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Music

The Mixtape Column, Volume One: Big Sean, Lil Kim, Omelly and More

Introducing The Mixtape Column, in which Features Editor Drew Millard talks about rap mixtapes.

Here at Noisey, it is literally our job to tell you about music. Sometimes we tell you things about music you already know about, but sometimes we tell you about music you do not know about. Hopefully, The Mixtape Column, in which Features Editor Drew Millard talks about rap mixtapes, will do a bit of both.

Pablo Skywalkin - Raised Around Bosses

Who is he? Pablo Skywalkin has a wonderful rap name and is from Detroit, and has done at least one song with Jeezy affiliates Doughboyz Cashout.
Why should you care? Because his fucking name is Pablo fucking Skywalkin, which is an amazing rap name.
What does this mixtape sound like? Not Detroit. Just as Danny Brown decided to become a grime rapper on XXX and Doughboyz Cashout decided to pay tribute to Cash Money on their most recent mixtape, and Pablo Skywalkin decided to make the most hyphy mixtape that’s ever come out of Detroit. If you’re already predisposed to enjoy slightly off-beat raps and near punk-level screaming along with your slaps, you will love this.
Critical bias: I found out about this from Antwon’s twitter.

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Kid Ink and Batgang - Batgang: 4B’s

Who is he? Kid Ink is a fully branded Chris Brown replacement plan.
Why should you care? Because Kid Ink is actually super dope!
What does this mixtape sound like? The thing about Kid Ink is that he is almost completely devoid of personality. We have all known people like Kid Ink throughout our lives, and just how you managed to live with Carl for a year and get along fine even though he was aggressively boring, Kid Ink has managed to create a sustainable rap career despite his overt blandness. This is because though Kid Ink hasn’t had an original thought since before he hit puberty, he is an incredible vessel for the ideas of others—he can rap over pretty much everything with enough proficiency to never embarrass himself, and his ear for beats is phenomenal. When you surround him with enough other sorta-boring dudes with complementary but not overlapping styles such as his Batgang and give him enough money to afford TY$ and Jeremih features, you just might accidentally hit paydirt. Because make no bones about it: Though Kid Ink still is boring, Kid Ink is still capable of making great songs. If you want a sweet mixtape that would never ask you to think about it, Kid Ink has the exact thing you asked for.
Critical bias: My friend once bought a vaporizer because it was in a Kid Ink music video.

Omelly - Gunz and Butter

Who is he?

Meek Mill’s cousin who sort of sounds like Meek Mill.

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Why should you care?

Because Omelly doesn’t sound like Meek Mill any more!

What does this mixtape sound like?

When Omelly made his high-profile debut on Meek Mill’s

Dreamchasers 3

mixtape, he sounded more or less like a Meek carbon-copy. Because, again, he is Meek Mill’s cousin. But, just as a caterpillar one day becomes a butterfly, Omelly weaved a pupa around himself and emerged his own artist. Though he’s certainly not as technically skilled as Meek—few are, if we’re being honest—Omelly raps with rare passion, and on Gunz and Butter he showcases a flair all his own, finding the pocket of the nearly comically-complex beats on this tape and creating a new template for AutoTune-drenched Philly rap. Yeah, he sounds like Freeway sometimes and Meek Mill at other times, but both Freeway and Meek Mill are great so I really don’t know what you’re complaining about.

Critical bias:

I just realized I stole the “Critical Bias” thing from the Village Voice.

Big Sean - (Untitled SoundCloud Dump)

Who is he?

A testament to the power of having one fan, as long as that one fan is Kanye West.

Why should you care?

Because this features new Kanye production.

What does this mixtape sound like?

Yesterday, Big Sean announced that he’d signed a management deal with Roc Nation (for better or worse, he’ll remain a G.O.O.D. Music affiliate), and celebrated the occasion by releasing four new songs. Big Sean kind of sucks and his on-record persona makes it seem like he would be the worst dude to smoke weed with ever, but Big Sean can fart out the occasional stunner, often on the strength of his production. His new bundle of new tracks are mainly notable because of “I Don’t Fuck with You,” because it’s produced by Kanye West, DJ Mustard, and DJ Dahi (the dude who produced “Worst Behaviour for Drake), and features a guest verse from E-40, the absolute don of Bay Area rap. Does 40 rapping over Mustard signify a detente between Mustard and the Bay, who claim that Mustard bit their sound? Maybe! All I know is Mistah F.A.B. took a break from endlessly freestyling to punch Mustard on stage at a San Francisco show recently, and someone else is probably mad at DJ Mustard because he is successful and people in hip-hop are often overly sensitive and petty. Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, listen to this and just don’t think about how you’re listening to Big Sean.

Critical bias:

Big Sean’s publicist once screamed at me on the phone for making fun of Big Sean on the internet.

Lil Kim - Hardcore
Who is she? Lil Kim, popular American hip-hop recording artist. Why Should You Care? Oh, I don’t know, why does anyone care about anything?
What Does this mixtape sound like? When Lil Kim leaked a verse of her rapping over Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy,” I was sort of horrified, mainly because she sounded exactly like Chippy Nonstop. Not that I’m expressly against anyone sounding like Chippy Nonstop or anything, but it was kind of bizarre to hear the queen of all things hardcore uneasily squeezing herself into this weird teeny-bopper box and sounding in over her head. Fortunately, Hardcore is not a collection of songs where Kim is trying to sound like a teen. Unfortunately, Lil Kim did not make a very good mixtape. Some of the songs sound like Papoose ghost-wrote them (this is not good), others are shitty Migos ripoffs (including a song literally called “Migo”), and others still are nothing more than bland stadium-rap piffle, where the beats are designed to offend as little people as possible and therefore also appeal to no one. Still, this tape has some flashes of greatness, including the reggae track “Deal Gal Walkin’” and the sort-of-reggae track “Whenever You See.” I guess this means the only Lil Kim I like these days is fake patois Lil Kim, which is a bad sign for both me and Lil Kim.
Critical bias: My favorite Lil Kim song is “Download,” which I’m pretty certain disqualifies me from actually having an opinion about Lil Kim.

Drew Millard is Noisey’s Features Editor. He’s on Twitter - @drewmillard.