9/10When I first saw the album artwork for this project I knew it was going to be a classic mixtape, but at the same time, it was going to be hilarious. The album starts off by flipping the Prince’s “Purple Rain” sample to “Purple Reign”, I could tell Tum Tum was ready to get the fans loaded throughout the project so I began to get ready. Featuring the soulful sounds of Hot Rod, the song was a clean and yet humorous intro to what many call a legendary Dallas mixtape. The second song on the album, “Cannibus Club”, features production from Cardo, who has produced a great deal of music for Wiz Khalifa. Setting the mood for the album, I heard this song and I wondered if I could roll the song itself up. I could tell the whole album was going to be perfect for smoking. Hate to say that because that’s cliché, but its true. DJ Q smoothly blends into the 3rd track, called “September 24th”, a song produced by Todd Hamburger. Hamburger has produced several songs for E1 and platinum recording artist Dorrough among others, but this song is more reminiscent of some UGK than some of his other music. When “I Be Kickin” [produced by 2Much] comes on, the album seems to shift gears to another level. The song displays Zillaman’s well known ability to appeal to the streets of Dallas as the hooks sings, “See I be kickin that real s###/ Y’all be kickin that fake s###/ I hang wit n##### that will run in ya crib and take s###/Grab that gun and spray s###/Square off don’t say s###/D-Town don’t play b####/D-Town don’t play b####.” Overdubs on this one are as well humorous. “2 Much 3 Much” takes the album down a notch so listeners can get back to the smoking. The heavy organ and clean solo at the end of this song goes perfect with the theme of being “2 Much for the ni***s and 3 much for the ho’s”.Next song, “Award Winning”, which features Doughski G, Hot Rod and Lil Will goes back to that UGK Ridin Dirty feel with bluesy sounding guitars use of the wah-wah pedal, bass in the pocket and a clean R&B hook. Perfect example of some smooth Dallas rap with Lil Will on the song who wrote the original “My Dougie” song that took the city of Dallas by storm several years ago.
“This S### Right Here” is also produced by Cardo and it almost feels like I am listening to Kush and OJ by Wiz. At this point in the album I’m thinking about how much this sounds like other music out there but yet it doesn’t at all. Lets me know Dallas is right there with the rest of the country, yet it has its own swag that Zillaman embodies 100%.“Chucks” talks about Zillaman’s love of Chuck Taylor sneaks. In the song he shouts out all people that wear Chucks, Levis, and white tees. Song has west coast feel with the way the piano rides the beat. Next song is “Kourtney Love”, when I heard the hook I couldn’t stop laughing. Its so well put together, and the creativity of Tum is def clear on this track as he seems to have embodied Kurt Cobain to his fullest. He talks all about his love for a female. Is she hip hop, that white girl or is he actually talking about Kourtney Love a pseudonym for a woman that’s put him through everything a woman could? I don’t know. Guitar solo is clean to finish the song though. “Smoke Piff” ft Lil Ronnie and Lil Tony follows as DJ Q segues perfectly from the previous song. Hook is clean, beat is what Dallas music should sound like, or its really what rap music should sound like really. One of the definite highlights of this project and featured in the music section of AllHipHop.com. “If its F### Me” picks up the pace of the album and the overdubs are dope and it woke me up a little bit. Next song features DSR, who are Dallas legends. Fat B starts off the track that has an ascending chord progression. With “Robbin on Elm Street”, the DSR group adds to the street appeal of the classic Dallas record. Are they talking about Nightmare on Elm Street, or like the Deep Ellum, Elm Street in Dallas, TX? The next song features Play-N-Skillz the Grammy award winning producers and rappers. Although many outside the city may not know they rap, on this song each producer gets on a verse. Zilla and Inertia (SRC/UNIVERSAL/G4 Muzik) finish up the song which features what sounds like the chopped up version of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” “Gas Pipes” has a real east coast feel to the beat, reminiscent of GangStarr. Definitely good to hear a Dallas artist reppin’ what many people call “real hip hop”. With so many artists that have such electronic sounds in their music, it’s cool to hear a more organic hip hop sound out of this region. He goes wild at the end of the song continuing his humor displayed throughout the project towards smoking. “Heart of Champion” is a lighter song about the struggles that Zilla has gone through during his path in the rap game. “Stay Throwed” starts with shouts to RooR bong, Big Chief and his love for bud. The perfect outro to what I would say has been an album that you can listen to straight through. On a ten star scale its tough to take any stars away from this project. The theme carried throughout the project, it was creative, the album is humorous and I was entertained throughout the whole project. I would say the project was a little longer than I expected, but how can you complain about getting more music? You cant especially when it’s coming from an artist as entertaining as Zillaman.I would take one point away because it isn’t an album and it’s marketed as a mixtape but the music is that of an album, a well produced and put together album at that. As a whole it def one of the better mixtapes I have heard over the past year. It seems the definition of a mixtape has changed especially when you look at where it can take your music with artists like J. Cole and Drake using the mixtape to expose the music to the masses in plans for a major release. Looking forward to more releases from Dallas artists.