Mixtape: Easy Money Gang puts the South in Southern California
DOWNLOAD: Easy Money Gang – Money Is The Motive
Easy Money Gang “More For Me“
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Easy Money Gang “Ezay“
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Easy Money Gang consists of rappers 2T’s and Grown Tone and Dirty Money, who is either their manager, their producer, or both. Either way, it’s really hard to imagine that any of them actually come from San Diego. I don’t mean that as a diss at all and I’m not trying to call them out in any way. It’s just that so much of this mixtape is drenched in the South. From the swampy, gutbucket, UGK-esque production to chopped & screwed hooks to mention of d-boys and woodgrain wheels–as Pimp C once proclaimed, this ain’t hip-hop, these are country rap tunes. For further proof, just take a look at the mixtape cover above and tell me that isn’t an homage to the UGK logo. Hell, Dirty Money is even the title of an UGK album.
Whoever handled the production, it is consistently good. It starts from a down-home blues base and expands out in a million different directions, into clubs and space and weirdo talkbox usage. What I like is that throughout the mixtape, there’s this sense of experimentation, of throwing everything including the kitchen sink against the wall and keeping whatever sticks.
Rapper 2T’s and Grown Tone don’t come across as the most skilled rappers but their goofy charm works in the spirit of the mixtape. What surprised me was their definition of “easy money,” which isn’t the hustler braggadocio like you’d expect. Rather, “easy money” means doing whatever you enjoy doing to get money. It could be anything from rapping to flipping burgers. As long as you’re cool with yourself, that’s easy money. It’s a message of acceptance and individuality that’s actually pretty refreshing. Overall, it’s fun, welcome, engaging listen that you shouldn’t pass up.
Reading be fun though:
