Welcome to Listening Habits, a column where I share the music I’ve been fixated on recently.
We are currently in a moment of 2000s nostalgia. I suppose it was inevitable. After spending 20 years stuck in the '90s, it's about time the culture finally moved on to the next decade. This may have brought us an even worse version of George W. Bush era politics and the #RETVRN of white male angst content, but it has also given us something good: a revival of the mixtape DJ. The most prominent recent example of this type of call back to the DatPiff era of DJ-hosted records is Playboi Carti's new album Music, where Swamp Izzo goes around shouting his name all over the place as if it were 2011 again.
While Carti's is the latest and biggest edition of the trend, he's not alone. Anycia's new single, "Never Need," features GloRilla, Karrahboo, and a healthy dose of DJ Drama. LA rapper G Perico has a Gangsta Grillz project due out next week, and Westside Gunn had Drama host his project Still Praying last year. (Gunn also got Swamp Izzo back in 2023.) And The Chopstars, whose ChopNotSlop remixes of major rap releases are a feature of every year, can be heard on NAV's new album.
On the one hand, the art of the DJ-hosted mixtape never fully went away. DJ Khaled rode that wave to levels of success that some of the artists he gets on songs haven't even seen, and DJ Drama, Swamp Izzo, DJ Holiday, Wooh Da Kid, and The Trap-A-Holics have all been working steadily. But with the demise of DatPiff and the like, and the rise of streaming monopolies, the DJ-hosted tape has lost much of its usefulness and relevance, particularly to younger generations. Ironically enough, a big boost came from an unlikely source. In 2021, Tyler, The Creator released his album Call Me If You Get Lost, which meant one of the major pop-rap albums of that year was hosted by DJ Drama. Tyler wasn't the first artist to reach back to the Gangsta Grillz tradition, but he did expose a new generation and audience to the form. This kicked off a new appreciation for the gloriously over-the-top contributions of DJ hosts, to mostly (if we ignore the wretched Ian and his suburban safari through the Gucci Mane and Waka Flocka mixtape era) laudable ends.
It's clear that some in this newer generation don't totally know what to make of all the bombast and yelling and tags and sound effects that come with a host DJ. The youth of today weren't there in 2011 when Funkmaster Flex spent 22 minutes dropping several megatons' worth of bombs while premiering Kanye and Jay-Z's "Otis" on Hot 97. They don't get that the obnoxiousness and ostentation is the whole point. Some of the best mixtape songs I've ever heard were made better by key contributions from the DJ, and plenty of songs were made worse by stripping those parts from retail releases. To this day, I can't enjoy the album version of Waka's "O Let's Do It." I need the DJ tags and that bring-it-back-rewind sound to get fully hyped.
There is a magic to this. It's like collage art, and very few do it a high level. In celebration of these DJs' return to prominence, I wanted to highlight a few of my favorites examples.
Gucci Mane's prime mixtape run coincided with my high school and college years. Because I went to college in North Florida, I spent many a night in clubs and parties that played lots of Gucci, including this song. The intro by Wooh Da Kid is like a sense memory for what it felt like to hear this in the club. And the outro, shouting out various Atlanta strip clubs, is just good fun on its own.
Carti's "0PM BABI" is an all-out assault on the senses, and is reminiscent of Waka Flocka's "Luv Da Gun Sound"—surely no accident, considering how steeped MUSIC is in Atlanta music history. Waka, like Gucci, has mostly turned his life around from his early music days, not always in the best ways, but I am happy for him all the same. But, man, when he was making songs like this he had me ready to run through a wall like a Looney Tunes character.
It's really hard to explain how big of a deal Young Jeezy was when he first broke through. It was more than just his snowman shirts getting banned in schools—it was witnessing a movement explode in realtime. It was the mainstreaming of the trap sound and trap content. It was confirmation of Atlanta's stranglehold on rap. It was the platforming of BMF and Big Meech, though Jeezy was never signed to their label. All of that is exemplified on this intro. New York media would write about both Jeezy and T.I. as "the Jay-Zs of the south," which was their backhanded way of saying they were actual lyricists. But the New York co-sign didn't matter anymore, and while Pimp C might've had some questions about the drug talk, we were speed-running into a new era of rap music that continues to reign to this day.
