Mixtape Review: Curren$y - Return To The Winner's Circle

Mixtape Review: Curren$y – Return To The Winner’s Circle

Posted On: January 2, 2011
Posted By: odeisel
Comments: 6

By Odeisel

Curren$y is making every attempt at being the James Brown of his generation i.e. the hardest working MC in the game. Two full length albums in one calendar year weren’t enough for the Louisiana bred MC. He’s got a new mixtape out for the holiday season Return To The Winner’s Circle. Spitta discards the live instruments for proven tracks and while it takes some of what makes him special away, it allows him to go harder.

He opens over Kanye’s “Live Fast, Die Young” for “Daze of Thunder.” He got curly-haired Amanda from Atlanta rolling him weed and giving him that good coochie. Curren$y clowns lame ass cats with no flavor who depend on stylists supplied flyness. Rae’s “Rainy Days” provides the hardcore foundation for “Rain Delay.” Curren$y recalls stoner classic Friday with Debo getting put on his ass and Red getting his grandmama’s chain back. You may think those cats you roll with got you, but they are mercenaries and Spitta’s pockets run deeper than yours.

“On..” slows it down for a slow steady rumble as Curren$y gives a lesson on heaux management. “Trophy Case” gives you that 70’s player feel with chipmunked Motown and piano tinkling, while “Boardwalk Monopoly” brings the drama of cinema. Curren$y paints a picture of pulp cinema and chronicles the rise of the young on the streets; cannibalizing the game with no regard to the old timers and their established hegemony.

That down south organ and brass with snare combo sets the stage for a double-timed Spitter. Curren$y is here to destroy the wackness and this track is full of lines like “you ain’t a d boy you a fucking decoy, you not Bruce lee or Bruce Leroy can’t kick it, Bruce Bruce, you a comedy boy, ”you falling off and I’m home plate safe” and “feel the blitz like an O line” are razor sharp.

Outkast’s “Mainstream” lays a classic foundation to “Record Deals,” which finds our hero going through rule number one of the 4080 rules: don’t sign a fucked up deal. The label thinks you’re just some dumbass from the hood, while your hungry homies are urging you to sign and you have to hold firm and do what’s best for yourself. Lawyers “take more than your portion while you was just online looking at Porsches,” and they have no regard for the bills you have to pay and the troubles in your life. Earnestly honest and refreshing to hear from someone actually in the industry.

Big K.R.I.T and Killa Kyleon shred their savem capes on the “Moon & Stars”remix, saluting chicks on the come up that jock them and those candy painted whips. A bit of that boom bap and a Mary Jane Girls sample power “Role Model.” If your kids are looking to Curren$y for guidance they will not get candy canes and lollipops. A hip bassline mellows “Payday” while strings pace the track in the background. The tapes closes with the lounge-speed string leveled “Jets At Ya Neck” celebrating that Jet life along with his crew.

Curren$y delivers a compact tape that blends proven instrumentals with original production. He doesn’t try to style his way through, he attacks with lyricism and assertive rhyming. His high-quality, high-quantity output is building quite the catalog. If he keeps it up, the winner’s circle is assured.

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