Welcome to Mixdown, an ongoing series where Pitchfork staffers and contributors talk about mixtapes, mixes, and other beat-based ephemera that may not be covered in our reviews section but are worth discussing. Today, Corban Goble, Meaghan Garvey, and Wesley Case talk about Gunplay, Rome Fortune, and Childish Gambino.
Gunplay: Gunplay
Corban Goble: Well, here’s a new mixtape from Gunplay, featuring guest spots from Rick Ross, N.O.R.E., Birdman and others. It’s mostly freestyles over popular productions from the last couple of years, and it is OK I guess. What did you guys think of this? Also give me an idea of when you think this album is actually going to hit the shelf—will traditional shelving still be a thing, or will we have moved on to iCloud-based-laser-guided hover-shelves?
Meaghan Garvey: Yeah, I’d bet Living Legend will be out sometime shortly after Detox, and shame on Rick Ross for that—you can make Stalley pop off, but not Gunplay?! This whole thing is depressing, honestly: here we have one of the best bar-for-bar rappers alive doing half-assed karaoke over viral hits from teenagers half his age. For all the “album coming soon!” drops, Gunplay sounds resigned to his fate; that spark, the urgency, that animated his incredible run of mixtapes from 2011 to early 2013 is totally gone. And while I’d still rather hear an hour of C-grade Gunplay verses than most other rappers at their best, I miss that sense of DISRUPTION I used to get from his music—like, I could actually multi-task while listening to this, instead of just sitting there slack-jawed hoping my neighbors don’t complain (which they totally did when “Jump Out” first dropped). Even rapping over “Move That Dope,” a beat he should tear the fuck up, he shows his hand—he sounds practically coy compared to Casino’s original verse. But hey, I guess he’s got his escort service and his bomb shelter to keep him busy. Woof. Wesley, did this depress you as much as it did me?
Wesley Case: It’s hard to hear a lyrical beast like Gunplay say he doesn’t care when his album drops and then a few bars later rap, “MVP on the bench, still scoring.” It’s like we all know he deserves better. As a fan, I’m not even looking for Don Logan’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy—I imagine I’d be satisfied with a Gunplay mixtape that didn’t play like a YouTube playlist of freestyle loosies. Label politics aside, Gunplay, typically a loose cannon, sounds a bit subdued here (his sleepy take on “She Twerkin”, for example, fails to move the needle). As with any Gunplay tape, there’s excellent rapping here, but it doesn’t jump out of the speakers like “Bible on the Dash” or this monster. “Numbers on the Board”, in particular, gives the always alliterative-minded Gunplay the empty space he needs to shine, whether it’s “Can’t bargain with a Carbon-15/ Parched and fatigued in my stars fatigues” or “From under the porch light to picking the Porsche type.”
CG: I’m glad you bring up the idea of “empty space”, because those are the sorts of opening that Gunplay typically jumps through to make his songs pop. There’s not a ton of that here and some of that is structural, you know, having to throw in “Hot Nigga” and stuff like that and then Gunplay isn’t really bodying it at all. Two words you probably don’t want to see next to each other are “subdued” and “Gunplay,” but that’s what we have here, on Gunplay’s presumably-lazily-titled Gunplay.
Rome Fortune: Small VVorld
CG: Artful Atlanta rapper Rome Fortune has appeared briefly in Mixdowns past, and his new mixtape Small VVorld finds the rapper sliding over midtempo dance production from Four Tet, Bassnectar, Blood Diamonds and others. While I’m not sure if I’m feeling it as much as some, Fortune’s a solid wave-rider who picked a good sonic wave to ride on Small VVorld. It stands out, for sure. What did you guys like about this? How has his sound developed since the Beautiful Pimp series?
MG: I have to disagree: I think Fortune is totally essential to the development of Atlanta’s current Makonnen/Awful Records wave! For years he’s been putting out the type of polished DIY that balances whimsy and griminess, and at his best, I think he does it better than most (his Beautiful Pimp 2 remains one of my favorite tapes of the year). So I don’t think it’s so much opportunism when guys like Makonnen and OG Maco show up here, as much as just a genuine rapport. This isn’t my favorite project of his, nor his most representative, but I like that he makes questionable production choices work for him—never did I imagine Festival King Bassnectar soundtracking such a gorgeous bit of anxious introversion, as on “Flashback”. And that kind of internal dialogue is nicely balanced by horn-doggy novelty tracks like “Five Second Rule”, which in concept is totally stupid (ass-eating, five second rule, OKAY) but in practice sounds like Travis Porter 2017.
WC: The production of Small VVorld is so out there that it took me a few listens to concentrate on what Rome was saying. One moment it’s claustrophobic and dank (“4 Seasons”) and then slinky and R&B smooth (“No Evidence”, which sprouts rough edges in the verses). Throw in the sunny “FriendsMaybe” (featuring star-in-the-making ILoveMakonnen) and the chunkiest, worst-sounding distorted guitars on “Why” and it’s clear Small VVorld is a strange work without super obvious entry points. (Rome’s abstract explanation of the tape to Billboard makes me think this is all by design.) The most memorable productions (“5 Second Rule”, which made me snicker, and “Workin’ Gal”) come from SuicideYear, the young Baton Rouge producer who told the Fader, “I sound a lot like what I think a nosebleed would.”
