When Kanye so carelessly started spewing away every little "dinner talk" thought that came to his mind on Twitter a mere month ago, the rest of the world got excited about what he was saying (mostly the music talk), but there was a little voice in the back of everyone's minds that was keeping them from getting their hopes up. So many genre shifting releases in a matter of a couple months is enough to get people excited, and possibly even shift the tide back in the favor of the emcees who favor crafting albums over carelessly throwing out music to appease fan's music quota. Pusha T is one of those exceptions to hip hop. Though the Bronx emcee's history of spitting lyrical game (and by game I mean "drug money" game) has far outweighed his hit making (or let me rephrase, "pop" hit making) abilities, Push has always found a way into relevance in hip hop, and with Kanye behind the boards of your album (no matter how much hip hop hates him right now), nothing but good can come from it in terms of the sound of the actual music. So does Pusha push a ton of weight on his newest release Daytona? Or does he hit the bricks and fall tiresome? Let's discuss a few observations from Pusha's newest release.
Blunt Honesty That Hip Hop Is Missing
A good portion of Pusha T's time on Daytona is spent boasting the money earning ways, whether legal or illegal, to listeners. Push returns with an eagerness to provide what hip hop has been missing without him over gritty tracks like "If You Know You Know", an attention demanding sample that somehow gives all the attention to Pusha, his patterns and his flow style taking center stage with lines like "where were you when Big Meech brought the Tigers in?, 'cause I was busy earnin' stripes like a Tiger's skin." Pusha's full persona is put on display throughout the album, with talks of past lessons of drug deals, changing personalities and jealousy of the evils of money, all to play in the car to scare off the kids horsing around on the street, and at the same time, earn the respect of the scary dudes that hang out on your local corner. 'The Games We Play" sounds like the soundtrack to an episode of smuggling some 100% pure Colombian Bam Bam on Narcos, giving that hard, yet, groovy feel that spreads awareness that it can be fun to dance to songs about drug dealing... but we should all be aware that it's out there, and it's much scarier than a sample that Kanye chopped up.
Is There A Lesson? No, But It's Damn Fun To Get Lost In The Sauce
Pusha is unique in not only his skills, but his entire persona as a rapper/past drug dealer. On "Come Back Baby", Push plays the teacher to the students, but without entirely forcing the "game" onto his listeners. All throughout Daytona, Push aims for a sound that sounds like that of a poor man's Jay Z (which is definitely a compliment); he preaches to you the horrors and the harsh realities of the street life, while making it a fun listen to bump in the whip or the system. On the second part of "Santeria", the samples bleeds through the speakers like the blood of lost cartel casualties and fatalities; the fruits of the hard earned labor are appreciated, but the lessons of the haunting aftermath stay with us like the ghosts of project's past. In other words; it's cool to know about the details of drug dealings and murderers, but it's even cooler to know that there are repercussions of what those drug dealings bring, and if the rumors are true of the cover art being Whitney Houston's bathroom during her drug addiction (seriously, look it up if you can find out the meaning behind the cover art), then it seems Push is really pushing that narrative home with these evils that drugs bring.
Hard Rap Brought Back To It's Roots
(*I do not own these songs, or the right to them*)
Push has never been looked at as a gatekeeper of hip hop, but most of the time people pay attention to what he has to say. He uses Daytona as a means to get some things off his chest, whether it be Birdman and Wayne's troubles, dissing Drake (refer to the last post for more details on that), or rap's current state overall. The frustration of the current state of hip hop burns throughout Daytona, and some of that pent up frustration could probably be heard throughout a line or 2 in every song on the album. Though a short album, Push does a good job of keeping it poignant and precise in the 7 tracks given, which is commendable and frustrating in itself; commendable for not using album filler, yet frustrating for not being able to hear more of what Push has to say about things. Push uses the opening lines of the scathing "Infrared" to share his thoughts on the current state; "the game's fucked up niggas beats is bangin, nigga ya hooks did it, the lyric pennin' equal to Trump's winnin', The bigger question is how the Russian's did it, It was written like Nas but it came from Quentin, at the mercy of a game where the culture's missin', when the CEO's blinded by the glow it's different, believe in myself and the Cole's and Kendrick's, let the sock puppets play in their roles and gimmicks", which lead to much more, including lines on Birdman, Wayne and Drake. Some people may look at Push's honesty in these lines as hate towards the current stars as a now so-called "old head" of hip hop, but how could it be hate if he's fighting for Wayne's case, just as his label boss Rick Ross did on his 2017 track "Idols Become Rivals? No, Push is not looking for attention on the entirety of "Infrared" (though most of the Drake disses could be seen as such), he's merely using hip hop what it has been meant to be used for since it's inception; speaking from his heart, and saying what he believes needs to be said at the end of the day, whether people like it or not.
