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Image via CUZ
Little Rock, Arkansas rapper CUZ’s “Return Call” is a take on Southern hip-hop that feels of a piece with the 2009/2010 mini-renaissance led by artists like G-Side and producers like DJ Burn One, pulling the influences of the Dungeon Family, UGK, and myriad odds and ends (the sorts of sonic spices that made Dungeon Family interesting in the first place) into their production and rapping.
CUZ calls his music “drift music,” drawing from the experiences of growing up near Little Rock’s Wright Avenue, a central thoroughfare cutting through the city’s gang territories. “Return Call” feels like a fitting microcosm of that concept, a survey of CUZ’s hometown and anecdotes, ending with a simmering guitar solo that feels like a burning, stunted attempt to rise from one’s surroundings.
