"In the internet era, standing out from the hip-hop crowd often requires youthful immediacy, extreme novelty, and a willingness to throw anything at the wall in hopes that something sticks. This isn't a bad thing-- a lot of times, it's what makes keeping up with hip-hop so exciting. But confident artists, artists with a strong sense of self, should be celebrated for adhering to modest ambitions. If anything, in order to have a career that lasts these days, this kind of long-term consistency will become a necessity to combat the hype-backlash loop. Bay Area rapper DaVinci's new Feast or Famine EP, which follows last year's The Day the Turf Stood Still debut, is a release that refines an existing formula, relying on a distinctively wistful production aesthetic and the kind of rapping that feels like a labor of love, from an artist who sees hip-hop as a career.
Party-rap single "Beer, Bitches, & Bullshit" is an immediate standout, although atypical of the record's sound: Over chugging production, DaVinci is joined by scene-stealing Roach Gigz and rapper C-Plus for a song about drunken misadventures. But the bulk of the record has a glossy, carefully-crafted professional sheen. As on his previous record, his vocals are proficiently musical. He has a sixth sense for rhythm and rhyme patterns, which largely overcomes a vocal style that otherwise operates as a detached flatline. As on The Day the Turf Stood Still, his lyrics offer a lot to close reading, if you're that type of rap fan. His worldview is thoughtful and nostalgic, affecting a nuanced sense of melancholy one moment balanced with hopefulness the next.
This is a step up from his previous release primarily because of the production. Where The Day leaned on the predictable reliability (and ideological baggage) of classic boom-bap to frame DaVinci's lyrics, Feast or Famine has a more consistent, unique production style. In keeping with the relaxed pace of his music, the beats are svelte, all smoothed edges and rolling momentum. It conveys the immersive thrill of speeding down the highway with the windows up, the same feel of comfort and control, observing the passing images of an inescapable world outside. The record has a warm, welcoming feel but doesn't shy away from the kinds of real-world dilemmas of the thoughtful street rap archetype. It's an introspective, therapeutic quality, like the internal monologue of a person reflecting privately on the tangled problems he's been forced to confront.
The album's climactic moment epitomizes this contradiction between lush comfort and the ugliness of the outside world. With a propulsive bassline and muted trumpet samples, the incredible "Paying for my Past" refers briefly to a life of drug dealing ("I used to hide my bundle in a laundromat lint trap...") but primarily zooms in on the uglier side of drug addiction, a world where you most viscerally confront your past decisions on a regular basis. DaVinci's expressionless vocals help balance the emotive content of his words and the immediacy of the production, packing a wistful emotional punch." (Pitchfork)
Sweetbreads Creative Collective
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