New segment! New segment! I love Hip-Hop mixtapes, but I’ve found that many of them aren’t really able to sustain an entire review of their own. Sure, we get an “Acid Rap” or a Big K.R.I.T. tape every once in a while that NEEDS a fully fleshed review, but a lot of tapes only need a brief write-up, whether I recommend them, and some highlights. This segment will pop up every once in a while, because they’re a bit easier to write, and I can keep more up-to-date on mixtapes.This first segment will cover a couple of older tapes from earlier in the year, in addition to some newer tapes.

100s- IVRY

Fool’s Gold has a tendency to drop some great Hip-Hop mixtapes (Just look at their work with Danny Brown). This slickly produced tape from Berkley rapper 100s is yet another great project from the label. It has a silky and almost cloudy quality to it, but it still sounds entirely distinct. 100s rhymes with a heavy sense of distinction, with his cadence sounding like a sort of pitched-up 2 Chainz. Despite the fact that this is very nearly “Cloud Rap”, it never sounds entirely derivative or bland.

The songs here (somewhat assisted by the breezy 8 track run time) all boost the project up. Thru My Veins is a slippery and smooth track that introduces 100s as an interesting MC. His singing on songs like Fuckin’ Around sounds a bit like Kendrick Lamar’s odd singing, but it’s distinct and different enough to not sound derivative of it. Another welcome element of this fleshed out mixtape is the amazing Prince synth funk that permeates through some of the tracks (especially Different Type of Love). The production all over this tape is so refined and enjoyable that it almost doesn’t feel like a mixtape (a non-problem a lot of Fool’s Gold projects have). Different Type of Love almost sounds like it would have fit perfectly on Andre 3000’s The Love Below. In fact, 3000 is a clear inspiration throughout the entire tape. And that’s not a bad thing at all.

B+

Choice Cuts: Fuckin’ Around, Thru My Veins

Leftovers: Can a N**ga Hit It (The straight-Trap Rap feels a bit out of place)

Black Portland (Young Thug & Bloody Jay)- Black Portland

Love him or hate him, Young Thug is going to blow up pretty soon. Danny Glover and Stoner have both been some of the better Hip-Hop tracks of the past couple of months. Plus, Young Thug has been killing it on nearly every feature. That Low Pros EP was partially saved by those goofy Young Thug features.

Black Portland finds Thug working with Bloody Jay, a rapper who is considerably less interesting. This mixtape featuring the two of them is a bit uneven, mostly because Young Thug is clearly the more interesting rapper of the two. The opener Suck Me Up is a goofy and obnoxious and repetitive song that can’t decide if it wants to be awful or kind of fun. The songs that more clearly give Thug precedence (Like the almost drunk sounding Florida Water) work much better. Thug also incorporates some weird sing-song qualities into his rapping, which is certainly interesting.

Production wise, it’s all pretty typical trap rap. There are beats that stick out a bit more, like the twinkling piano on the bombastic Signs. Really, it’s a mixtape that requires turning off your brain to enjoy it. There are no features, so it’s just Thug and Jay being loud and obnoxious over big, booming, trap rap beats. I love No Fucks, but only because of how damn stupid some of the vocals can get on it. Young Thug clearly wins on this tape (His delivery on 4 Eva Bloody is some of the best original material here), especially considering that Danny Glover is included here. Some of the tape doesn’t work (Paranoia and No Love unfortunately just don’t last), but there’s enough stupid fun on here to make it worthwhile.

B-

Choice Cuts: Danny Glover, 4 Eva Bloody, No Fuck

Leftovers: Paranoia

Cakes Da Killa- Hunger Pangs

Cakes Da Killa’s previous projects have all been confrontational and straight up threatening (and this isn’t me being homophobic. I’m uncomfortable with anyone describing graphic sexual situations in a Hip-Hop song…especially when they’re practically yelling). However, this doesn’t stop Cakes from being one of the most impressive MCs around right now, and this tape is just more proof. On every track here (despite the uneven mixing), Cakes Da Killa sounds like he is assaulting the mic. The SXYLK produced Hunger Pangs track finds Cakes dropping tongue twister after tongue twister, right after the opener where he enters like a demon from a dungeon.

Sometimes the beats can overwhelm Cakes volume wise, but his fiery flow keeps him afloat on every track. The guy just doesn’t let up, and keeps up the unrelenting energy on every single track. Cakes just avoids any possible opportunities to dissect his sexuality- despite how clearly and bluntly open he is about it- by spitting hot fire on every single track. He also has an ear for beats that mostly let him shine (I adore the fat beat on Paid & Published, and the vocal samples on Rotation are wonderful). There are a couple of tracks that don’t really work (The mostly rap-free Get 2 Werk doesn’t really work), but for the most part Cakes puts it in full throttle.

B

Choice Cuts: Rotation, It’s Not Ovah

Leftovers: Get 2 Werk

Vince Staples- Shyne Coldchain 2

Vince Staples has made a massive name for himself over the past year through that fantastic feature on Earl’s Hive and through his Twitter account, which is easily one of the most entertaining out there. His nasally voice is distinctive, and he has a smooth way with words that made his verse on Hive such a ground-breaker. Shyne Coldchain 2 is his first project following Hive, and it’s one of the better mixtapes that have been released this year.

It nicely eschews several mixtape tropes to sound more like a cohesive album. Songs like Humble are actually fleshed out songs with clashy and dark production. The dark production throughout the tape does harken back to his days palling around with Odd Future, but it all sounds refined and clean. The thick beat on 45 has a drum machine that wouldn’t be out of place on an Odd future record, but it’s mixed in such a way that the inherent amateur nature of Odd Future’s production doesn’t show. Staples sounds great over these darker beats, and he drops lines that continue his gangster nature with flying colors. Some sound soulful, like Turn and Nate, but all the beats still manage to maintain an inherent darkness that works perfect with Staples’ aesthetic.

The album-like nature of the tape makes it work, and Staples decision to keep things relatively short and focused also makes the tape something to check out. Sure, there are some misfires (I still do not understand the way rappers use Jhene Aiko, because she is consistently used in bland or nonsensical ways), and I do wish that Staples would have used some actual rap features to flesh out the tape.

B

Choice Cuts: Progressive 3, Humble

Leftovers: Oh You Scared