With the West Coast cornering the market for weed rap in the ’90s, a small handful of the Southern movement have taken the spirit of the previous drifters and revamped it for the new decade. Arguably the one artist who has proven to be the most successful with this blueprint is New Orleans’ Curren$y, whose previous releases have garnered a large following. Already providing one soundtrack to the summer with his Alchemist co-featured Covert Coups, Weekend at Burnies (a play on the classic ’80s slacker’ film Weekend At Bernie’s) hopes to maintain his grip on being the soundtrack to many drop top convertibles and slouched weekends during the sunny period.
Spitta’s laissez faire musings are as abundant as ever, slurring through verses but still containing some hitting lines and dope wordplay. The brilliant ‘#JetsGo’ rolls smoothly, opening the album with an ’80s-inspired production and Curren$y’s Jets repping, lavish lifestyle braggadocio working in sync with the dope score.
Ambient, smoky drones on ‘She Don’t Want A Man‘ are accompanied by Curren$y’s musings over an ambiguous partner. The sleepy, droopy ‘Televised’ provides lush dozing-off material reminiscent of productions from Zero 7, where both Spitta and International Jones emit ear appeasing verses to zone out to.
At times the laid back vibes are executed lazily to the point where the vibe is lost. ‘This Is The Life’’s smooth piano keys are marred by an overly simplistic chorus whilst ‘J.L.C’ trawls sleepily throughout the two minutes plus track. But returning to form on ‘On Gs’ and ‘Still’ results in the former Freshman channelling some classic chilled Southern anthems which really demonstrate the widened appeal of the Ski Beatz and Dame Dash affiliated rhymer.
Mark it as another successful outing for Curren$y. Whilst lyrically he may not have distinctively made the jump to the next level, his construction of songs still exerts a slickness and quality that some of the more accomplished rhymers are in need of. Productions on hand are sublime, metaphorically sending listeners on their own cloud far away – and when switching to the cruising vibes, equally compositions are as effective. Whilst the Pilot Talk series still triumphs over his later releases, Weekend At Burnies reassures Jets fans that the N.O free spirit is dopeness personified.
Curren$y – Weekend At Burnies
Released: June 28, 2011
Label: Warner Bros
Buy: iTunes US / Amazon US / Amazon UK
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