Three minutes ten, a description that contains nothing but social links, and at least three different voices on the track. "Den of Thieves" is a posse cut, and the credits for the other voices aren't published so none are named here. The one name that is on it belongs to James Gutierrez, who has been recording as A-F-R-O since he was thirteen. He was born in Gardena, California in 1997, is Black and Mexican, spent time in foster homes and was adopted at five. He found hip-hop at nine through Eric B. & Rakim's "Microphone Fiend," and his entry into it was about as old-school as it gets: in 2014, at sixteen, he entered R.A. the Rugged Man's "Definition of a Rap Flow" contest judged alongside Kweli, Murs and Vinnie Paz and, in R.A.'s words, "won the contest before it even ended." The name is an initialism: All Flows Reach Out. What that pedigree produces is audible in the writing here. "I know servant is my name, but that doesn't mean I'll serve you / eight bars of evidence that I am relevant." "Dear Watson, is the sentiment. It doesn't take a Sherlock to determine my impressive gifts." And one that reads like a statement of intent from someone who has spent a decade being told he's the future of a sound that predates him: "I always come correct except politically." The second and third voices match the pace one of them running an extended internal-rhyme sequence that lands on "Me and Fro, we be tracking them, grabbing them, kidnapping them, then dismantling them." Whoever they are, they were chosen to keep up rather than to fill space. We covered A-F-R-O's joint album with MotionPlus here earlier this year. This one has no producer credited and no statement attached, which for a rapper whose whole reputation was built on proving it off the top is entirely in character.
Transparency Note: Content & research created independently by HHHEADZ. AI tools are strictly used for translation and language refinement.
No comments:
Post a Comment