Mixtape of the week:
QUE & MIKE FRESH
¿QUE FRESCO!

Rough-voiced badman Que teams with Zooly Gang rep Mike Fresh for ¿Que Fresco!, an all-killer, no-filler collection of Atlanta rap (and the closest we’ve gotten to a Que full-length). After singles like ‘OG Bobby Johnson’ and ‘Jungle Fever’, Que needs no introduction. His new running mate Mike Fresh can handle a melodic hook and spit a rapid-fire flow that’s the perfect complement to Que’s gruff gut-punches; he’s particularly nimble on something like ‘What Part Of The Game’: “I’m a upper class nigga, lean in my supper glass, you a heathen / biting off more than you can chew, when you know you still teething.”

Scene-leaders Zaytoven, Metro Boomin, DJ Spinz, Sonny Digital, 808 Mafia and Zooly Gang producers FKi lay down pitch-perfect trap shit, all synth-sirens melodies, machine-gunned percussion and endless bass, and with production more than handled, Que and Mike Fresh stay focused on their writing. They make a few nods to the tape’s rap-en-Español title with ‘Ahora’ and ‘Uno Dos Tres’, the tape’s best candidate for an ‘OG Bobby Johnson’ rap-along.

Que is in full-on Juicy J mode through-out, dropping hilarious ad-libs, gems like “cash on my mind like a tumor” and spot-on details. On ‘Yes Men’, he calls out the guy in the crew who has to start the car in the winter and sit in the middle: “You the type of nigga laugh when a nigga tell a joke knowin’ shit ain’t funny.” Elsewhere, ‘Soul Food’ takes “cooking” metaphors to their logical conclusion, and ‘Tricky’ jacks Gorilla Zoe’s Run DMC-nodding ‘Tricky’ with great results— even Zoe has to admit they brought it.

MOUSE ON THA TRACK
AIR TIME

Still best known as a producer, penning tunes for Lil Boosie, Bun B, Kevin Gates, Dorrough Music and others, Baton Rouge’s Mouse on tha Track is nonetheless an incredibly reliable presence on the mic. Air Time is his latest collection, and while there’s a notable dip in sound quality compared to his usual output (it might appear to be 192kbps, but trust us, it sounds like crap), it’s still a reminder that Mouse rarely disappoints.

Fan of Baton Rouge mainstays Boosie and Gates should find plenty to sink their teeth into here – Gates even makes two appearances on the well-worn ‘Sex Drugs and Money’ and ‘Don’t Make ‘em Like Me’, adding weight to an album that already plumbs the darker realms of Southern rap. Our money’s on highlights ‘Be Alright’ and ‘Haters Don’t Like That’, two reasons why Mouse should be about ten times bigger than he is right now.

KOOL JOHN
$HMOPCITY

The line between mixtapes and ‘proper’ albums is getting blurrier and blurrier, and record like Kool John’s $hmopcity don’t do much to ease the confusion. There are no DJ drops here, and everything’s produced with an impeccable sheen that might even have you thinking that it’s seen a real studio engineer before hitting the livemixtapes.com proving grounds. In everything but name it’s an album, and it’s something we’ve come to expect from the Bay Area’s Heartbreak Gang.

Like his HBK compatriots, $hmopcity explores the slippery world of ratchet – the kind of world-dominating, DJ Mustard-primed club sound that’s recently shot to the top of the charts thanks to (ahem) Iggy Azealia. Production here is handled by HBK’s usual suspects – P-Lo, IAMSU!, Jay Ant and friends, but it shines a light on a markedly different side of the ubiquitous Bay Area sound. There are of course the club bangers – the Sage the Gemini-featuring ‘TBT’ for instance – but these sit alongside dark, angry slices of West Coast angst like ’Smoked Out’ and ‘Bang Bang’.

The tape’s diversity is admirable (and something that Kool John’s peers could pay attention too), and whether he’s rapping smoothly over a microsample of Drake and The Weeknd’s ‘Crew Love’ (on ‘Ready’) or looking back at the golden age of electro (‘Bad Ass Bitch’) John seems versatile enough to handle whatever’s thrown his way.

SHANELL
NOBODY’S BITCH 2

Young Money’s resident R&B queen returns with a sequel to 2012’s Nobody’s Bitch, and she’s back with 11 pro-woman jams that live up to the tape’s title. After kicking off with a cover of Soul II Soul’s almost-a cappella classic ‘Back To Life’, Shanell gets to the meat of the tape: slo-mo, bass-heavy joints that look to counter the mainstreamed misogyny of rap and R&B while never getting too preachy.

Shanell has a strong, self-assured voice, and the pro-grade productions wouldn’t be out of place on recent albums by Ciara and Rihanna (‘This Work’ is particularly reminiscent of ‘Cockiness’). But the headline here is definitely Shanell’s in-your-face feminism, whether that means asserting her sexuality on ‘Hittin’ Like’ and ‘Service’, detailing the real pain of heartbreak (‘Breaking Down’) or standing up to shitty men on anti-‘Loyal’ anthems like ‘Number Two’ and ‘No Time For That’ (although the latter does have a regrettable strain of homophobia).

Nobody’s Bitch 2 again proves that Shanell can rep strong women while delivering radio-ready fare like ‘Stay Down’ and ‘Burn This House Down’, a song that sounds as if she’s reworking Jazmine Sullivan’s ‘Bust Your Windows’ with that infamous Left Eye-Andre Rison incident in mind.

K. ROOSEVELT
JOURNEY

Singer/producer K. Roosevelt is a member of Hit-Boy’s HS87 crew, and with his second EP, the L.A.-based talent seems most likely for a breakout. The six-track EP is loaded with intergalactic electro-funk-R&B with a decidedly-contemporary bend. His voice and alt-style are sure to draw comparisons to Frank Ocean and Miguel; ‘The Ride’ is reminiscent of the latter’s ‘The Thrill’.

Throughout the EP are big, brassy basslines that really stand out, and he may be the rare singer-producer who can do both well: ‘Cold’ contrasts spaced-out James Brown samples and ethereal vocal overdubs with a clattering beat, and his voice still cuts through the fog. Highlights include the punchy ‘Let It Go’ and the dance-ready duet ‘Freak (She Told Me’), and while it can be a bit aimless at points, Journey is worth a spin, if only to hear ballsy opener ‘The One’, a track that defies expectations and pitches down his vocals into a robotic sludge.

ZUSE
PLUGGED

Zuse shouldn’t need any introduction on these pages. The Atlanta-via-Jamaica rapper’s debut Bullet is among our favorite drops this year, so the promise of more material is an exciting prospect. Sadly, Plugged isn’t exactly the followup we were hoping for. Made up of mostly freestyles, loosies and remixes, it might bundle up a bunch of tracks that are well worth having in one place (‘Treasure’ with Young Thug is undoubtedly one of the year’s finest), but we can’t help but feel it’s a bit of a cop out.

Hearing Zuse freestyle over Lil Wayne and Drake’s ‘Believe Me’, or Tinashe’s massively overplayed ‘2 On’ just isn’t anywhere near as exciting as hearing a proper successor to ‘Red’ or ‘Frank White’. There are a handful of new cuts here – ‘Gun Sounds’ in particular is just the kind of ragged speaker ripper we were hoping for – but we can’t help but feel a bit disappointed by this one.