OJ da Juiceman, you'll always have the respect you deserve in my house. And I thought your XXL Freshmen freestyle was great.
Unfortunately, due to some goofy age restriction, I cannot share the video of the actual mixtape version of Migos' "Hannah Montana," but you can find it here. YRN was the breakthrough project for our dear boys, at the peak of their cohesion and inventiveness. Though I could've included many of the songs from this tape, including "Versace" and "China Town," I am partial to this one for the machine gun sound effects and the "making more than their teachers" drop. This is history right here.
It's a shame Mike Will is off trying to break into K-pop and make a billion dollars or whatever, because he and Future really had a good thing going. Future's consistency has been there pretty much right out of the gate, and he's only had a few duds here and there, one being his most recent mixtape. But his early stuff is almost all heat, full of creativity and the ambition of a young artist trying to make their name known. I miss it a little bit.
This is likely the Gangsta Grillz that made the biggest impact on Tyler, The Creator and led to Call Me If You Get Lost. I am not the biggest fan of Pharrell the rapper (or Pharrell the person), but I too was into the novelty of this project. At the time both Drama and Skateboard P had perceptions that seemingly contradicted each other, and their union felt unique. Though the entire thing doesn't work, when it's good it's really good.
There are a million Lil Wayne and DJ Drama songs I could've chosen, but this one has a special place in my heart. Not only was it a big club record in Tallahassee back when I was there, but it was a favorite of a lot of girls I knew. Mainly, I assume, because of the rap song move of putting a bunch of girls' names in the song (even if it's for the nastiest reasons). I also enjoy Drama's interjections and State of the Rap Union address in the middle of it, which is very silly but that's why he's Barack Odrama.
R.I.P. Young Scooter
Over the weekend we lost Young Scooter, who died on his 39th birthday in what seems to have been a freak accident under some strange circumstances that still aren't totally clear. But this is not about his death, it's about his life. Scooter, real name Kenneth Edward Rashaad Bailey, was an Atlanta street-rap legend, locked in with Gucci Mane and Future's FreeBand Gang. You could listen to Scooter and tell he wasn't some polished artist; he felt like a guy that came straight off the block and into a rap booth. That roughness and sloppiness was his charm.
He never tried to be more than he was; he simply wanted to follow the lead of his childhood friend, Future. Scooter was quietly influential in Atlanta's rap scene. He gave producer ATLJacob his tag, gave Atlanta jeweler Elliot his "Eliantte" nickname, was the first rapper to have a Swamp Izzo–hosted mixtape, and was one of the first to popularize the term black Migo, based on his neighborhood, which residents referred to as Lil Mexico. He was the Jugg King, spinning Shakespearean tales of locking in with plugs named Hector. A true Atlanta character who will be sorely missed.
Letter of Recommendation
Here are a few new songs I'm listening to right now.
Sada Baby & JMSN - "Soft Spot (955 Remix)"
I do not know how this song came about but I'm eternally grateful for it. JMSN's original track is a good throwback to that So So Def sound from songs like Ghost Town DJs' "My Boo" and K.P. and Envyi's "Shawty Swing My Way." Tossing Sada Baby's raspy raps into this Miami Bass mix results in something surprisingly wonderful. I want to hear this all summer long.
NAV & Metro Boomin - "REAL ME"
I honestly can't believe NAV finally won me over, but he has. Not even with this project specifically, as he's still pretty up and down as an album artist, but as a singles artist he has some undeniable bright spots, including this ode to drug comedown horniness.
509 BMG - "Special Request to All Nice and Decent Real Niggaz (Stop Hatin)"
I found out about this song from Pitchfork's review, and while I will not pretend to understand the specifics of its creation, I really enjoy it just as a feat of verbal assault over a sustained period of time, a la RXKNephew's "American Tterrorist." With the hypnotic reggae music as its production bed, diss records don't often get this smooth.
Rico Nasty - "ON THE LOW"
Rico has had such an interesting trajectory, constantly experimenting with her brash and bratty sound over a number of thrash metal production styles. Now it seems like she's coming as close as she can to a crossover pop style. Her new single is part Lil Uzi and part Avril Lavigne, the result of which sounds at home with something about 454 or Pig The Gemini, which is right up my alley.
The Non-Rap Song of the Moment
If you would like to contribute something or ask a question for future installments, email me at israel@defector.com.
