When Action Bronson’s Dr.
Lecter album began getting a lot of blog attention last year, most
writers were quick to latch onto Bronson’s passing vocal resemblance to
Ghostface. Bronson has had his own style
from the beginning, and this comparison did him no favors with a lot of
potential listeners. On “Ron Simmons,”
the ninth track on his first tape of the year, he takes a break from rapping
about what he made for dinner to say “don’t ever say my music sound like Ghost’s
shit.” He then goes on to cover such
topics as being old and shitting the bed, ice sculptures and Chinese wizardry. On a later song, he absurdly boasts that he
has a thousand dollar spatula. All of
this tells you basically everything you need to know about Bronson’s lyrics on
this tape. He’s become, along with Danny
Brown, one of the most consistently weird and funny rappers out right now, and Blue Chips is his loosest project to
date. One track is proudly called “5
Minute Beats 1 Take Raps,” and the whole tape sounds like it was made in this
fashion. This off the cuff, don’t give a
fuck approach works way better than it should.
On a few tracks, especially “9-24-11,” Bronson messes up his raps,
accidentally turning rhymes into gibberish, and he just goes back and retakes
the line without pausing. These mistakes
are left in throughout the tape. Party
Supplies’ beats consist of chopped and looped samples which sound somehow incredibly
good and hastily thrown together at the same time. On top of all that, Roc Marciano, Meyhem Lauren, and Kool A.D. show up to drop appropriately weird and entertaining verses. If every one of Bronson’s projects was this
rough, the shtick would probably get old fast, but on Blue Chips, it makes for one of the most replayable mixtapes of the
year.
Action Bronson & Party Supplies - "9-24-11"
Action Bronson & Party Supplies - "Pouches of Tuna" (feat. Roc Marciano)
