Reppin’ New England to the fullest is SinCity with the hot new mixtape Recession Proof. This review is going to be short and to the point. This tape is fire from intro to outro. Arson. City serves up a full menu of 20 tracks of classic, east coast flavoured raps over hard, street laced beats. Recession Proof takes me back to the mid 90s in terms of mixtape feel. With DJ. Motion doing the hosting, cutting and scratching I’m reminded of DJ Clue’s Springtime Stick Up classics. Standout tracks include “Rules”, “Straight Cash Freestyle and “Crazy G Mix”.
While listening to the tape I almost forgot I wasn’t listening to a full album. The feel is so refreshing in terms of what Hip Hop has been missing from the mainstream. Reminiscent of classic Mobb Deep and 50 Cent joints, if you’ve ever been a fan of classic, street heavy, East Coast boom bap music, you’re going to feel this one.
Now we turn to the lyrics, flows and wordplay, where City shows and proves. He dominates rap beats with lines like “put the pound to you and make it trend”, “Bruce Banner in the club, a new man” and “I’m just an artist but my shooters keep the metal drawn”, City keeps those of us who are lyrically minded satisfied (Honorable mention: “I’m John Ritter 2 bitches 3s company”). Clearly SinCity is an MC and not just a rapper.
If I had to find any areas that I could complain about, it would have to come down to the mix quality of certain tracks (but since it’s a mixtape, dirty is actually kinda cool). The beats are mostly industry beats but City rips them like he owned them. Additionally, one or two of the featured artists don’t seem to be quite up to City’s level but at the same they’re not bad either. To any other indie artists reading this, those who usually buy beats online and put out your own EPs and mixtapes, I suggest you download it a take a listen. I’m sure it will inspire you to write some new fire of your own.
Now for the rating: 4.8 out of 5. Didn’t give it a 5 simply because of the minor issues I mentioned above. After such a strong mixtape, I’m anticipating a project from City over some smoking original rap beats (Album maybe? City if you read this let me know!). Only questions remain are: Can City bring an album which can grab today’s mainstream audience in this current industry climate? Does he even need to care about a mainstream audience? If you want to check the tape out for yourself, download it here.
