Stunnaman aka Two 8ight “Don’t Put The Weed Out” (2011) (prod. by Sledgren)
I’m guessing the “Internet rap music world’s” indifference to the new Stunnaman ‘tape, The Swag King, is related to the deluge of new music poured on us (unwashed) masses this week, but let’s go ahead and stop ignoring it and discuss the truly post-Lex-Luger aesthetic happening here.
At 10 tracks and a running time of just over 30 minutes, there’s no room for the typical mixtape filler, and The Swag King is a surprisingly focused effort with a unifying sound. The producers employed by Stunnaman (aka Two 8ight), Lil Fresh, Sledgren, Sosa and Cookoo, are clearly disciples of Lex’s and Southside’s minimal, foreboding trap gospel, which provides the backdrop of aggression that serves Stunna’s blocky rhyme style well. Even Young L gets in on the baroque sonic trappings with “Hot Boy Shit,” adding welcome menace to his sparse space jams. The result: a record that stomps heads in a more direct way than their other non-Pack collaboration, “Paper Birds.”
Interestingly, however, the “lead single” from The Swag King sounds nothing like the rest of the release. “You’s A Chote” features L.A. artist Chippy who provides a Mad Decent connection and some M.I.A./Santigold-esque vocals, and is produced by Grizz Lee — basically, it’s going to be the song The Fader, p4k, or the other indie mags fixate on if they can get over the Frank Ocean and ___-step fetishism.
As always, there is danger in centering a release around the sonic calling card of rap’s hottest Southern producer (as Brandon Soderberg noted in his writeup on the major labels’ “slash-and-burn” approach to producers: “A regional production style arrives on the radio and then is sucked dry until we’re all sick of it (Lex Luger, you need to watch out) and then, it’s onto the next one.”), but this probably the first tape to successfully take the raw abrasiveness and imposing nature of Luger’s sound and transplant it west, to Los Angeles.
-SM
