Send "Curren$y " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 Near the end of Pilot Talk II, we get something resembling a mission statement from the sleepy-eyed young New Orleans rapper Curren$y: "Kill these beats humane fashion, painless." It's a perfect description of the man's rap style. Curren$y is a great pure rapper, a language addict with a tricky slip-sliding delivery and an ability to keep going for minutes at a time, uninterrupted by choruses. But he's not the type to smash us over the head with his strengths. Instead, his understated punchlines sneakily find ways into your brain and stay there. And after he spent years with hometown powerhouses No Limit and Cash Money, and then on the mixtape circuit, Curren$y finally found his ideal place on the first Pilot Talk album, just a few months old now. Teaming almost exclusively with veteran New York producer Ski Beatz, Curren$y rapped over a luxuriously dazed bed of lava-lamp instrumentals that pulled plenty of sounds from woozy psych-rock. And on the sequel, Curren$y and Ski go even further with that central idea, pushing into sleepy, smooth funk territory that fits Curren$y's rap style perfectly.My favorite Curren$y track from the past year is "4 Hours & 20 Minutes (Ride to H-Town)", a team-up with the blowhard Houston underground fixture Killa Kyleon that hit rap blogs shortly after the release of the first Pilot Talk. That rumbling, bass-heavy track doesn't appear on Pilot Talk II, and its omission is actually a good thing. Both of these Pilot Talk full-lengths work on vibe, and "4 Hours & 20 Minutes" would've interrupted the space-out. So instead of the classically thundering Southern rap of that song, we get a milieu that Curren$y himself describes beautifully on "Montreux": "It's that 1980 Marvin Gaye, live at the Montreux/ Stars in the audience, Al Jarreau in the third row." (That Curren$y considers Al Jarreau a star is the sort of thing that sets him apart from the rest of the rap universe circa 2010.) These aqueous beats come fleshed out with all sorts of beautifully rendered live instrumentation: horns and flutes and pianos and Fender Rhodes and slow-rolling stand-up bass and delicately winding acoustic guitars. I've yet to hear any chillwave quite this chill. And tracks like these turn out to be perfect for the slick shit that Curren$y talks so well. Spitta's favorite subject is weed, naturally enough, and both the music and his effortlessly calm delivery do great work at conjuring the sticky languor of a satisfying high. But his other lyrical touchstones are classic Southern rap material: girls, cars, money. Curren$y finds artful, sidelong ways of approaching this stuff-- punchlines that can read awkwardly on paper but sound amazing the way he delivers them....full text |
| Planetill |
| Curren$y surprised many with his Pilot Talk album with its blend of smooth lyricism, carefree spirit and rich, funky live instrumentation. He proved that he was a viable artist with the ability to craft a legitimate album, and not just a mixtape rapper to be relegated to the periphery. On Pilot Talk 2, he continues that formula, albeit without the element of surprise. Curren$y’s main flaw as an artist is his lack of high level charisma on wax. On Pilot Talk that flaw was addressed with well-timed guest spots and a wide range of music that kept the listener involved. This time around, that variability is absent to the detriment of the album. He hasn’t fallen lyrically but the music doesn’t vary enough speedwise to compensate. The lively bassline and hand claps of “Airborn Aquarium” is a suitable opening with a light piano and chimes completing the track. “Michael Knight” continues the bassline dynamism and an energized Spitta raps against an electric guitar backdrop. “Montreaux” is possessed of a live lounge feel, with a fresh live drum and organ work that fits perfectly with the high hats and brass end-measure. “Famous” finds a drowsy Curren$y stumbling through the hook before recovering with a double-time flow. The sultry, Sade-like saxophone is moody and complements Spitta’s narrative. The weed is an escape for the pressure of new found fame and the uneasiness that comes with it. The bumblebee urgency of the string sample runs counter to the funky guitar, the vibraphone work and lush bass of “Flight Briefing,” but it blends beautifully. Guest rappers Young Roddy and Trademark don’t really have the flair or the skill to do this beat justice but they are serviceable. “A Gee” features a confident Curren$y in full flower of skill; giving a nod to producer Ski for bringing out the best in him, while noting the futility of inferior emcees to duplicate the J.E.T. life....full text |
| Therapup |
| It’s not uncommon for hip-hop artists to release an album every year, and sequels to successful releases are steadily increasing in quantity too. Two albums in a series in the same year, however, might seem overbearing. While the people who picked up Curren$y’s Pilot Talk probably still have the critically acclaimed album in steady rotation it’s sequel is already upon us. This may not look like the most commercially viable move to a casual observer, but Spitta’s Michael Knight video already garnered considerable buzz and that was even before the excellent remix with Raekwon was leaked. A possible explanation for this surprisingly high output is given on the smooth and funky Jets posse cut Flight Briefing: “Give you insight on the situation cause I done it twice Done the dotted line tightrope-walk Where the suits want results, they don’t talk Dozens of songs locked away and rotting in the vault Nothing to blame, it was solely my fault” Whether he’s unnecessarily harsh on himself here or not is hardly the point. What matters is that he’s done following the path laid down by others since they didn’t work for him anyway. Under the tutelage of Dame Dash, the former Weezy weed carrier seems to have found his own lane, which may very well be the key to his success and the reason he’s championed by the bloggerati. Curren$y isn’t just a guy who can rap. There are tons of those, but most of them worry about what they should say and do, and on who’s beats. In short, they worry about what’s expected from them. Spitta is beyond those worries–he sounds like he does whatever feels natural to him. That, apparently, is rapping about rapping, weed, women and chilling, and sounding surprisingly fresh while doing so....full text |
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