Mixed Drinks & Mixed Tapes: B L A C K I E & Pastor Troy

Hey guys, starting this week and moving forward, Mixed Drinks and Mixed Tapes is downgrading to two mixtape reviews per week, mainly because listening to four mixtapes a week kind of takes over my life and I have kids to feed (well, not really, but it’s an expression. Without further adieu, here are this week’s tapes:

Hit the skip to continue reading.

B L A C K I E: True Spirit and Not Giving a Fuck

B L A C K I E is super mad about everything and has absolutely no solution for anything. He should be the official soundtrack to Occupy Wall Street. Revolution, y’all!

Anyways, sir All Caps With Spaces’ basic aesthetic is to take Waka Flocka-style scream rap and filter it through Chuck D. I caught probably seven words of this tape’s lyrics, but that’s really all I needed to conclude that B L A C K I E is on some serious Network shit—he’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it any more. I was in a hardcore band in college, and we basically had the same lyrics as this dude does, except we were kidding. Still, you’ve got to admire his unfettered, righteous fury, especially in his delivery. Not only does he scream every single word at the top of his lungs, but he does so with only a tangential relationship to the beat; he’s punk rock by virtue of remaining hip-hop despite his complete disregard for the conventions of rapping.

To be fair, with B L A C K I E ‘ S beats, basically the only thing you can do is merely strive to compete with them to be heard. Harder hitting stuff I have not heard all year. The drum sounds themselves resemble the type of blast beats more often reserved for a Black Metal record (check Liturgy’s simultaneously punishing and uplifting Aesthethica album for further proof of this), and he counterbalances the drums with a high register screech that sounds like it was designed to annoy your dog. Whip up a Molotov Cocktail and chuck it at a capitalist as you bump this one. People like to call B L A C K I E noise-rap or the American version of Grime, but both of those are wrong and I made it all the way through this write-up without mentioning either. I win?

Download: B L A C K I E – True Spirit and Not Giving a Fuck [Mediafire]

Stream the hottest track, “This Blood (Helmet Song)”, below.

[audio:http://potholesinmyblog.flywheelsites.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/B-L-A-C-K-I-E-All-Caps-With-Spaces-True-Spirit-And-Not-Giving-A-Fuck-6.-This-Blood-Helmet-Song.mp3|titles=B L A C K I E – This Blood (Helmet Song)]

Pastor Troy: Crown Royal 2

And now, for something slightly more conventional but no less screamtastic, we have Pastor Troy’s Crown Royal 2. Pastor’s one of those guys who’s been around for years, carving out his own particular niche on the rap landscape, fairly content to do his thing and let the world listen if they feel like it. His only brush with the mainstream was 199tk’s “Vice Versa”, a surprisingly sedate little ditty that did Tyler, the Creator’s “I’m a fuckin’ walking paradox” trick when Tyler was still skipping his piano lessons.

A redux of “Vice Versa” is on this tape, and it reminds you that Pastor Troy should really be more popular than he is. He was the down south Onyx, Crunk before Crunk existed, and Waka Flocka before Waka Flocka was Waka Flocka. He actually made a guest appearance on Waka’s “Fuck the Club Up”, providing none of the quotables that Waka and fellow guest Slim Dunkin’s verses were rife with (as far as career-defining mission statements go, it’s hard to beat, “Bitch I’m drunk/Bitch I’m drunk!/BITCH I’M DRUNK!!!”), but his fiery delivery basically setting the tone for the rest of the record.

Anyways, Pastor Troy is awesome. This mixtape is awesome. Listen to Pastor Troy. Look at him on the cover. He looks like a man. And a lion. A man-lion. Drink Crown Royal with this, because that’s the name of his tape and it’s also the official drink of man-lions. Download this mixtape. Or else.

Download: Pastor Troy – Crown Royal 2 [Dat Piff]

Stream the hottest track, Track: “Can You See Me?”, below.