Fivio Foreign is a solid recruit to lead off a Brooklyn drill standard, but Jones lacks surefootedness over the murky beat, simplifying his cadences down to an underwhelming bare-bones flow: “Bang bang, bang bang/Hooligan, gang gang.” Much better is “Militant,” which combines drill’s thumping 808s and shadowy basslines with a sample of reggae classic “World a Music” as Jones and rising New York co-stars Connie Diiamond and Rah Swish interweave their bars fluidly. There’s “Crunk Muzik,” which appropriates lyrics from an old Dipset song of the same name that more legitimately qualified as crunk music. Of course, going with youth comes with the risk that you’ll become the rapping personification of a “How you doing fellow kids?” gif. Like the best Gangsta Grillz tapes, there’s no overarching theme, just Jones behind a minigun, firing off 200 ideas a minute, hoping more hit the target than not.
In fact, Jones wins not by breaking new ground but by alternating between trying existing trends and throwing back to the sounds of his past. So don’t expect the cultural fabric to be altered by this project.
Drama is entitled to enjoy the attention bump he got from Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost, but the addition of those legendary adlibs was an exercise in nostalgia. As for DJ Drama, his approach hasn’t changed much since he was personally selling mixtapes for five dollars a pop. Jones hasn’t been part of any musical trendsetting since the Diplomats turned Harlem into their own slick-talking, flashy paradise some 20-plus years ago. To be fair, the title won’t get past many fact-checkers.
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