PICKS POSSE - Week #32
The IP'S PICKS community shares what they're listening to.
What up PICKS POSSE! Let’s get this shit jumpin’.
Mephisto Loafer: Grand Puba “Fat Rat”
There’s been an uptick in Grand Puba talk lately. Not sure where it’s coming from, but I’ve been seeing and hearing more retrospectives on his career.
When One for All dropped, he set the bar so high I’m not sure it could ever have been reached. His style and rhyming were so far ahead of everyone else—similar to how Rakim and Nas sounded when they first came out.
Right in the middle of the Puba craze, he released “Fat Rat” on the Strictly Business soundtrack. “Fat Rat” captures Puba when he still had that youthful energy and would flip into singing mid-verse. He even used Teena Marie’s “Ooo La La La” vocals—five years before the Fugees turned the same lyrics into a hit.
Can’t help but wonder where he might’ve gone if he’d kept making more “Fat Rats.”
Andrew: The Smashing Pumpkins “Muzzle”
Jimmy Chamberlin is one of the best drummers of the ‘90s alt-rock era, if not all of rock music. His fills are tight and powerful, but not so technically over-the-top that they lose the plot. Plus, the mixing on this song is incredible, the riffs are infectious, and Billy is doing that thing where he sounds somewhat happy while singing lyrics that are actually kinda sad (shocking, I know).
Jason Heiserman: Lice (Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman) “Burnt Mauve”
It was a nice surprise to have the latest installment of the Lice series drop this past Wednesday. Aesop Rock handles the production on the full project and they both bring their A+ creative and humorous lyricism to the table.
On “Burnt Mauve,” they trade bars back and forth throughout, which doesn’t happen too often in hip-hop collaborations these days. They give us twenty verses with crazy wordplay like this one from Homeboy Sandman:
“No parental advisory sticker
I be the skinny-dipping city slicker
Please believe it, every day I pledge allegiance
Playing odds and evens with the voice of reason”
The production on this track is perfect for their respective styles and has a nod factor that would easily stand alone on an instrumental version. Definitely check out the eight songs on the Miami Lice LP. Another standout to me is Homeboy Sand’s solo effort “The 1” where the running theme is all about self-awareness.
Aesop Rock has always been of my favorite artists—so ridiculously consistent with lyricism, storytelling and comicality like no other. I’ve been up and down on Homeboy Sandman over the recent years, but lately he’s had some amazing projects with last December’s Turns Out I Can Sell a Few More of These EP and last May’s Manners EP. This is a nice continuation of his run.
Highly recommend this track as a showcase for Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman’s excellence.
Bill Carson: AK The Kid and Bill Carson “Sedona”
From the album Now We’re Cooking With Gas by AK The Kid on the mic and Bill Carson on the MPC. Underground hip-hop album with a pinch of cinematic sound. The album is available on Bandcamp for purchase and streaming, on any streaming platform, and also available on cd via appledizzle.com.
Hope you get a chance to check the whole project.
Scro: De La Soul “Sunny Storms”
The weather broke 70 this week out in NJ, and this was the first song I played to celebrate. Classic De La over a Premier beat. This whole album really resonates with me when it’s warm out. I have a feeling it’s gonna be in heavy rotation this summer.
*IP note: This song was previously featured in a PICKS POSSE post. But it’s De La and Premier, so run it back!
Hello I’m Bobby: Lud Foe “In & Out”
March Madness isn’t just about watching unhealthy amounts of college basketball, it’s the human interest stories that come to life along the way. One of last year’s best storylines is running it back in this year’s tourney. Amir “Aura” Khan, student manager of the McNeese State men’s basketball team, rose to prominence with his electric walkout routine for the Cowboys. Strapped with a large boombox, Aura raps along as he walks the team out of the locker room onto the court.
With this clear advantage, it’s no surprise that 12 seed McNeese State upset 5 seeded Clemson in the first round last year before eventually falling to Purdue. After the season, McNeese State’s coach Will Wade left for a job at NC State. Aura also chased the bag and followed his head coach to Raleigh. After a short-lived semester with the Wolfpack and a dispute over his NIL deal, Aura transferred back home to McNeese State. The Cowboys just won the Southland Conference tournament for a second year in a row, which means Aura is dancing once again.
One of the songs Aura used to hype up the team last year was Chicago rapper Lud Foe’s “In & Out.” There’s a time and a place for this type of rap music, and right before a sporting event is definitely one of those times. This is a song for your gym playlist or when you need to get psyched up for yard work on a Saturday afternoon. Lud is not winning any hip-hop quotable awards, but that’s not what we are here for. Plus, he delivers a few mildly funny lines like “hard shells hit your soft shell, now you ground beef” and “I’m not a minute man, I won’t give a ho a minute now.”
I had no idea where McNeese State was until I looked it up (Lake Charles, LA) and I know equally as little about Lud Foe, but March brought us together for one shining moment.
Yo! Once again, the PICKS POSSE has outdone themselves. Appreciate the worldwide submissions, too.
Updated playlist below. Peace and love to all!
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