By KEVIN JACOB
Staff Writer
Welcome all to another edition of Kickin’ It with KJ. As it is, it’s that time folks. Finals have approached us. The semester and year have sped right on by and the shock of me actually becoming a senior is starting to hit me. But besides all of that, I’ve got some new stuff to review for this week.
This week I’ve heard a project or two that are really good but mainly I’ve heard more of individual songs so I’ll start off with them first.
Starlito – “Money Cacti” (Money Trees Freestyle)
ATL’s Starlito has this song that’s a freestyle over Kendrick Lamar’s Money Trees and it’s awesome. With Lito’s lazy southern drawl of a flow you can hear a song including glamour, pain, death, happiness, and everything in between. To me it could be deemed almost as good as Kendrick’s.
Robb Bank$ ft. Mikey Rocks “Practice”
The first song off of Bank$ upcoming project Tha City is a banger. A really futuristic dreamy bass pounding instrumental and it has Mikey Rocks with a scene stealing verse. Bank$ is getting better and if this single has told me anything is that Tha City is going to be a game changer when it drops this summer.
Niko G4 – “The Pull Up Is a Movement”
This song is west coast Hip-Hop at it’s finest. It blends the “Turn Up” that everyone is always looking for with some Dr.Dre-esque laid back tendencies. Niko isn’t the greatest rapper but this song is excellent. Definitely check it out.
Now that I’ve gone over a couple songs that I’ve really been feeling let me fill you in on the lone project I’ve come across this week. Chance The Rapper’s Acid Rap.
Chance The Rapper – Acid Rap
Chance The Rapper is a relatively new rapper straight out of Chicago. Last year he dropped a release called 10 Day, which I enjoyed, to an extent. There were a lot of things I liked but some things didn’t catch my attention. Now Chance is back with his second full project in Acid Rap. Chance has definitely improved. Whether it be his actually rapping abilities or his presence on the microphone you can tell that this kid is gonna blow up. Now people have been calling this the best thing out of Chicago since Kanye’s The College Dropout. Pretty big task right? Well I don’t know how big it could be, but right now I think it’s definitely one of the better projects to drop out of the Windy City.
Chance is different. He can seem outrageous and crazy at times or chilled and cool. The album starts off with “Pusha Man” which is made up of two songs in one. Next up we’ve got “Cocoa Butter Kisses” with Kids These Days Vic Mensa and Twista. It’s definitely one of the better songs on the project. Other great songs on Acid Rap were “Favorite Song,” “NaNa,” and “Smoke Again.” My personal favorite was “Acid Rain” which has Chance getting pretty personal over a very mellow Jake One beat.
To me, Chance is better when he’s personal, and it’s good to see him actually open up quite a bit on the project. My only complaint about Acid Rap is it’s just too short for me. I think 10 Day was like ten songs and here we only have thirteen. It may sound a bit selfish but I just wanted maybe a couple more songs from Chance.
In the end this project was great. Chance definitely has next for the Chi and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him sign a deal soon. This one is a must have. One of the best and unique projects I’ve heard all year.
Rating: 9/10
Well all, that’s all for another semester/year of Kickin’ It with KJ. I want to thank all the readers for hopefully reading, and thanks to the Chronicle for letting me write every week (okay, usually every week). There’s gonna be a ton of new releases and concerts this summer, so you already know that I’m gonna be enjoying myself. Everyone have a good summer and keep listening. Peace.
