Disclaimer: The album cover is trash. No qualifier, that shit is despicable. Omar and Will came to the identification of the cover after this write up began and they perfectly understand if you don’t want to eff with the album because of it. I don’t think we know how much of this was Kanye’s call, Pusha’s knowledge of it, or what kind of trash soul it takes to pay $85K for the shock and awe of further perpetuating the narrative of someone that struggled with addiction, but was brilliant and life touching in so many ways. If you good on that, we won’t judge you. No offense taken. If you are still enjoying the album, Omar and Will got the commentary for you.
I don’t care what hood rap, trap rap, rap rap you’re listening to but stop. Just stop. Pusha T dropped his album “Daytona” and brought back “The Wire” rolled up in Regan-Era Economics running for office in “New Jack City.” Yeah, it’s that real. “Daytona” goes so hard we had to bring out two specialists to cut the raw for a taste test before the distribution deal goes through.
William Evans: I knew, I fuckin’ knew when your boy said: “I only ever looked up to Sosa / Y’all get a bird, this n***a Oprah” we was gettin’ that good, vintage King Push. That back to the beats on the lunch table King Push. Still got millions in the ceiling but more like a few hundred K cuz I got some shoes and shit since then, King Push. I can’t be consoled fam.
Omar Holmon: I heard that man say, “Influenced by n**** Straight Outta Compton, the scale never lies / I’m 2.2 incentivized” and found myself in the kitchen packing lines of flour off the cutting board and into ziplock bags. You don’t hear me, I’m chopping up Gold Medal all-purpose flour in my drawers cause I don’t trust myself around my own product. Weird part is, I had a gold chain on the entire time? I don’t own a gold chain man. Push Got me thinking I’m CJ in San Andreas doin’ work for the Grove homie.
William: Bruh. The fam went away for a long weekend, so the house is empty. I got a Friday off. The sun is shining. I’m out here bumping this shit with the windows down in very white spaces with an empty house and little responsibilities today. This shit felt like 1998 all over again. Right down to that murda / drug flow. I’m out here like, why are none of my long white t-shirts clean? Why don’t I own any Adidas anymore? But for real, Pusha got folks out here compromising their morals to get these lyrics off.
Omar: I’m in the heart of Brooklyn with this album playing. Next thing I know, the ghost of Nino Brown force projected himself next to me, eating a bowl of cereal, talkin bout, “Why this shit so hard?”. And Push dropped this in the AM? The FCC didn’t have a problem with this? He talkin’ bricks of cocaine at 8 am? Eggs and Bacon ain’t even finish on the stove, and Push pushin’ my plate out the way in order to drop a duffle bag full of money on the table. I-… I just came here for pancakes, fucked around, and got a court case now.
William: This dude done said “To all my of my young n****s / I am your Ghost and your Rae / This is my purple tape,” I…I cried man. Like, Halle Berry winning the Oscar cried. Never has a reference to the drug game and the color of physical multimedia made me so emotional. I was with my boys rockin’ the purple tape in the old ass Oldsmobile in the whitest suburb in Central Ohio.
Hearing Pusha say that made me feel like I was the time paradox. I was an anchor to the golden age of problematic rap, and I didn’t know I would ever hold such a distinction. And let’s be clear, Pusha might be the most problematic fave. This shit is straight up destructive, against every woke instinct in my body and…I’m playing it as we speak. Loud! Uncomfortable for my ears loud, B. I done took it back to the rear view mirror shakin’ in the car level fam. That’s how serious this is right now.
Omar: Oh, a problematic fave easily. If Obama called a meeting for Rappers, even he would have to say “*Ahhhhh*, Now, we want to uplift the community (long pause) you can tell your story but (longer pause) let’s be positive. Let’s have an influx of art to a higher standard that *ahhhh* raises the bar for hip-hop. Let’s be better for our future. Except for you Pusha T. You can *ahhhhhh* keep talkin’ that dope game shit. We actually need that. I’m sure you do have more to offer Push….but no. I want that *ahhhh* dope, dracos, and dollars on the kitchen counter talk.”