Like the beats, Rome is all over the place lyrically, capable of being silly and very serious on the same track. It was the vulnerable spots I appreciated most, though, like this stretch on “Flashback”: “Puff a little something, never too many brews/ Inside I’m bruised/ You never see it in my YouTube views/ Got me confused/ My smile is just something like a tool I use/ so I don’t seem a fool/ It hurts when nobody has faith in you.”
MG: My main takeaway from this tape is something that’s become increasingly clear over the past year or so: I think it’s time that critics as a whole stop using the phrase “weird Atlanta rapper” as a descriptor. At this point we may as well be saying “wet water.” Being “weird” in Atlanta isn’t an act of transgression—it’s basically the only operating mode.
Childish Gambino: STN MTN
CG: Anyway, speaking of GODS OF THE ATLANTA SCENE, we all know it ends and begins with one man—Donald Glover. Also, there’s something I need to get off my chest, it’s been a burden I’ve been carrying around for a while, like Arthur Dimmesdale hauling around Sauron’s ring or something. Meaghan, Wesley, are you guys sitting down? I’m going to need a verbal “yes” before I continue.
MG: Yes.
WC: Yes.
CG: I don’t hate that “Why is you lion/ Why you Mufasa” song.
But STN MTN is definitely different than the jokeiness/singsonginess of Because the Internet. It’s like, Gambino trying to claim a slice of Atlanta or something and take on a harder edge, which he outlines in a deeply referential intro. But this is still the guy we all know already, “I 69’D A BUNCH OF DIMES” he yells on “No Small Talk”. Then he freestyles over “Money Baby”. So what did you guys think of this?
MG: Ugh, every time he makes sex punchlines (“Semen on her stomach, that’s the second coming!” *shudder*) I get such a “bags of sand” feeling— “Guys I have absolutely had sex, and MULTIPLE times!” But, okay, this is not totally unenjoyable? Conceptually, it is as overwrought as you’d expect: he’s described this project as, I guess, a Gangsta Grillz mixtape set in Atlanta that turns into an EP set in Kauai, or something? Who cares. It’s pretty fun, if you ignore the mortifying lyrics and just glaze over and enjoy hearing the “My Partna Dem” beat for a bit. I think, even more than proving his place in Atlanta, the goal here is forcing us to admit, “Okay, this guy is a goober, but he can be entertaining.” He kind of pulls it off, even though no one—NO ONE—should ever rap over "Go DJ".
Also, that’s an Iggy Azalea shot, right, when he talks about struggle rappers faking like they’re from Atlanta, then drops right into “Amethyst, my weed purple” (Amethyst being Iggy’s real first name). A Gambino/Azalea “authenticity beef” is probably the rap equivalent of “War On Drugs: Suck My Cock”, by which I mean it is a stupid waste of everyone’s time but I will probably still hate-click it. Okay, Wesley, did Gambino win you over here?
WC: No, and I think it’s time to argue he should stop rapping altogether. Let’s ignore the eye-rolling clunkers like “I might drop them bars/ That AT&T” (“Money Baby”) and focus on something more egregiously stupid instead. On “Move That Dope” this guy raps, “Fuck with your boy like a pedophile/ Damn I’m fly.” That is the polar opposite of fly, and I can’t believe Donald Glover—the guy worried he’ll be remembered for “Bro Rape”—would think that was cool to rap. Then again, this is the same MC who described a woman in a song as “Something crazy and Asian, Virginia Tech.” There is nothing redeeming about this tape …
… Except it put me on to Kari Faux’s excellently effortless song, “No Small Talk.” I prefer any of Kari’s rapping—“All my diamonds flossy/ Rap game Sriracha, man you know I’m saucy”—to Gambino’s try-hard attempts.
CG: :prayer hands emoji:
I’m with Meaghan in terms of, I don’t think Gambino is “not unejoyable” but it’s getting tough to indulge his chip on his shoulder. The goofy pop rapping of “V. 3005” just seems more like the lane here.
MG: There’s something serious we need to discuss, though. In this interview, around the 1:00 mark, Glover talks about the proceeds of the for-sale version of this EP going to—correct me if I am mishearing this, but— “Keeping Kauai clean, and also helps with getting audio and visual devices for cop’s policy”?! Have we been willfully ignoring the obvious this whole time? IS DONALD GLOVER AN UNDERCOVER COP? Is that what this was about all along? EVERYTHING IS FALLING INTO PLACE!
CG: I feel like the signs have been in front of us this entire time. Donald Glover, undercover cop. It explains a lot!
MG: It's OK, Donald—even if you’re a try-hard narc, THE KID WITH THE PURPLE HAIR LOVES YOU.