Stunnaman aka Two 8ight Smoke Something (2011, Mixtape)
Apparently Stunnaman followed up last month’s The Swag King with a 4/20 release of Smoke Something, his newest tape under the Two 8ight pseudonym. Who knew?
Fittingly, the record picks up where The Swag King left off, with more of the Luger-lite records (the first sound you hear on this ‘tape is a pitched down version of Lex’s trademark rising synth tag), but then quickly detours into a far less serious, The Pack-like party vibe. Overall, though, Smoke Something is much sloppier and less focused (you know, relatively) than last month’s TSK.
In a lot of ways, SS is a complete mess.
“Live To Party” is basically a nightmare hybrid of Stargate and Black Eyed Peas production styles, “Good Math” sounds like a Rolling Papers reject drenched in auto-tune, and “I See Em Hating” finds producer Grizz Lee channeling Clams Casino but marring the atmospherics with shitty synth presets.
There are a few moments where both Two 8ight and the production work well in tandem and are at least entertaining (even if he’s working exclusively in well-trodden lyrical ground). “Rubberbands” and “West Oakland”, both basically cookie cutter post-“Hard In Da Paint” records, manage to succeed because Stunnaman’s gruff, multiple-decade-smoker timbre fits the gravity and malevolence of the music (even if those snares are paper thin and he’s mostly rapping about weed and money), and “Roll It Up” is actually a pretty decent hyphy track.
Ultimately though, where The Swag King worked by staying within the confines of a clearly defined aesthetic (trap rap for the West Coast), Smoke Something attempts to widen Stunna’s rap horizons and largely fails to create anything memorable within the broader construct. It’s like taking major label Wiz Khalifa, Lex Luger, Drake, and The Pack, shaking up the elements of each style in one of these, and only managing to come out with the most derivative aspects of each.
-SM (April 27, 2011)
