Gucci Mane - Ferrari Music (2010)

Review: Gucci Mane - Ferrari Music with DJ Drama (2010, Mixtape)

The moment Gucci released "Deuces (Remix)" as promotion for his final pre-Appeal mixtape (and third in a month), fans still chewing on one-week-old DJ Greg Street collaboration Gucci Classics went into a mouth-watered frenzy. "Deuces (Remix)" is matched by a few other tracks on Ferrari Music, which clocks in at under 40 minutes and carries four - that's right, four - repeats from August's Jewelry Selection. In addition, Gucci provides three interludes, meaning the release is really just eight tracks long. The short length is trivial; besides strange, cautionary closer "Dope Deal," all the new songs satisfy. "Speaking In Tungz" is a one-minute freestyle over a great Cam and Vado beat, "Late" wields a wonderful Drumma Boy production while Gucci shares the mic with fellow trapstar Yo Gotti and "Get Up Off Me" features Gucci's hilariously mumbled refrain of "Bish get up off me, trick get up off me" as DJ Drama hollers "Get off!" in the background. Also on the funny side, with "Better Baby" Gucci manages a convincing love song despite his polarization of introspective lyrics with jokes like "I can't live alone, at the end of the day can't fuck myself / I told her I'm confused, and she told me to go fuck myself." But the mixtape's comedic peak comes in horn-sampling opener "Bite Me," where it's a toss-up between Waka Flocka's pooping noises, Gucci Mane's vomiting noises and the hater-dismissing hook: "Fuck niggas don't like us / Well, we don't give a fuck / They say that mimicry is flattery / So bite me."

Bump this: Bite Me, Late, Deuces (Remix)

Hudson Mohawke - Butter (2009)

Review: Hudson Mohawke - Butter (2009, Warp)

Opening his debut album with lush synths, screeching (h)air-metal guitars and those live-sounding drums MPC purists love so much, 22-year-old Scottish prodigy Hudson Mohawke makes it clear enough that this isn't your average hip-hop record. He's at once got a lot to live up to and nothing to prove; hailed as the "heir apparent to Dilla's legacy," HudMo really just wants to produce something different. Between "Trykk"'s indigenous crunk and the cathartic ambiance of "Star Crackout" he fulfills his honorable aspiration, crafting here an 18-track technicolor display of blaring horns, tribal beats, bizarrely quantized rhythms, dismantled phonograph snippets, strangely suitable R&B guest spots, and plenty of boom-bap hardness. His rare approach to sampling - crafting original melodies on keyboards and deconstructing them digitally, as if from vinyl - has never really been done before, especially on such a large scale; that and the composer's tendency to tag tracks with his little sister's voice already form the basis for a strikingly unique work. Although it's easy and even instinctual to peg Hudson Mohawke's influential lineage (more familiar artists Prefuse 73, The Glitch Mob, Luke Vibert, and aforementioned 12'' champion Jay Dee spring to mind), the fact remains that Butter's varied tracks, like the opus in its entirety, sound as wonderfully diverse as they do undeniably fresh.

Bump this: Gluetooth, Rising 5, FUSE

Dr. Dre - The Chronic (1992) and 2001 (1999)

Review: Dr. Dre - The Chronic (1992, Death Row)

Boasting lumbering bass lines and syrupy synths, The Chronic slips hip-hop a creative, funky injection while cunningly introducing unknown charisma bomb Snoop Doggy Dogg to the genre's rapidly growing fan base. The album's impeccable series of standouts, such as 90s-cool classic "Nuthin' But a "G" Thang," Grammy-winning Parliament plagiarism "Let Me Ride" and tumbling takeover tune "Fuck With Dre Day," is permeated by a few funny skits and simply oozes stony, gushing G-Funk. Highlights include The Lady of Rage's firey opening verse on "Lyrical Gangbang" and a final farewell to groove master George Clinton on hilarious outro "The Roach," after which the good doctor returns to the turntables to tinker Snoop's sophomore debut.

 Bump this: Let Me Ride, Nuthin' But a "G" Thang, Bitches Ain't Shit (Bonus Track)

Review: Dr. Dre - 2001 (1998, Aftermath)

On key cut "Still D.R.E.," the doctor dismisses doubters with "Haters say Dre fell off / How, nigga? My last album was the Chronic." A pretty valid point, especially taking into account all he's done since then - make Doggystyle, launch and maintain his own record label, prescribe perfect productions to various patients, and unearth hip-hop's most promising lyricist since Notorious. All 22 of 2001's beats earn the time they took to surface, abandoning their equally potent G-Funk forefathers for hard-hitting, SUV-friendly bass lines, live instrumentation and tasteful sound effects. That plus we haven't heard Dre rap for 7 years - and he hasn't rusted a bit. Along with Snoop and Eminem the producer provides the best moments, chauvinistic centerpiece "Xxplosive" excluded, but to explain the infinite guest spots, 2001 is strictly business; Dre needs to assert his own credibility as much as make everyone else on Aftermath famous. Luckily for everyone, he does all of that - malpractice is not in this man's vocabulary.

Bump this: Xxplosive, Forgot About Dre, The Next Episode