William: Fam, we keep talkin’ about Wakanda as the utopia…if I were T’Challa, I might allow some trafficking just so Pusha T can rap about it. I know, I know, but you don’t take the brush out of Picasso’s hand bruh. You gotta let genius be genius, no matter the cost. Whatever it fucking takes.
Omar: “Evacuate the city, engage all defenses, and get this man some dope money!” As far as I’m concerned, Pusha T is the real Thanos. He wouldn’t even need the Infinity Gauntlet. Pusha would just drop this album in order to turn half the universe to dust plus, he’d be ruthless enough to sweep Peter Parker’s dust into a bag, wrap it in ducktape, dip it in vaseline and sell on the intergalactic streets for an infinity stone per ounce.
William: Can we talk about Infrared real quick? Can we talk about how Pusha who already gives sub-zero fucks found another level of not giving a fuck? “They ain’t even recognize Hov until Annie / so I don’t tapdance for the crackers and say mammie.” What in all fucks man?!?! Not to mention the “How you can right these wrongs / when you don’t even write these songs.” Like, we know who he was talking about, but I feel better pretending he talkin’ about every muthafuckin body.
Pusha write rhymes for dudes that already write and would rather memorize his shit. Pusha write rhymes. I just want to be the Pusha T of TV recaps, man. I just want to write about Westworld with the same tenacity that Pusha T talks about inter-state trafficking.
Omar: Dude, I’m ordering food with Pusha T tenacity from now on. It is a must. “Lemme get a ki of fries, an 8-ball of lemonade, and 3 stacks worth of McRibs.” The line that shook me to my core is “This ain’t for the conscious, this is for the mud-made monsters”. Pusha T said, “don’t think piece me bro.” with that line. This is not about well-written analysis or the vicious cycle of the violence that continues to engulf the youth. “This is about Black T shirts…and drugs.”
Also can we just appreciate that amongst all the coke bars Pusha let us know he’s pro sustainable energy? “White on white that’s the tester / Black on Black that’s the Tesla” What? Who does that? He talkin Tony Montana boat load of coke fresh from the pier then being like “oh, my carbon footprint low as fuck by the way. We been off that fossil fuel shit. It’s Earth day everyday when i drop the top.” He better have Captain Planet in a Tesla makin it rain coca leaves in the music video.
William: Bout fell off my corner with that shit. Left me like Malcolm where X marks my grave. It’s wild right. I did not come to a Pusha T album for content range, but he still droppin’ that kind of shit in there? Your boy is a fuckin’ weapon man. You just gotta point him at some shit that needs to be destroyed, and let him do his damn thing. I mean, he might leave a crack epidemic in his wake, but whatever you wanted extinguished gonna be fuckin’ gone
Omar: Yoh, I feel like I gotta dye my hair black, change my name to something hard enough for white people to mispronounce but yet still say it’s exotic and head for Mexico cause listening to this album clearly makes me guilty by association. The feds watching and listening through our webcams are petty enough to bust the doors down and try and make the charge stick. In nerd laymen’s terms tho? Pusha T makes that Attack on Titan music that makes you wanna join the survey corps so you can see what lies beyond the wall …so you can expand your drug ring.
William: Every time Pusha drop some new shit, I look at this life in the suburbs with my family and cut lawn and pretty mailbox and be like…but is this really what I want doe? I mean, it’s a good life, but is this some kingpin shit? But then I listen to Drake’s response and be like, you know what, I’ll take my beef in the nerd journalism field. Cuz ain’t nobody gonna be talkin’ about “Will be talkin’ that nerd shit, but I heard he ain’t even read a comic book till 2016. Like, Will aiight, but he ain’t even top 10 on his own site” to a smoothed out jazz beat. I mean, they could do that. Maybe that’s what the nerd journalism game been missing. But they better come for me after the holiday. King Push got me way too motivated right now.
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