Da game been good to us.

Just a quick post to show y’all the new video from UGK, Da Game’s Been Good, and remind you that UGK’s new album, UGK 4 Life, is in stores tomorrow.  Go cop that, and show love to a duo that’s shown a lot of love for the state of Texas, and hip hop.  Rest in peace, Pimp.

Errybody hates Phranchyze.

In 2009, what differentiates a “self-released album” from a “mixtape”?  Aside from being a good discussion question, it is also making me wonder what to call this project from Austin, TX rapper, Phranchyze.  Classification aside, though, this is the first release from Phranchyze in a minute, and he does not disappoint.

Phran is a tall, lanky cat with a mic persona to match.  He has an oversized, cocky style, that is still goofy, and just a bit nerdy.  It is hard to balance those attributes without coming off as trying too hard, but with a rock solid flow, Phranchyze does it.  A lot of the material on this album is straight up bragging, but he keeps it varied enough that it doesn’t sound like a solid hour of “rapping about rapping.”  On The One:

I always rush, I never wait
Life’s been good, but never great
I’m a heavyweight, you a featherweight
Nevermind, you a neverweight
A neverweight is the opposite
Of a nigga that’s real and never hates
Never racin’ and never placin’
So their time, they forever waste

Phran takes on a few more topical songs though too.  Pimp Tite is a reflection on the management side of the world’s oldest profession, and Love Me Back is an ode to ATX.

Production on the album is uncredited, but it is varied.  A lot of it is synth-based, but there are a few samples in there.  He and partner in crime, Zeale32, jack a Lil’ Wayne vocal sample for Three Hundred and Sixty Freestyle. Overall, production is decent.  The most notable beat is the big, nasty, dissonant production on Customs, which sounds like something out of the Chicago hipster hop scene.

Phranchyze did a good job keeping this album (mixtape?) fresh, and I definitely definitely recommend giving a listen to this album errybody loves to hate.  He is selling it directly via paypal on Myspace.

Phranchyze – Pimp Tite

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