The NQM

When I found out that a Hustle Gang mixtape is going to be released I didn’t know what to make of it except just wait until the release and listen to it. Being knowledgeable of the talent & the lyrical abilities some of the members of the crew have I really wasn’t excited to hear everybody spit their bars, just a select few. As I started listening to the tape the intro was just Michel’le displaying her vocals while T.I was talking his shit all over the track. After the intro the first song of this project is a catchy song called ” Err-Body “, although the lyrics are nothing special, everyone’s delivery was on point and it served well to introduce me to the crew.

This tape had a 3-hit combo with ” Problems “, ” Here I Go ” & ” Only N Atlanta “. The 3 tracks who were in the same order that I wrote them are probably my favorite and made me not disparage Hustle Gang’s mixtape and continue listening to it. ” Blocka ” is another star-studded song that stuck in my head after listening to the full thing, it featured an annoying hook by French Montana, decent TIP and Young Dro bars and the best Meek Mill verse so far this year. Moving forward with G.D.O.D I was able to notice Young Dro’s undeniable appearance on the whole project cause he outshined 3/4 of the crew, it was a certain kind of enjoyment hearing him rap on this tape. I’m not a big fan of Dro, not sure if I’m a fan at all but his verses on ” Yeap! “, ” Poppin For Some “, ” Here I Go ” etc.. were delectable. T.I also gave me the impression that he was giving his A game rapping-wise , his flow on ” Kemosabe ” is worth mentioning but his overall presence was just as good. Besides the names I brought up I was also anticipating what would Travis Scott give to the compilation, but after hearing him needless to say I wasn’t pleased.

Hearing ” G.D.O.D ” (the song) and ” Problems ” afterwards it was hard for me not to notice the beat selection. Most of the songs had trap sounds which should’ve been no surprise to anybody, but the ” G.D.O.D ” song was probably the one with most god awful beat ever, it sounded overloaded and made it hard for me to concentrate on the lyrics. After that dreadful beat there wasn’t any other beat I disliked even though I feel like none of them were valuable.

” Animal ” is a song that I feel like it’s very imitative, the track sounds like a soundbite from G.O.O.D  Music‘s  G.O.O.D Friday compilation. Two tracks after that I heard Iggy Azalea’s verse on the last joint and I was glad that was the only verse by her the whole tape had. Terrible job, Iggy. I finished listening to this mixtape for the 4th time and I was finally able to have a strong opinion on it. This is a mediocre mixtape, there’s some amusing songs and then there’s some that deserve to be on my recycle bin, but nonetheless I’m still keeping the whole thing. Although as much as I was trying to convince myself nobody needs a Hustle Gang mixtape, it turned out that they convinced me wrong.

Rating : 6/10