I know it got some hate but I really dug his project with Muggs and I’m not usually a fan
Me too. I've never really listened to him until that Muggs produced album and he floated over all of those beats.
Now I've had Mudmouth and the DJ Paul one on repeat while I'm cutting my grass and my mind is blown. Dude really is dope to me I don't really understand the hate
The beats on that Muggs album are an example of what he should have been working with all along. I liked that "Pop The Trunk" joint early on and saw him on a side stage when I was shooting a festival a long time ago, where he sounded decent enough. He's definitely tight with Three 6.
I think the issue with him is that he didn't seem firm enough in his style, so that he started drifting away from what I connect with as hip hop and started embracing more of a Kid Rock type Southern vibe with his Slumerican shit, rather than something that read like the Goodie Mobb Dirty South. Then he linked up with Eminem and I heard some shit that started sounding like Em, which didn't do it for me. I never associated the 2 like that prior and it felt like it would be easy to see him as a corny Em prodigy to anyone without prior reference.
It's interesting, because there have been a small handful of artists who have claimed that Em would use his industry pull to kill their careers or shut them down over the years, often because they were other white dudes. These days, it almost feels like he just absorbs and overshadows or mutes artists in a similar way, whether intentionally or not. He hopped on the Griselda train and did nothing for them. Yelawolf kind of just vanished into the Em/Shady ether, which makes these artists look like they are HIS artists, for those who don't know they already had their own completely independent sound and aesthetic prior to dealing with him. I think it changes the way these artists might be viewed and how well they'll be embraced when they wind up presented as some young signee, rather than more self made autonomous figures. This is especially true when they allow a label to influence or provide input into their artistic direction. I still don't need Em on Griselda tracks.
Now that he's not signed to Shady anymore, maybe we'll see more depth to this guy. To be fair, maybe he even showed it when he was and I just had zero interest in tuning in for it.
slyvinyl.com
