The Top Songs and Moments of Emotional Swelling tied to Songs from 2012
The Songs:
1. “#1 Crew” - Treated Crew
2. “Beez in the Trap” - Nicki Minaj (feat. 2 Chainz)
3. “Big Beast” - Killer Mike (feat. Bun B, T.I., Trouble)
4. “Call Me Maybe” - Carly Rae Jepsen
5. “Cashin’ Out” - Cash Out
6. “Chillllll” – Traxman
7. “How Long Have You Known?” - DIIV
8. “HYFR (Hell Yeah Fucking Right)” - Drake (feat. Lil Wayne)
9. “I Don’t Like” - Chief Keef (feat. Lil Reese)
10. “Jack Rollin” - Fort Romeau
11. “The Man” - Joe Moses & Ty$
12. “Lean Wit It” - Meek Mill
13. “Mercy” - Kanye West (feat. Big Sean, Pusha T and 2 Chainz)
14. “The Motto (Remix)” - Drake (feat. Lil Wayne & Tyga)
15. “Oblivion” - Grimes
16. “Okay With Me” - Gucci Mane (feat. 2 Chainz)
17. “PMBB” - Ice Burgandy (feat. Sean Mack)
18. “Rooster in My Rari” - Waka Flocka Flame
19. “Same Damn Time”/(MMG Remix) - Future/Future (feat. Rick Ross, Wale, Gunplay, & Meek Mill”
20. “Swishers and Liquor” – Fat Trel
21. “T.A.P.” - Wiz Khalifa
22. “Titanium” - David Guetta (feat. Sia)
23. “Westside 4 Fingaz” - YG (feat Reem Riches & Riko)
24. “What Makes You Beautiful” - One Direction
25. “Up” – Loverance (feat. IamSu, Skipper and 50 Cent)
The Emotions:
1. The “I miss you so bad” bridge from “Call Me Maybe”.
2. The beat reversing on the final verse on “PMBB”.
3. The entire vocal track of “Jack Rollin”.
4. The questionable dance, I’ve made for “Westside 4 Fingaz”.
5. Any of the emotions I feel listening to Grimes’ Visions.
6. Lil Wayne’s interview questions on “HYFR”.
7. The “You know what life is pretty awesome sometimes” feeling when the third verse on “Cashin’ Out” is played on the radio.
8. The moment at the end of the school year, when I finally rapped 2 Chainz verse on “Mercy” fully without tripping over myself.
9. The multiple times during Taylor Allderdice, where Wiz says he’ll share a smoke with his haters.
10. The opening of Wooh Da Kid’s verse on “Triple F Outro”: “December 16th, a part of me died, part of me stayed strong, but a part of me cried, pardon me on the song while I mention my pain, a part of me getting weak when they mention your name, it goes R.I.P. Slim D”.
Progress Involves Risk Unfortunately
1017 Bricksquad has seen a lot of changes in the last two years. Gucci Mane hasn’t been able to get out of his in-and-out of jail routine; Waka Flocka Flame has become the biggest mainstream star of the group; OJ Da Juiceman hasn’t worked with Bricksquad consistently in over a year and a half. All of these changes at the top has left spots open lesser known members to step up, and while Frenchie and Wooh Da Kid continue to release solid mixtapes; Ice Burgandy, who for most was probably introduced alongside the now deceased Slim Dunkin on “Fuck the Club Up” from Flockaveli, appears ready to step up.
Burgandy appeared on Waka’s 2011 mixtapes, as just another cog in the Bricksquad machine that could sustain a six minute long posse cute like “2 Deep”. But, Progress Involves Risks Unfortunately shows more attention should have been paid attention to the guy that said the instantly memorable “I push the line, I think I’m Suge in 1995”. With only a handful of quality releases between late 2010’s Flockaveli and Waka’s soon to be released Triple F: For Life, Burgandy’s release represents the first notable (read: listenable) Bricksquad release since Waka Flocka’s DuFlocka Rant nearly a year ago. He does it through the established Bricksquad formula of working with a single producer: Gucci Mane had Zaytoven, Waka had Lex Luger, Wooh Da Kid had Southside, and Burgandy has Purps.
Purps, who produced a majority of this tape, does not have as a defined a sound as those other producers letting him work through a variety of style and techniques like reversing the beat of “PMBB” during the last verse. That malleable means he can have beats that range from the usual Lex Luger beat (“Wake The Game Up”) or spacey synths paired with tinny hit-hats and crazy drum rolls on “Northside Rose Mo”. His style clearly has the influence of Zaytoven and Southside, so this isn’t a new sound for Trap Rap, yet those influences are well used instead of just becoming a dozen variations of “B.M.F.”.
Depending on who’s asked none of the rappers in Bricksquad are good rappers or everyone including OJ Da Juiceman has some underappreciated talent (I am stanchly in the Pro-Juiceman camp). Burgandy doesn’t have the tongue-twisting quotables of Gucci Mane at his prime, the adlibs of Waka Flocka Flame, or even the intensity of Slim Dunkin or Wooh Da Kid. Instead, he knows how to write a good hook and raps about a trapper’s lifestyle with a good balance of introspection and revelry that makes it easy to connect when he’s talking about lost friends or when he’s just smoking weed and getting drunk at the club. But, not to entirely undermine some of Burgandy’s quality lines, because “Black trash bag full of reefer, saying I call this bitch Precious” from tape highlight “PBMM” is too funny and mean to forget. Even if, Ice Burgandy’s career isn’t push dramatically forward with Progress Involves Risks Unfortunately; he and the young producer Purps are at least showing that the lower registers of Bricksquad are still very deep.
