spitter Giftz brings bars-on-bars lyrical density and pathos to his latest single.

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Complex Original

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Mixtape: Unknown
Producer: Rozart

Giftz, formerly Young Giftz, is the east side Chicago rapper from the F.O.C (Focused On Cash) crew who you may know from one of the best singles of 2012, "Nino." What you may not know is Giftz has since blossomed into one of Chicago's best traditional thug rappers, even if he hasn't garnered the same amount of press as his spiritual street level contemporaries Lil' Herb and Lil' Bibby.

Giftz's two best songs of 2013 were "Death Wish," an almost freeform "Lyrical Exercise" type banger, and "By Any Means," a more somber track detailing the difficulties of trying to live the high life in a city full of low lives. Before you click play on his latest loosie "Movie," go remind yourself of the two aforementioned songs, because this new track works best as an epilogue to both of them. It's a mixture of "Death Wish"'s bars-on-bars with the pathos of "By Any Means"—"wise words from a decent man, I never heard those/My role model drove a Bentley with a four in a fur coat"—over the sort of ominous production befitting any track with a brief sample of the bassline from Southside Movement's "I Been Watching You" (most famously rapped over by Jadakiss & Nas and Cormega).

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