Tru Nyce – Life On Mars III: Tha Zone Age (Datpiff)
The hood. The south. Tha Zone Age. I don’t know why, but I like Tru Nyce. He’s not trying to do anything more than be himself.

Tru Nyce – Life On Mars III: Tha Zone Age (Datpiff)
The hood. The south. Tha Zone Age. I don’t know why, but I like Tru Nyce. He’s not trying to do anything more than be himself. The subject matter is motivation, women, his team, celebrating; all usual topics, even some storytelling. But you can hear his hunger throughout, and within every verse. There are some tracks I definitely could do without, like “Private Show,” but tracks like “Rize Up,” “King,” “Lost Gurl,” even the New Orleans bounce like “Know They Name,” show Tru Nyce at his best. I also found DJ Invasion’s weird flubber signiture sound thing to be kind of annoying, and in the way at times, but overall this is a solid release and I’d really like to see a cohesive, non-mixtape release from him in the future.

Cooley – 2000COOLEY EP (Bandcamp)
This shit bores me. I really want to like it, but I said it–I just can’t get into it. Now, I’m not being a hater, despite how harsh that statement may sound; I’m just being honest. So let’s divide the crowd real quick. Cooley is a Migos/Young Thug, rhyme-scheme-followed-by-adlib (“Lord”), Chief Keef high hat (tick tick tick tick 808) rapper kinda guy. If you like any of those names or production styles I mentioned, you will love this. If you like them for them, but don’t feel like hearing something similar, you will hate this. For me, its exhausting to listen to something so repetitive, derivative, and predictable. Octavion X represents well on “Boomshakalaka,” as does the Hippies And Goonz crowd on “Time,” where Cooley actually breaks out of his rhyme scheme cage and delivers, proving without a doubt that he is talented, and capable of so much more than he is showing us. I will listen to Cooley’s next release, and I respect this project for what it is, derivative or not. But the MC, the artist, in me wants to hear him, not them.