Hello. FLY has returned, and, as said earlier, it is with sad news about the state of the world in music this week. While FLY hoped to triumphantly return as the Great P4K Alternative, that will have to be delayed, perhaps as I tactically try to build anticipation for an earth shattering come back. Sadly, as regular readers know, I don't really look at release calendars, which makes that a little more difficult. But FLY've kept you waiting long enough, we all need that shot of dopamine that comes with a New Music FLYday.
But, first, we'll go back in time for the rare editor's correction as a quick aside. Last week (or the one before? I'm either tired or experiencing an Apples/Little Fish like nightmare scenario where my wonderful memory is slowly fading. Either way, shit is all running together, and I kept forgetting paper towels in the dispenser or my water bottle by bars when I was done things at the gym tonight), I implied that I probably wouldn't listen to the Busta Rhymes album, and the Kendrick song was fine or whatever. But kept hearing good things, and Extinction Level Event 2: The Wrath Of God is, in fact, surprisingly strong. You get a number of Chris Rock appearances hyping things up, which works well, some other interludes that are mixed well, and, perhaps more than Busta's rhymes (lmao, FLY, you are undeniably on a roll), how well he works on the production that feels like a convergence point of the era when he was big and a more modern slant is largely seamless. Think this sucker is well worth a listen, but there are some misses and it needs a bit of editing as it feels too long, so be warned, for anyone keeping track and who may usually get weekly award call outs. But, again, it is bloated and is more than a bit hit and miss, but the hits are really strong.
Anyway, back to the present. At least sort of. Turns out that NLE Choppa released his latest project, From Dark To Light, which has a CINECAST!ing nuts cover that I adore, last Sunday for whatever reason. Probs some spirituality thing, given some of the threads on the album, but who can really say. The last work from Choppa surprised me in how strong it was, especially considering his age (apparently just turned 18 on the 1st of Nov), and this definitely shows him going in a new direction. Sadly, that's about where my praise ends. A lot of the harder sounds of that work, which I think was only a few months ago, are largely pushed to the side here for a much more generic sound. There are still some heaters, but it's definitely a major step down in terms of quality. Surprisingly, it is a major step up in terms of how many references you get to his third eye being open, how COVID-19 is a fake virus, and that Trump and his family are time travelers or something from a book written in the early 1900's that predicts he will be the last president we have before society collapses or we're all subdued in a Brave New World-esque manner. Not really sure where it all came from, but it's at least ridiculous in a way that FLY is all about, and will continue to track that boy Choppa for another release or two, but if he either doesn't course correct quick or fully lean in to all this ridiculous shit, FLY might be out on him, which is weird, because that other album was a heater and his verse on Polo G's "Go Stupid" is straight fire.
This boy NAV was back at it again this week, linking up with Wheezy for a full collaborative project that goes by Emergency Tsunami. The last NAV album (and the subsequent part two released a couple of days later that FLY didn't bother with) was fine enough for background music, but this one, despite being significantly shorter, feels so much longer. NAV does his generic flow on damn near every song, he pretty much pulls in both the Slime God and all of his disciples for individual features, but that becomes even more puzzling because Gunna, Lil Baby, and Lil Keed all emulate different aspects of Thug on their standalone features in a way that feels like they're purposefully playing those aspects up. Ofc Young Thug's actual feature is the highlight, and got me thinking, as I often do when he pops up after a while of not dropping a solo project, that Thug truly is one of the best artists to come out of the last decade. NAV, however, does not feel like an artist of note, and I really only listened to this because of how barren the week was, and it still managed to fall below my very slight expectations.
Last thing I listened to was the week's best release, Demons R Us that has Doe Boy and Southside teaming up for another strong 2020 rapper and producer link up project, and contrasts nicely with the previous NAV x Wheezy, because this one consistently came in above my expectations. It's not perfect, but Southside's production at points is so CINECAST!ing nuts, so much so that there's a song on here that uses someone whistling at one point which came through so clear even on my cheap blutooth exercise earbud things that I had to pause it to make sure someone hadn't broken in to my home. And Doe Boy brings some hard ass, raw bars that gave FLY what he had expected to get with the NLE album. It is also a bit on the long side, but sustains itself for the most part by pretty much loading up on banger after banger, and sprinkling in some strong features throughout, even if it's a bit disserved by the first feature coming from Future who's doing mostly generic modern future shit that FLY continues to struggle with a lot of the time. But on "Bussin" there's this amazing Uzi feature, and later on you even get a good Trippie Redd feature, along with Chief Keef on another song. This album isn't revelatory or an instant hood classic, but it's remarkably strong and I found myself both going back to it and wanting to go back to it throughout the day, so I'd call that a pretty rousing success.
There was a deluxe/semi-reordered version of The Kid LAROI's album, but I didn't bother with that. JPEGMAFIA also released a project on BandCamp, but, unless I heard incorrectly, it was just a compilation of all the singles he's been releasing this year, so I didn't check that out because I've listened to, and largely liked, all of those already.
The actual singles this week, unfortunately, were fairly lean and mostly without anything positive of note. Both "What The Speed Bout!?" with YoungBoy Never Broke Again, Nicki Minaj, and Mike WILL Made It is kind of a banger, but I need to listen to it again to see if it separates itself, and "IOU" from Emalia (who I don't know) featuring Guapdad 4000 gets us another pretty good 4Gs verse, but didn't stand out a ton to me otherwise. The one thing I really want to listen to more is from (circa 2009 or 2010/11) FLY favorite Willis Earl Beal, who, last I heard, had kind of just gotten away from everything, in "Stranger", which focuses more on his singing and songwriting rather than how that melded with the instrumental work in a way that I loved before, but apparently, as I fact check this now, it's actually on a full album, his first since 2013, called Morningstar that I haven't yet listened to, but automatically wins this week's etdoesgood should listen to this award in a rare blind recommendation based solely on how good that early work from Willis Earl Beal was. Need to watch that film he did music work on too that Josh talked about on the podcast a while back. Willis Earl Beal was the shit, and seems like he's still very much got it.
Anyway, I'll use a new paragraph, as we're taking a slightly left turn from that soc (stream of con) tangent to return to the first single recommended to me by Spotify with week with "Quarantine Thick" from 2 Chainz featuring Mulatto. Even with Chainz largely having fallen off by this point, and despite Mulatto being someone who I'm now definitely monitoring as she has popped up with strong features on a number of songs lately, this song feels pretty lazy and just kind of never gets going. Like I've enjoyed lazy 2 Chainz before, with his barely a verse on "Breakfast (Syrup)" a true marvel that I completely adore because of that quality, but it just doesn't work here. And that's not even putting in conversation with early-lockdown banger "QUARANTINE CLEAN" from Young Thug and his disciples that still says in constant rotation. The album art for this is kind of cool though, I guess.
We've reached the end! Not FLY best work, but perhaps we'll get in to form with a more exciting week. Tbh if FLY was a musical artist, and not just a theoretical untapped mind of brilliance, he would have had a full project ready to go for election day to drop/capitalize on Trump leaving office, but seems like no one did or they are holding it off until things are official. Maybe next NMF? We shall see!
