It’s been a minute since I last wrote about Alabama rapper-producer Krow AKA Big Gucci Krow, but with the release of his new EP Blessed Life Vol 2 there’s never been a better time to discuss his impact.
The sequel to August’s Side A, Vol 2 adopts an if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it attitude that carries each of its three songs a long way. ‘Wood Grain Wheel’ kicks things off, its southern swagger fully embracing Krow’s love for his heritage and the culture that surrounds him. Although well known for brags, Krow’s main lyrical focus seems to be the unity of his people in these troubling times. He says this almost exactly halfway through the track, announcing that ‘I’m tryna build my community, you know my people come first’. Beginning the song rapping in double time, the rapper’s voice eventually slurs into a choppy haze. During this segment we hear a truly chilling lyric: ‘Ready to die with the way that I live, I’ll be lucky if I got a place in the sky’. Revealing a man knowingly living in sin yet undoubtedly doing it all for the right reasons, you certainly don’t get too many opening tracks with this level of emotional potency these days.
The other two songs aren’t quite as mindblowing, but both are worthy additions to the artist’s discography. ‘FreshOffDaPlane’ features Krow recounting advice from his friends (‘If you hang around shit you smell like it’), analysing the content of his lyrics (‘My subject matter raised the crime rate’) and pretty much just advising everyone not to fuck with him (‘You ain’t tryna to beef n****, listen what your moms say’). ‘TribleDoubleFreestyle‘ (the only song here using one of Krow’s own beats) wraps things up with a similar energy to the intro thanks to Krow’s super slick flow. There’s more lyrical gems here: (‘Seen a couple n***** side-eye so I got some hollow tips that go in the nine’), (‘Four pockets full of money like Lil Baby, it look like I’m serving crack up in the eighties’) that when combined with the subtle piano flourishes in the thumping production make for a grandiose masterpiece.
Krow has worked incredibly hard this year, and I don’t doubt that he has plenty of classics in the tuck (some of which I would guess we may even hear in the remainder of this year). If this is your introduction to the Souless member’s music, then you’re in for a real treat as it’s only going to get better from here. Unquestionably still one of my favourite artists, Krow is worthy of any rap fan’s studious attention.
Listen to the project in full below.
Follow Krow on Twitter.
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