I have to admit, I was late on Curren$y. He’s an artist who has been in the game for quite some time now, but only recently have I begun to listen to him more closely. In a few interviews I came across with him, he seems like a very relaxed and down-to-earth guy. I gave his discography a brief listen, and I was impressed. His laid back delivery and penchant for solid one-liners pairs well with the dirty, old-school sampled instrumentals he tends to rap over. The Legend of Harvard Blue is one of several mixtapes he has released this year, and upon hearing of it I was inclined to check it out.
“Enter” – The tape opens up with a simple sampled beat and Curren$y bragging about what he has. He’s got money, but he’s “still trying to get more.” His delivery is extremely laid back and monotone, which can be good or bad considering that is basically his aesthetic. It is a decent two minute opener to the tape – nothing special.
“Game For Sale” – This song is about making money and the motivations behind doing so. Probably the biggest standout on this song is the beat. The melody is a very harshly chopped sample that clearly shows its edges, but when combined with the banging trap drums it works excellently to create a very quintessentially hip hop beat. Curren$y talks about selling drugs and doing whatever he can to make money, as it satiates his habit of purchasing luxury cars. This isn’t genre-pushing in any way, but it still makes for a great gangster track.
“Leroy” – This song is about a girl who admires how far Curren$y has come. He talks about his rise from “Honda Accords to Aventadors.” The beat is very dirty and old school sounding, with string stabs throughout and sample chops that again let their edges show, which makes for a pretty good beat. This track is quite short and there isn’t a whole lot to it, but it’s pretty decent.
“Grand Piano” – Curren$y is bragging on this song about his lifestyle and how he worked hard for what he has. He tells someone on the song, “I was hunting while you was sleeping. When you got up you had to watch me eating. Don’t get mad now; wish you would have got up off your ass, huh?” It’s something of a short worker’s anthem, which is a cool vibe that fits the project well. The beat is composed of a chopped up piano sample and a dusty drum break that creates an old school pimp sound. Good track.
“Ferrari Saga” – Curren$y is talking about the struggles of essentially being a big dog in the drug trade and how it “ain’t no different from the corners” because “life is fucked up even when you blow up.” He is rapping with a new aggression and it works well with the beat, which is synthesized rather than sampled. It’s a nice change of pace – if this album is a story, which I’m not sure if it is yet, it would be the introduction of conflict or the rising action.
“Supply & Demand” (Prod. By Youngstarr) – This song, undisputedly this tape’s biggest banger, is also its strongest track in my opinion. The sampled, flowing piano melody works excellent with the trap drums and Curren$y’s most aggressive delivery yet. He raps about how he’s plotting a mission against another group to steal from their safe. “N***** is dogs, they’ll break in your house and steal the walls.” His second verse talks about his high output of projects recently and how the fans are just itching for more all the time. It’s super aggressive and climactic. Definitely the high point of this album.
“The Collective” – Curren$y raps again about the cars he drives on this song and how he never thought he’d be able to afford a Cadillac. The beat features another great piano chop and banging drums much like “Supply & Demand.” As far as its relevance to the concept of the project, this may be the falling action, but at this point I’m not entirely sure if this even is a concept album. Good song, if not somewhat typical for Curren$y.
“Kilo Jam” (Prod. By Youngstarr) – The subject of this song is almost identical to “The Collective” – cars and women. The beat is very groove heavy, but not as hard-hitting as the ones before. The hook is another comparison between music and drugs – “More dope for your ears to smoke/F*cking with that audio narcos.” Good track, although I was hoping for more of a concept following the very scene-setting “Supply & Demand.”
When I first saw the title of this project, I was expecting a concept album. Ultimately, I cannot entirely tell if that’s what this is. There are moments on this mixtape when a story shines through, but it is not maintained throughout the project and is not central. Songs like “Ferrari Saga” and “Supply & Demand” feel very much like the makings of a story, but most other songs are just about the usual.
This disappointed me at first, but then I began to reevaluate the project for what it was: a standard Curren$y mixtape. The music on this project is pretty good; there are a lot of solid instrumentals and Curren$y does his usual thing. He is a very skilled rapper, even if he doesn’t stray from his comfort zone very often. While this project had some of the pieces of a much greater piece of work, it is still solid as a pimping, drug dealing, weed smoking Curren$y mixtape.
BEST SONGS: Supply & Demand, Ferrari Saga, Game For Sale, The Collective
WORST SONGS: Enter, Leroy
OVERALL: 6.5/10
