It’s that time of the year when every publication throws it’s year-end lists at you so you can plug up the holes that you missed. Rarely, though, will people cover the best debut mixtapes, even though that’s what we’re often most interested in. Who are the new artists making some noise with fresh sounds?
That’s what we’re here for. We scoured the internet to find the ten most-slept on introductory projects by rappers from all over the country (and out of it, too). Read on for the 10 Most Overlooked Debut Mixtapesof 2013. —Max Weinstein
Click on the photos to begin.
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LLFIGHT – ILLFIGHTYOU
ILLFIGHTYOU, comprised of rappers EverGreenOne and Ugly Frank and producer Khris P, certainly operates in the same world as Odd Future, from the Tumblr-inspired album cover to the violent bars and the middle-finger-in-your-face rambunctiousness. But sometimes innovators aren’t always masters.
The production is clean and there isn’t a weak beat across the project’s 12 tracks. The lyrics aren’t as shocking as horrorcore, but their flows are flawlessly elastic. As you listen to the project, which plays thoroughly front to back every single time, one gets the sense that if they were a little more daring, they might get some wider attention.
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Lil’ Bibby – Free Crack
You’ve probably heard of Lil’ Bibby by now. Free Crack dropped last week and tore a hole in the o-zone thanks to the leak, “Water.” Bibby’s raspy voice sounds like he’s spitting from a wheelchair in a retirement home after a lifetime of Newports, booze, and hand to hands. He’s being touted as the next big thing in rap, eve though his boy Lil’ Herb has a slightly more experimental approach to spitting. The beats have a vintage feeling with an updated trap twist, and bars like, “That 40 dig graves like a shovel on my hip / I get the work going, the connect all on my dick,” are what endears him to a crowd that wants more street rap than e-rap. He also just released a song called “Strange”, which sounds unlike anything on Free Crack and highlights his versatility. Have some Free Crack for Christmas.
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Earl Swavey – Business Before Pleasure
This is how fun rap can be in 2013. DJ Mustard is making ratchet music popular across the nation, and Earl Swavey and his KIOE boys aren’t reinventing the wheel; they’re just making it catchier. Take “DTA”, one of the standouts from the tape. Employing the usual sparse beat with tinkling keys and thumping 808s, Earl recites the chorus without pretense – “I don’t do with new n*ggas, I don’t fuck wit’ fraud n*ggas / and I don’t trust a bitch, if she ain’t tryna get rich.” It doesn’t translate on paper, but hear it once and try to put your finger on why it’s so effective.
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Migos – YRN
Los Migos. It’s hard not to write this review in Spanglish, or bando slang. I was actually reciting “Bando” at the bar the other night and someone asked me what a “bando” was. I told him it was an abandoned house; they were selling drugs out of one. He was dumbfounded.
Migos make enjoyable music because they sound like they’re enjoying making it. From the quick spurt flow of “Versace” to the Lil’ B take-off “Hannah Montana”, they always deliver with fidgety, infectious personality. With the help of Zaytoven on standouts like “R.I.P.” and “Bakers Man”, Migos remained consistent across YRN and delivered one of the best debut tapes of the year.
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Sage The Gemini – Gas Pedal
You may have heard this West Coast artist’s name popping up recently for his string of hits like “Red Nose” and “Gas Pedal” featuring IamSu. Sage is the complete package – he’s got the songwriting ability to top the charts, the raps that keep your attention, and the looks to make the ladies go crazy. There seems to be a litany of West Coast artists beginning to pop, but Sage stands out from the crowd with an effortless vocal style, and Gas Pedal is an efficient, 5-song exercise in popularity. “Don’t You” is a woozy post-party banger that sets the mood, and “Swerve” rises from the depths to smack you upside the head. Play this one in the car for maximum effect.
