Love or loathe Gucci Mane, there’s no denying the scope of his influence. Young Scooter sounds like he came as an understudy to Guwop’s drowsy assassin in Spring Breakers. One of the guys in Migos could pretty much destroy “Wasted” every night in rap Karaoke. While Chicago’s ZMoney owes a heavy debt in beats, flows, and ad-libs to Mr. Wonderful. If you were writing a thinkpiece on porous rap regionalism, you could easily point to the close ties between Atlanta trap and Chicago drill. Young Chop clearly ran the lane built by Toomp, Drumma Boy, Zaytoven, and Lex Luger. And Chief Keef clearly got follicular tips from Flocka. Speaking of which, what are the odds that Flocka is the reason why Chance wound up in the hospital and had to miss week 2 of Coachella. Under no circumstances can a wispy mustached kid named Chancellor match the consumption of a guy named Juaquin who is built like a defensive end for the Falcons.

Last Spring, ZMoney dropped Rich B4 Rap, which was heavily proselytized in Internet circles by David “Drizzy” Drake. It showed definite merit, but I couldn’t listen to it more than six minutes at a clip — mainly because ZMoney sounded far too much like Gucci. Listening time is limited and nothing was removing Young Rich Niggas from permanent iPod rotation. Hence, ZMoney remained mostly an afterthought. Over the last few months, Danny Brown, who is a better blogger than all bloggers, repeatedly sung the praises of the Chicago D-Boy, which ultimately resulted in an increased profile and “Jug & Finesse.” (The first time I ever heard the word “Jug” in regular non-mammary usage was on a Gorilla Zoe song, so you can extend the Midwest-Southern connection.)

The finesse half of the equation ostensibly comes from Danny Brown, whose cheetah-on-Adderall flow references surf borts, kayaks, money and drug consumption for a Cobain. Rappers are often better with a foil. A guest spot can turn a rap song into a good buddy comedy. ZMoney and the Hybrid exhibit that sort of chemistry even if this was probably literally mailed in. The Chiraq trapper muscles in with the mumbling slurricane flow and the Detroit livewire kills with the rat-a-tat double time. Jugs N Finesse: achieving the difficult goals of satisfying D-Boys in Panameras and dormitory kids who eat at Panera.

Via Complex

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