By shelz.

Cali representer Glasses Malone is still on it, dropping here, there and everywhere for Drive By Tuesdays. The most recent single, “All I Know” is a melancholy ode to bad living, wasted existence, the unforgiving streets and the emotional stoicism all of that breeds.

The downhearted tone is introduced immediately with a slow ping pong of bass and drum that play boundaries for the almost dirge like synth that quivers in between.  It’s simple, sentimental and lays a decent foundation for Malone’s lyrics and the gospel tinged hook that hangs heavy between the verses.  When the feature vocalist is unleashed at the end, the synth becomes more verdant, maybe as a little sonic silver lining.  It doesn’t change the general feeling of the song though, which is damn sad.

Malone and his weathered voice spit a narrative about blood on the walls and shooters hiding behind cars.  Junkies, drug deals and arrest sheets litter his recollections even though he admits he was a good student.  The references to his father evoke a common cyclical issue that rears its ugly head when youngsters don’t have healthy support systems.  Malone also suggests that plenty of your favorite rappers were only witnesses to this life while he stood right in the middle as an active participant.

I’m not sure if I like the singer, but the choral slices add depth, just in case Malone’s lyrics weren’t depressing enough for you.

“All I Know” tackles the lure of the streets and how it outranks damn near everything when you don’t know any better and sometimes even when you do.  It’s thugged out sentimentality that might be able to produce a tear in the hardest of the hard.  I’m not a huge fan of the production, but the feeling Malone wanted to convey is there in spades.  I guess that makes it a win.

Glasses Malone – “All I Know”

All i Know

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