Before we start asking where the Black Hippy record is at, it's in our best interest to place all chips on the anticipation of Schoolboy Q's Setbacks, since for the last month he's got the antidote to the cold.
Schoolboy Q made the final weeks of December difficult to treat as vacation time from the blogging hustle. Two days before Christmas he dropped a bonus Black Hippy track called “Rolling Stone”, which baffled a bit considering the sample is a Zombies cut. But let's not get sidetracked with how bad we want a Black Hippy record. Schoolboy consistently leaked tracks and videos for Setbacks, much like the formula used to Kendrick Lamar's O(verly) D(edicated). The Top Dawg Entertainment camp knows how to wet an appetite for a new record.
Today's leak is “Bet I Got Sum Weed,” which bears a sample eerily close to Isaac Hayes' “Walk On By,” but I'm hesitant to call it. Whether or not it's a Hayes flip, Schoolboy Q adapts a stoned flow to the beat often synonymous with previous hip hop tracks that gave the Hayes record the slow burn.
The deeper I get into the Black Hippy crew, the less static its members become in their personalities. It's natural to place labels to each member, he's the weird one, he's the thought-provoking one, he's the street wise one, etc. But the Black Hippies never conform to singular representations of their art. Initially Schoolboy Q struck me as the second least street-minded of the crew, with Ab-Soul holding it down as the token lunatic. But, the video for “What's The Word,” featuring Jay Rock and Ab-Soul, changed my perception.
Setbacks is out January 11.
