Back in 2010, Young Money affiliate Curren$y was releasing a new mixtape every few months. Regular critical applause led to his major label debut, 2012’s The Stoned Immaculate. Afterwards his solo releases slowed to a trickle, but he announced his return with a new mixtape back in April, then the single Bottom of the Bottle (feat. August Alsina and Lil’ Wayne) in August. Curren$y has now delivered his long awaited full length follow up, Canal Street Confidential.
Curren$y definitely moves towards more of a trap heavy sound on Canal Street. Even though the rapper’s last release contained a page long list of production credits, with beats from Pharrell and Big K.R.I.T among others, this time around 808 Mafia hitmaker Purps takes care of the majority of production work.
If you’ve heard any big hip hop release from the past year, you’d know what a Future guest verse sounds like. Here he shows up to add some serious star power to the first track Drive By. Another Purps-produced track, Speed, hits the mark with its spacey instrumentals, but Curren$y never seems to find his place on it. He’s clearly more at home rapping over Super Miles and Big Fruit’s tight stoner beats on What’s Up.
Releasing an album as a Young Money affiliate usually entails a Lil’ Wayne verse, and Curren$y made sure his didn’t go to waste, recruiting R&B up and comer August Alsina for the single Bottom of the Bottle. The track includes some classic cringe-inducing Weezy one-liners such as, “Bust them legs open like some scissors for me baby”.
Coming in at just over 40 minutes, you do wonder if Canal Street Confidential warrants being an album as opposed to a mixtape. Sure, the release returns Curren$y to relevancy, if only for a short period, and comes at a time where good hip hop releases are few and far between. But it’s unclear whether anyone will remember it six months down the track.
BY MICHAEL CLARK