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Phil – Points Off Turnovers
Lo fi funk meets highed-up rhymes on “points off turnovers”, a project that borrows as much from DJ Screw as it does from Aaliyah. Rapper Phil’s vocals sound transported from another universe, while blunted beats give narcotic beds to the shit that Phil talks. This one was plumbed from the depths of the internet, so get on it and be the first one of your friends to be rocking the right music. Feels like A$AP Yams would fuck with this one.
points off turnovers by phil
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Vic Mensa – INNANETAPE
Chance the Rapper might be the latest young rapper to get all the newfound Chicago love, and you better believe Vic Mensa is next up on that list. He once fronted the live rap band Kids These Days before they broke up and Vic went for dolo, creating an insane amount of buzz with “Orange Soda” and “Hollywood LA”. INNANETAPE is less uncomfortably introspective than Acid Rap and is a little more plush, but Vic is a breath of fresh air regardless. He’s got a sheltered naiveté to his music (“Do you believe in magic?” he asks on “Magic” with Jesse Boykins III) with a weary eye to the future, but it’s the complete package of beats, attitude and vigor that makes him appealing. Hewlett Packard even hooked him up with cloud rap specialist Clams Casino to test Vic’s limits, so things are looking pretty bright for him right now. He is missing that one intangible star quality that Chance harbors, though, and he’ll need to focus his product and craft a story that people can connect to if he wants to move up into the upper echelon.
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Rejjie Snow – Rejovich
Rejovich is the jazziest rap record since Madvillainy broke jazz standards in in 2004. I was first introduced to Rejjie through a video for a song called “Lost in Empathy” which doesn’t appear on this EP, but does feature an albino Rejjie wandering through a barren, post-apocalyptic landscape devoid of any human beings. The weirdness of the video combined with the straightforward dopeness of the song drove me to find tons of random material that he’s got scattered around the Internet, but Rejovich is the essential project. In five tracks you hear a loner with the gift of rhyme akin to DOOM or Blu. It’s just weird enough to get obsessed with.
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RondoNumbaNine – Real Nigga For Life
It’s hard to keep track of all the rappers spilling out of Chicago onto more blogs, but RondoNumbaNine is worth a listen. Lupe inexplicably shows up for a dope yet confusing feature on “Life of a Savage”, but the very next track launches right into “Hang Wit Me” with an epic SGP 2.0-sounding beat. Rondo sounds like he laid his head next to the track and spit his rhymes parallel to the beat, raw without a hook. “Drugs At” is already on the right drugs, and “Poppin’ Tags” is seizure inducing. Listen to that sample closely. Amongst standout tapes from the Chi like Almighty So, Signed To The Streets, and Jeep Music, Rondo’s solo debut is a step above the rest.
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Lil’ Snupe – 16 & Runnin’ Tha Mixtape
Rap lost a truly promising young talent this year when 18 year-old Lil’ Snupe was gunned down in Louisiana. He was allegedly signed to Meek Mill’s Dream Chasers Records just 20 minutes after Meek heard his demo, and his debut mixtape 16 & Runnin’ shows why Meek was so impressed. On songs like “Boot Up” and “Harder”, Snupe exhorts a relentless barrage of rhymes, while “Ready To Go” proves that the young spitter could pen something for pop audiences and “Street” is a melancholy street dream anthem. Snupe would continue to improve on following mixtapes like Blessing In The Sky and R.N.I.C. It’s a shame he had to leave so soon.
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Yung Lean – Unknown Death 2002
Yung Lean is a polarizing guy. Some decry the Swedish 17 year-old’s complete lack of skills and talent. Other laud him for his dreamy musical aesthetic. His music is often catchy, if not downright euphoric – see “Gatorade” or “Oreomilkshake”. Relying less on concise lyrics, Yung Lean is a natural progression from the freely associative, often nonsensical rhymes of Lil’ B with a keener sense of melody. His beat selection is also unparalleled – Yung Gud, Yung Sherman, Suicideyear and Friendzone happen to be amongst the most outstanding producers of the year. See “Oceans 2001” for a better song with the word “oceans” in the title than Hova’s. He followed up Unknown Death 2002 with the 3-track Lavender EP, featuring the heatrock “Ginseng Strip 2002”. Open your mind and Yung Lean will kick around in it for a minute.
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