Welcome to the Pink C Bodega where we got two Dave East loosies for a dollar.
Coincidentally we’re staying on our recent NYC Crip wave with this post although now we’re heading from Brooklyn uptown to Harlem.
East has me lacing up my Timbs and throwing on a big Marmot jacket with this first one. The smooth ‘No Pork’ might be the magnum opus of East’s career thus far. It’s a ‘classic’ sounding NYC rap song done right without sounding dusty or too formulaic. This is that classic wintertime music, and the type of track that you want to play while you’re hunkering down at the crib or out on a rare nice sunny day in the winter. East goes into full-on nostalgia/story-telling mode as he takes us on a trip down memory lane through the ups and downs of his life growing up in Harlem.
I took a break from blasting Don Q’s ‘Trap Phone’ to check out his freestyle on the Funk Flex show from a couple weeks ago. I’m definitely down for Don Q freestyling over the Blocboy JB ‘Rover’ beat and as dope as that was, the real highlight here is Don astutely handing the spotlight over to his talented Highbridge protege A1, who certainly makes the most of the opportunity.
I don’t know why but I also loved the ‘Now my stomach getting big I feel like my Uncle’ line; a lot of people are stunting by talking about the chains they have, the designer clothes, the cars etc. but in reality one of the oldest and truest ways that you truly can show your status is because you’re eating good and getting fat, eating steak and shrimp, a status symbol going all the way back to biblical times. Now this hasn’t really worked for me or enhanced my status thus far at this point in life, instead it’s just made me an easier target of more fat jokes, but I still support the sentiment nonetheless!
You’ve also got to love the Karlton Hines shoutout and the Oun P shoutout, Oun was one of my favorite battle rappers/freestyle DVD type rappers of the late 2000s/early 2010s scene.
Don Q’s young protege showed a ton of potential here and really put his name on the map with this video, I’m looking forward to checking out more of his stuff and seeing what he does next as he continues to grow as an artist especially being under the umbrella over a successful brand like Highbridge. Highbridge really is starting to look deep with talent, and I haven’t even mentioned A Boogie! (Side note, I really hope that A Boogie really is working on something with 50 Cent like he recently alluded to on Instagram). A1 mentions his new mixtape ‘God’s Favorite Child‘ which I’m going to check out next.