Bird City, what’s crack-a-latin? It’s the homeboy Bo, back again with some more Arizona flames for your eardrums. This week’s feature artist is an audio engineer, as well as, a pretty nice emcee, GripGetIt.
Grip goes after a specific audience on this track, if you can’t tell by the title, “Mexico”, and he manages to create a vibe that fits beautifully the audience in both sound and content. The track opens with guitar strings and a light bird call and when the beat drops, you’re greeted with a smooth auto tuned voice, explaining his drug exploits on his trip to Mexico. What impresses me the most about this track, is Grip also produced the beat. This melodic guitar driven sound definitely gives the feeling of a summer time, cocaine fueled, party in Mexico.
Cocaine straight from Mexico
50 days since I been home
Mobbin straight from Mexico
My baby don’t know where I’ve gone
A few spots in an otherwise great song, are marred by overuse of autotune. The 3rd bar of the hook (“Condoms never put em on/Cocaine straight from Mexico”), as well as at :46 and :57 seconds, I had trouble figuring out exactly what Grip is saying. Luckily, this doesn’t distract from the first verse of the song, as he sets the table nicely for the feature artists, Primo Steal and Eklipse. Grip polishes his verses off masterfully with his adlibs, which give the track a “sing-song” quality which that plays perfectly if you’re too drunk to remember the lyrics. The sound quality on this track is impressive throughout most of the song, but suffers in the second verse slightly, because of the high key autotune of Primo Steal’s voice.
The features on this track mesh well as they drive home the latin feel and cocaine related themes on the track. Primo’s verse punctuates the drug theme “souvenirs all on my nose, almost killed an 8th alone”. “Mexico’s” themes are common to most hip-hop songs, but the distinct take that each artist has about his interaction with Mexico and its cocaine, makes it original.
Lyrically, the song gets his biggest boost from the 3rd and final verse from Eklipse, a prior 3MMR artist (see Episode 15). Eklipse rips of a string of Spanglish raps that call for an immediate rewind. Bars Like, “She filling her nose up with coca, she hopping up out la ropa/ I’m hopping in that panocha, got plenty wraps filled with mota/” and “Smoking on la cucarachas/Now it’s mi casa su casa” show the skill level and diversity that Eklipse gives you from song to song. Grip provides some a quotable of his own when he chides his girl, and the State of California where he spits “Baby girl show me your anatomy/ just do some more cocaine and get mad at me/ used to wanna live in California, but I swear in Mexico the water’s warmer.”
Grip has a club banger with “Mexico”, the perfect party starter, complete with a head nodding beat and good storytelling. “Mexico” earns a 9 out of 10, this week, as all three rappers play off each other extremely well and uniquely tackle the song’s subject matter. The song suffers in spots from an overuse of autotune, but “Mexico” should be added to your pregame playlist. Also, be sure to check out the “Dramatic” video from Grip, Eklipse and Mookie tha Monster. Thanks for checking us out this week! Check back right here next week with another lit Arizona joint. Peace and love!
BIRDCITYVIEW 