Rating: NNN
Peddling a distinctive brand of urgent, melodic hip-hop, Alabama’s G-Side are charting unknown waters. The duo – rappers ST 2 Lettaz and Yung Clova – spent much of their pre-2011 ascent touring outside the U.S., finding hotbeds of support in Scandinavia and even Toronto. That hustle, plus the excellent The One…Cohesive, released on New Year’s Day 2011, got them noticed back home, building anticipation for their latest.
The moodiest of their five records, Island debunks the million-dollar record deal myth, instead detailing the tedious grind of trying to make a career out of this rap shit. It’s a head-down record to smoke out to. Innovative production duo Block Beataz unfurl heady R&B, esoterica and even a Tame Impala sample against crisp snares and bottom-end rattle.
But the world-weariness in songs like the Stalley-featuring Getting’ It or Rabbits isn’t just snarling cynicism the real-talk vibe has a sincerity that’s been missing, or has fallen out of vogue, since Little Brother’s average-Joe POV in the 00s.
Top track: Cinematic
