Fredo Bang – UNLV
There are a number of disparate energies that can be found in just the first half of Fredo Bang’s UNLV. In “Pay for It”, the Baton Rouge-hailing MC has transformed Soulja Slim’s 2002 horniness anthem into an “I’m too rich to get my hands dirty” shot-caller’s flex. The song immediately following, “Dog Azz”, is properly horny, though. Bang pays tribute to Soulja Slim again just after that with “Ya Heard Me ‘Complex’”, a song that borrows the continuously repeated refrain of Slim’s original to warn any potential enemies that he “ain’t the type you want some smoke with”. Then there’s “My Body”, a song that contains an interpolation of mid-aughts R&B stars Pretty Ricky’s “Your Body” and a guest appearance from bounce music vocalist BOG Vonnie, all of which culminates in barbecue-playlist-perfect hip-hop. With somehow still more tricks up his sleeve, Bang does his best doo-wop impersonation on “Say Please”, rails against a system that led to the incarceration of Young Thug and YNW Melly on “Free Thug”, chastises the posturing of other so-called gangsters on “Bee Crazy” and laments the fact that hardly anyone can understand his plight on “Last One Left”. A one-dimensional rapper Fredo Bang will never be. But if you’re here for the country-rap tunes he built his name on, the stories of fast money and street vengeance set to production from Hardbody B-Eazy, DJ Chose and Mouse On tha Track, to name a few—well, there’s plenty of that, too.