Curren$y - Weekend at Burnie's Review

It's easy to characterize Curren$y as a weed-rapper and nothing but-- Wiz Khalifa's sticky-mouthed country cousin, say, or a younger Devin the Dude with no singing voice and little sense of vulnerability. And it's true that Curren$y raps more about getting high than most people do, and that his fluid, heavy-lidded drawl does a better job evoking the experience. But Curren$y's become an interesting figure with a lot going on, and to focus on his cannabis appetite is to ignore some of the things that make him one of the more dependable working rappers. For one thing, he's become a workhorse. In the past year, he's put out four ridiculously solid solo releases-- and that's not counting his kinda-sucky Return to the Winner's Circle mixtape, his crew's Jet Life to the Next Life mixtape, or his scores of guest appearances on other people's tracks. Those four solid releases paint a picture of a musical adventurer, a guy who tests himself against a new style of production whenever he gets bored.

On last year's two Pilot Talk albums, Curren$y made his way through producer Ski Beatz' lush shag-carpet psychedelic soul, a luxurious retro sound. Then, a couple of months ago, he released the free Alchemist-produced Covert Coup EP, which gave him a chance to navigate Alc's tense, broken boom-bap-- a dizzy, refracted take on classic New York rap. Compared to those other records, the sound on Weekend at Burnie's is remarkably warm and approachable, and it brings Curren$y closer to the sound of current radio-rap than he's been in a while-- though, of course, he's still a long way from any serious rotation. For this one, he links up with producer Monsta Beatz, whose diffuse, melodic synths sound like a low-key version of the smoothly emotive style that's helped turn Drake and Wiz Khalifa into stars. The music on Weekend at Burnie's drifts by in an exceedingly pleasant haze.

Now, Weekend at Burnie's won't turn Curren$y into anyone's idea of a star. His idea of a chorus is still something like this: "Get paid, get paid my nigga, get [long pause] paaaid." And his rap style doesn't employ the sort of attention-grabbing punchlines that leap through club speakers to grab you. Instead, his delivery is more an unhurried run-on that hits various ideas and images along the way without pounding any of them home. Though the music on his albums has changed, his slippery delivery really hasn't, and it's remarkable how completely at home he sounds on just about any form of beat that he attempts. So maybe the best thing about Weekend at Burnie's is the way these unassuming Monsta Beatz tracks give him room to operate. You can hear the man better on this album than you can on many of his recent efforts. And that gives us plenty of room to admire his slick little turns of phrase. A line like this one deserves to be heard: "Haters tryna deplete my shine like venetian blinds/ But son do what the sun do: rise."

In terms of subject matter, Burnie's doesn't exactly push Curren$y outside of his comfort zone. You never get the impression that much is at stake for Curren$y, even if this is his first commercial release since signing his new Warner Bros. deal. Protégés Trademark and Young Roddy both get plenty of mic time; beyond a single too-brief Fiend verse, they're the album's only guests. We never get to hear Curren$y expressing any sort of drive or urgency or emotion; he's always happy to rhyme "ease" with "breeze." "She Don't Want a Man" is a fairly thin relationship-based story-rap that succeeds mostly because of a smeary cinematic keyboard sound that reminds me of Mario Winans' "I Don't Want to Know". But Curren$y's a rapper so sharp and confident that he never needs to leave his comfort zone, and it's a lot of fun to hear him flexing his style on a sunnier sound palette....full text Despite signing with Warner Bros. Records earlier this year, New Orleans rapper Curren$y hasn't slowed down his indie pace.

The rapper also know as Spitta, released a mixtape, Covert Coup, in April, but plans to release a new album, Weekend at Bernies, in June.

“The 'Weekend at Bernies' sh*t is done," Curren$y told AllHipHop.com. "I'm dropping that on June 28th, so all that is really done, we just got all the mixes from all that and we got a video we gonna shoot when I get to New York, because I got an off day, so I want to try to shoot a video when I'm out there."

Curren$y continued to speak on the album saying, “We did it in like a week and we just locked it in and got some sh*t done you know? We did it all in about a week in Miami, and same way I did the sh*t with the Alchemist."

“You gotta appreciate who Bernie Lomack was before he was killed. You know what I'm saying? The movie is about his posthumous adventures, but like he was the man way before he got hated on you know?” Curren$y joked about the movie his upcoming album is named after.

“Bernie Lomack he had the beach house, he had the golf cart that was like a Porsche, all the chicks dug him, he threw the dopest parties, everyone loved him and even when he was dead people thought he was alive," Curren$y added. "They were just like, 'Its Bernie, he's just always smacked.' Dude was a party man as well as a business man. You gotta appreciate a dude with that party reputation that is working that hard."

In addition to his new album, the leader of the Jets touched on his current Jets Life Tour, saying, “I'm pretty good right now. It's cool because we all connected and that's why I kick it so hard with people who come to the shows. Fans, it's just a word, but I don't really like that. It's just people that f*ck with what you do. They smoking just as good a weed as I do. But at the same time with everything that I've been through in the game. I don't want to say its vindicating or anything but its like wheew!"...full text According to Pitchfork, this is the cover art for Curren$y’s upcoming album, Weekend at Burnies, arriving June 28 via Warner Bros!

The entire album is produced by Monsta Beatz, the guys behind Curren$y’s 2010 single “Roasted”, with an exception of “#JetsGo”, the album’s current lead single. That one features production from Rahki.

Curren$y kicked off his Jet Life tour today which will go through North America for the next couple of months, hit the jump for dates. He’ll also hit Chicago in July for the Pitchfork Music Festival!...full text