OJ Mix

In the past week or so, four songs have leaked with incredible OJ verses, and it really seems to me like he's stepped his game up from even just last year. He sounds remarkably confident to me right now, like this little buzz he caught from Gucci and probably even Soulja Boy has really emboldened and solidified his style. He just seems like he belongs right now, and even when he's on a song with Fabolous and Juelz he doesn't seem out of place— in fact, guys like that seem lost in OJ's dust to me. And that's not to prop up OJ as more than he is, but I think he's gotten to the point where his style isn't a substitute for his rapping. Instead it's a totally unique and singular flow used by someone who is also a great rapper and who just so happens to be blowing everyone else on tracks out of the water.

So, I made this mix of the four verses. This is the first time I've ever blended tracks into each other and I did this in about 45 mins on GarageBand so the blending is truly horrible. These are the songs:

"Hustlers Anthem 09 (rmx)" -> "Hottest in the Hood (rmx)" -> "Superman High" -> "Gold Grill Shawty"

OJ Mix

Another post about OJ

Gorilla Zoe ft. Gucci Mane and OJ Da Juiceman - "Helluvalife"

Haven't heard the whole Zoe album yet (do I want to?) but I was naturally HIGHLY INTRIGUED by the Gucci/OJ collaboration. It's about the fifth best Zoe/Gucci song that exists in the world (and about the 1,800th best Zaytoven beat), and it's really only notable for OJ's verse, made possible by the fact that Gucci appears to not be trying and Gorilla Zoe is now apparently incapable of not singing. OJ's verse packs the vitality that all his verses seem to have, and it's almost the quintessential OJ verse in a way because he rides along shouting as he does (actually starts off the verse biting Gucci's Michael Jackson diamonds line from "Light Show") not saying much but commanding attention, but he hits this line where it's almost like he should be taking a breath except he goes "YOUNG JUICE MAN/ GODDAMN I'M A HUSTLA" and it's an almost unexplainable "aahh" moment, like all the gears in his verse finally locked into place. It's the kind of thing that seems tossed off until it's chopped and screwed on an "anthemic chorus", except with OJ the anthemic part is completely instant.

Tomorrow I'm going to post this video of Zaytoven that's probably old news but dude is basically my favorite producer doing it right now and it shows him fucking around with a keyboard to get the burbly bleep noises that are almost his trademark so it will be a cool nerdy thing at least.

OJ's Washing Powder Money vid

I think the thing about OJ is that, emerging from Gucci's shadow, its hard to see him as an amazing rapper, but I do enjoy a lot of his shit -- he's real distinct & stylized, something otherworldly about his strained holler like hes trying not to shout, a quiet dude who had to learn to be loud when he first rapped & then had to learn to rein it in. The effect is unsettling, like he's a chill cat who will flip the fuck out on u at a moment's notice, eyes bugging like buggin out from do the right thing. There isnt the same aura of possibility around him as their is w/ Gucci, who has about a million diff approaches he could take to a track, but thats OK & I hope he keeps on dropping rough-edged street raps & never crosses over, just like my man here.

ugh stop this shit OJ

Who the hell told OJ Da Juiceman the way to $$$ was rapping in autotune?? dude needs to knock this shit off, they're really abrasively terrible. "Baby Girl" is even worse than "Hell of a Life." Now I'm not one of those knee-jerk autotune haters but the sound is already getting way played & even then these tracks are not some last minute just-in-before-the-death-rattle gems or some shit, they would have sounded shitty 2 T-Pain hits deep. Dude needs to stick to uptempo Fatboi tracks and stop thinking hes gonna drop a 'love lockdown.'

If this ends up on the 'real' OJ album it will be a major bad move.

Juice

OJ Da Juiceman: "Trap Work"

Working out why I like Gucci understudy OJ Da Juiceman hasn’t come easy to me. On one hand, dude is almost like an elaborate joke, just some ad-lib crutching no-name co-signed by the right ATL people to see exactly what we’re willing to accept in our post-Jeezy, post-snap rap landscape. Juice’s ad-libs sound like Chappelle’s Prince being punched in the gut, and his flow is so flagrantly one-note it’s basically celebratory. But on the other, Juice has emerged as a dude to watch in 09, another in a lengthening line of trap-not-rap stars reveling in the understated brilliance of post-D4L everyman rap.

If Juice is not a pure Gucci facsimile then he’s unabashed about copping style. He loops his raps in that same singsong playground cadence that Gucci settles into when he’s really got a foothold in a beat, but Juice’s flow is a little more stilted, and in a way it’s kind of got the same lockstep qualities of a marching army battalion — predictable yet dope. If anything, his songs are hypnotic in a way, at once because they all kinda sound the same and because Juice raps non-stop. The tape has a propulsive quality that basically every other mixtape lacks these days, and Juice raps his ass off like rap might get him somewhere, which I guess isn’t totally unique but it still jumps out off the speakers.

As far as the rapping goes, Juice doesn't stray far from trapping and its benefits (also touches on fucking), but he's got a trap star's flair for making the old seem just a little bit new again, or at the very least still (dope boy) fresh. And maybe most importantly, he sounds like he's having a great time rapping, and if that's not his most redeeming quality then it's eminently notable, cause I'm not getting tired of ATL good times rap anytime soon.

BONUS FOR BUDDING OJ DA JUICE FANBOYS: The FADER meets up with Juice at a French restaurant or something and let's dude speak his mind. He seems like a good dude. More people should do this.