Maybe it's because my favorite rapper's in jail (Gucci Mane), and everyone else I bumped last year is either there with him (Max B, Lil' Wayne, Lil Boosie), recovering from getting shot (Waka Flocka Flame), losing any insight of what made their music infectious (OJ Da Juiceman, Gorilla Zoe, Shawty Lo), or just, not doing anything at the moment (Drake, Kid Cudi, Jay Electronica, Kanye West), but I've been reaching out for new hip-hop artists to check out; not neccessarily new as in the unheard of sense, but emcees I haven't given a proper chance.
Maybe it's because since then, I've been listening to lyrically lyrical acts like Atmosphere, old Mobb Deep, Mos Def, Curren$y, and the like - those rappers the rest of the blogosphere wet their panties for everytime they mention a new project. I'm not a fan of most of these rappers, as the skinny-jean hipster demographic isn't the one I belong to, even if some of my favorite rappers fall under that horribly mislabeled sub-genre. Which is why duke I'm about to cover (ayo) today seems like a perfect fit for me; a street-level rapper who seems to be bewilderingly adored by journalists who listen to Animal Collective and Aesop Rock, and probably knew who Owl City were long before that fucking Fireflies song gave me the urge to kill each and every nuthuggingdenimfaggot out there.
Dude's name is Pill, and he's the (former) weed-carrier of (former) OutKast weed-carrier Killer Mike. Despite the fact that he was once a weed carrier's weed carrier, and hardly even third-tier in the hip-hop echelon, Pill has recently become more relevant than his mentor Killer Mike, and even, dare I say, OutKast. At the very least, Pill gets more media attention everytime he drops a new track than Big Boi does, mainly because Pill's actually going to drop his debut album, and Sir Luscious Left Foot feels like a pipe dream that'll never come to fruition. The above track, Trap Goin' Ham, is the track that caught Pill all this love in the New York Times and the New Yorker, amongst other credible sources for what Starbucks-going, beret wearing folks should be listening to when they want their tastes to be a little more "multi-cultural."
I was not feeling this track, nor Pill, at all when I first heard it. To me, it feels like Pill is trying far too hard to be a lyrical trap rapper; a dude who wears baggy jeans, sells crack, and rolls around the hood fucking underage bitches (well, basically) with a bandana sticking out of his pocket who still appeals to hipsters because he feels kinda bad about it. A trapper the blogs could champion because he's not as pop as T.I., as materialistic as Gucci, as raw as Jeezy, or as fake as Ross; despite the fact that all four of those rappers are much more engaging, and generally, better overall artists.
Basically, he's like Waka Flocka, if you stripped Waka of his adlibs and personality, and gave him a conscious and a dictionary. Most people would derail me, and have me hung upside down from the Sears Tower if they saw me make such a comparison, but it's the truth. Both are stylistically similar, both are from Atlanta, both of them trap; shit, they almost look alike, if you don't take into account that Waka's 8' tall and Pill hasn't done a photoshoot that hasn't involved a box of Ritz crackers.
Gutter.
However, as evidenced here, and on the rest of his 4075: The Refill mixtape, Pill actually is a great rapper. Although he's not the most interesting of rapper, and seems to fall under the Pitchfork/okayplayer umbrella simply because he's an impoverished youth who channels the pain in his hood and virtually nothing else (as great as he is, Pill reminds me a lot of Mobb Deep on the Infamous/Hell On Earth; a gritty hustler who has no semblance on the idea of "having fun"). It also helped that Andre 3000 co-signed him (but didn't he technically co-sign DJ Unk, too?).
So, yes, my hate of hipsters trying to steal my music has once again made me ignorantly reject a talented emcee; I issue an apology to Pill. Although he's not the God-send folks make him out to be, Pill is a highly-skilled rapper who has the concept of song-making down and also has more than one-dimension to his being. That's something a lot of his peers can't say, especially the song-making part. Give him a chance.
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