Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.
Cardi B’s drill turn was a long time coming
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New York’s rap scene has undergone seismic changes in the four years since Cardi B dropped her debut album, Invasion of Privacy. Back then, in the spring of 2018, the Brooklyn drill scene was fledgling, months away from being reenergized by Pop Smoke’s era-defining run of singles. 6ix9ine was still a thing. The dominant sound of Cardi’s home borough of the Bronx was gut-wrenched crooning in the style of A Boogie. Now, drill has officially become the city’s most crucial rap sound, and its center has relocated from Brooklyn to the Bronx behind a recent wave of sample-based songs featuring gruff-voiced rappers like Kay Flock, B Lovee, and Sha Ek.
So “Shake It,” Cardi’s new sample-driven drill posse cut with Kay, Dougie B, and Bory300, may have skeptics ready to call her a trend-hopper. But that’s not really true. Her history with drill actually dates back to before she became a nationwide cultural phenomenon.
Specifically, the 2017 singles “Pull Up” and “Red Barz” come to mind. “Pull Up,” a standout from her mixtape Gangsta Bitch Music, Vol. 2, has drill roots. On the production end, the percussion features sputtering drums and cymbal smashes, foundational elements of Chicago drill producers like Young Chop and DJ L. And her flow on the song is sometimes reminiscent of the one G Herbo and Bibby used on their drill classic “Kill Shit.”
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“Red Barz,” on the other hand, is more a drill song in vibe than sound. Its beat will probably make you think more about Fabolous’ mid-career mixtape run than anything by Chief Keef, but the lyrics are plastered with a tough-talking attitude that feels drawn from pivotal Chicago rappers like Shady and Katie Got Bandz, who Cardi recently paid homage to.
On “Shake It,” Cardi circles back to that foundation, for a song that’s fun, if a bit slight. The production falls into the sample-driven drill-trap trend as it chops up Akon’s 2004 hit “Bananza (Belly Dancer),” likely because it recently had a moment on TikTok and not because it’s a great song. This choice alone could have killed the track from the jump, but Kay Flock quickly bum-rushes the beat, sounding like he has a hairball stuck in his throat. The brief contributions by Dougie and Bory300 are whatever.
Unsurprisingly, the real highlight is Cardi, who dials into a harsh flow that feels inspired by Kay. Her punchlines are fine (“Put a tag in yo’ head like a bio”) but it has always been more about her charisma than what she’s saying; I’m sure there are tons of New York drill rappers who have said some variation of, “I’m not a steppa’ bitch I’m stomper/All of my opps get mixed with the grabba,” but none sell it like Cardi. She fits right in. It might be the rare broadly appealing drill track that I won’t mind hearing spun over and over and over again this summer.
Texas rappers put their spin on East Coast tradition
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Houston’s Sauce Walka and Waco’s Hotboy Wes don’t need soul samples to make good rap songs, but it is exciting to hear them put their spin on mid-’90s New York-centric beats. On “Dangerous Daringer,” Sauce does Griselda better than Griselda as he has an out-of-body experience over a hypnotic loop from that Buffalo crew’s go-to beatmaker, Daringer. Rapping in front of a Benz with hydraulics in the video, Sauce’s energy level is at 100 as he playfully mixes funny-as-hell bars with real introspection. He throws shade at former NBA player Carlos Boozer just a couple lines before saying, “Since 8-tracks my momma was breakin’ tricks for eight racks/Seen so many muscle-head niggas shot in the eight-pack.”
On “Free Speech,” a sweaty Hotboy Wes takes on the timeless Rashad Smith and Trackmasters beat for Nas’ “If I Ruled the World.” The 1017 signee’s verse is heavy and full of stories about being haunted by the past, but his energy never dissipates. He mentions how much Boosie he’s listened to and you can tell—you can’t help but latch on to every word of his stories.
SME Taxfree: This One For My Brothers
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Judging by the beats on This One for My Brothers, you might think Milwaukee’s SME Taxfree was born in another era. “Sky Is the Limit” is my personal favorite, as the prolific Taxfree and column favorite MarijuanaXO rattle off tales of cracking cards and cooking dope over synthesizers that sound like they haven’t been used since the original Karate Kid. The group cut “Blowout” is a throwback as well—it sounds like it should be track 17 on a Gucci Mane tape from 2007. There’s a lot to like on the rapping side, too. Taxfree and Mr.BallinAintACrime (which, by the way, is the coolest rap name in a minute) tell you about the good life on “Dying With Da Opps”; the punchlines are sharp on “Been Killed Kane”; “B.O.M.” is an ode to brotherhood. It’s a fresh tape with an old soul.
Hey, Wale is pretty good in Michael Bay’s Ambulance
There’s a ton of shit to love in Ambulance, director Michael Bay’s unexpected return to action-movie glory. Cool explosions. Loud-ass shootouts. An unhinged Jake Gyllenhaal. But I have a soft spot in my heart for the couple of scenes where Wale gets to play Jake Gyllenhaal’s personal assistant who is seemingly unaware of just how insane Jake Gyllenhaal is.
In the back half of the movie, Gyllenhaal’s Danny and his brother Will (played by Yayha Abdul Mateen II, yes they are deadass brothers) are almost out of answers as the cops are closing in on the ambulance they hijacked after a heist gone wrong. So Danny comes up with a batshit plan, but it’s OK because it gets the cartel involved and gives us a pretty funny scene of Danny ordering Wale’s character Castro to meet him at a very specific location—even though he’s just trying to finish watching his soccer game in peace. When Castro shows up to the spot he realizes whatever his boss has got him involved with is totally messed up and, with shades of Tyrese in the Fast & Furious movies, goes into a fast-talking, action-movie rant. It’s a fairly small part, but in a movie where things go boom about every two minutes, walking away with even the slightest thought of Wale is a success.
Cash Cobain: “Slizzy Like”
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A majority of the club-rap beats that have hit New York as of late have sounded like knockoffs, but Bronx producer Cash Cobain, a catalyst of the sample-drill trend, taps into that Jersey club bounce with natural ease on “Slizzy Like.” It makes sense—his drill-leaning production for rappers like B Lovee and Shawny Binladen has always had a dancey rhythm to it. Cobain turns up the BPM and adds in the pulsing percussion and bite-sized vocal clips that define Jersey club music. He raps on it, too. His delivery is soothing and melodic even if it’s a bit one-note. The club beats trend keeps on giving.
Borleone: “Deadman Walking”
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Borleone is one of those rappers whose music drifts in and out of my life, and whenever I return to his catalog I wonder why I’m not listening to him all of the time. That happened to me this week when I found myself clicking through old mixtapes on the Suitland, Maryland rapper’s SoundCloud page, where his tight, whispery delivery is laid over beats that are sometimes funky, sometimes soulful, and sometimes sound like they could soundtrack a slasher flick. “Deadman Walking” is his most recent single, and he sounds like he’s recounting a horror story over the hazy beat. His grim raps are more effective over the course of a mixtape—I suggest 2020’s atmospheric Do or Die—but this will do for now.
Headline of the week: “Kid Cudi Joins John Woo Action Thriller Silent Night”
I wonder if legendary director John Woo’s decision to cast Mr. Rager in his long-awaited return to the Western movie-making world means he had a Man on the Moon phase, too?
