Weekend Money has the hardest bars ever spit over musique concrete production. The duo—composed of rapper Ne$$ and producer/singer Baghdaddy—have been making slow but deliberate moves to take over the NYC rap game over the past two years. Riding some co-signs from ex-Das Racist members and other members of the weirdo rap scene, they dropped the Naked City EP January 2013. I remember it being a cold-ass winter, and tracks like “Yellow” and “Coke & Coffee” were that heat I needed, crashing in my friend’s basement and delving into k-holes of internet rap.
The duo were back in 2014 with the Freddie Merkury tape, bars still hard, beats still weird and built from ethereal found-sounds. The feature-heavy “Break Spinal” is a menacing, tough remix track. The production is paranoid, ominous, minimalist, atypical for a braggadocio song about hustling, but perfectly within Weekend Money’s oeuvre. Past collaborator Kool A.D. does his signature free-associative non-sequiturs, always impressive, and comes close to stealing the show having the longest verse on the track. Notable in a different way is newcomer Well$. Part of me hopes he was recruited for the sole fact he and Ne$$ both use dollar signs—Ty Dolla $ign collab in the works? Either way, Well$ spits a strong verse, proving he can hang with the more seasoned rappers on the track. Producer Baghdaddy had at one point been Hot Sugar’s protege, but it seems as though he’s developed with his own brand of the sound termed “associative music.” Tracks like “Break Spinal”, and the whole tape, show the potential of that movement, and I’m hoping we see more producers experiment with that style of production.
Stream the Freddie Merkury record on Weekend Money’s Soundcloud.
