Currensy "Fin..."

After the disaster of the last tape I was feeling a little nervous going into Currensy's final installment of his monthly mixtape series. Fin... doesn't follow in the footsteps of Fast Times, or any other for that matter. He once again pulls on many different style of beats, loosing the continuity of Super Tecmo Bowl, but still finding more focus on his best traits than the lack of focus he has proven can over take his mind.

Throughout the release of these tapes he always featured what he called "In & Out's" which are one verse songs he drops over industry beats. They are hard to judge because of their quickness and nine times out of ten they are over a dope beat no one is gonna be mad at someone going in on. For his final hooray he does more of these than ever before over some more aggressive tracks than he is familiar with. He rocks the Diplomats banger "I Really Mean It" to pay homage to his homie he has been doing these tapes for. He goes in on a classic LOX jam, and many others you should download it to hear.

On the intro he speaks about going through this process and how much music he has given out, he then says he went back and gave us some of his favorites. These selections are worked into the back end of the tape and while at first going into this I was a little annoyed by the choice, today waking up and hearing them I can't be mad at it. The older cuts he picks are pretty on point and I’m certain he was getting paid more attention around the release of Fin... than he was when Independence Day kicked it off.

Currensy says it and I think he knew it going in, this is the introduction for some, perhaps many, new fans of Spitta’s and he gives them a tape that is easily digestible. The majority of the new tracks don’t play for more than two minutes and the “best of” area is stacked with prime selections. If you have been digging any of these projects you won’t dislike this one but you may get bored with it quick. If you haven’t copped any and don’t think you need all of em this is your best introduction. Still can’t recommend Super Tecmo Bowl enough though.

Download Fin... here.

Currensy "Super Tecmo Bowl"

Currensy has finally got a tape in his canon I won’t look down on. Fear and Loathing in New Orleans got pretty close, but Super Tecmo Bowl sees the Hot Spitta finding both his voice and the right style of beat for him.

Throughout the bars he spits here there is a confidence I’ve not heard on any of the previous projects. He touched it on Life at 30,000 Feet but his youth and the Cash Money influence are heavy burdens on his earlier tape. Here he is on top of the world. He attacks tracks with a passion. He is five tapes into the monthly mixtape series and it’s starting to pay off, he has captured the attention of the bloggeratti and was probably seeing some doors open via his own work. That has to be an invigorating feeling, this feeling is expressed through his flow.

His rhymes cover a lot. He’s got a lot on his mind. Weed is starting to be talked about more, girls are front and center often, he boasts on one song that he has no game chicks just know his story. His fashion sense is on display as well. While anyone can talk about these things, Currensy delivers his talk in quite clever rhymes that humanize what it is he is talking about.

He isn’t totally caught up in the material world however and on a song like “I Did It Myself” he bounces back and forth between his fly talk and some serious introspection about his career path and the work he has done. This is a reoccurring theme throughout Super Tecmo Bowl, addressed in different scenarios He talks about the blogs, the series, his homies he intends to put on - perhaps this doesn’t sound interesting when read about but the way he rolls all of these things together he shows his fans his life through his rhymes. His life just happens to revolve around his music and clothes.

He talks to the haters on “Top Shelf” and gets as close to his old gangster threats since before the series began with the line about his homies not responding kindly to disparaging remarks and points out while that’s not really his steez, it’s how it’ll go down so just keep them thoughts to your self. He gives us a weed song in “Blaze Something” certain to piss off any club promoter, owner or security staff as the hook incites anyone with chronic in the club to light it up.

A big part of this tapes playing as a whole are the beats he selected. Most I recognize, few I’m able to place which is driving me crazy but you can’t know all. The common theme with most is their more musical than much of what we’ve seen in the past. Many of these feature horns, what sound like live drums or at least live played via the producers machine of choice. While not exactly what Ski is on with his current Karate School sensei’s they mesh well with Currensy’s voice.

Maybe it’s the weed, maybe it’s the success, maybe it’s the good times he is having living life with his crew recording raps, playing video games and going shopping - whatever it is that makes Currensy happy was going on in his life while making this record and he gave that back to his fans.

Download it here.