Mmmm....Pop

My nigga Goku though?  Damn.

So I was first put on to XV listening to the Combat Jack Radio Show (btw, check that out. You can find previous episodes on iTunes under the Combat Jack podcast) with Just Blaze.  He shouted this new rapper out, and spoke on his talent, but remarked that he was kinda getting outside of his comfort zone and trying to do things that weren't "him."  I downloaded his mixtapes Zero Heroes and The Yellow Brick Road to SXSW, but I never put them into my rotation, really.  I listen to a ton of music and I'm always getting new music (seriously, I have around 30,000 songs) and I literally never got around to finishing either project.  Since this one came out a couple of weeks ago, and I refuse to listen to/review Plies' mixtape, I decided to give XV a listen and see if he's worth listening to.



1. Intro - This is a pretty interesting introduction...has part of The Simpsons' theme, Full House's theme, and some other stuff I probably should know (I'm annoyed that I don't remember what the background to the latter half of the intro is from).  A nice little intro, nothing to really rate.


2. Andy Warhol (Ft. Slim the Mobster) - This one's a good intro.  It's got an interesting mood; pretty somber-sounding, but it also has some bump.  XV's got bars.  "Grew up around shells and dudes with bandanas, damn, you would think I'm talking 'bout Ninja Turtles".  I'm a young nerd, so I appreciate that line as well as the Andy Warhol references.  If the rest of the tape has lyrical dexterity on par with this one, I'm in for an enjoyable experience.  I want to call him a kid, but he's older than me....but this kid's nice with it. - 4/5


3. Breaking Bad (Ft. Raja) - Continuing with the somber tone of "Andy Warhol," we get this track.  The hook kinda grated on me at first, but it's not TERRIBLE.  Sounds like some shit you'd hear on a Lupe Fiasco track though....and I don't particularly like many of his hooks.  There's a Breaking Bad reference that anyone who has watched the show would appreciate.  He's got punchlines galore...not all of them are great, and some are a little too direct, but he does have some gems; "They say life is a trip and a bitch, well luckily I always pack condoms in my Goyard."  Like I said, this dude is nice with it.  I also like that he's stuck with the almost depressing-sounding backgrounds...gives it a Mood Muzik 2 style feel, and I LOVED Mood Muzik 2 - 3.5/5


4. Be There, Be Square - At the very beginning of this, I thought that Lupe was dropping a guest verse.  When I got over the disappointment that Lupe wasn't on the track, I was able to appreciate it.  He sounds like Cyhi da Prynce on here, but it works; there's an energy on this one that wasn't on the previous two tracks.  "Shoveled snow to get Versace, girls still didn't dig me"...man, I really like this guy, why the fuck haven't I been listening to him?  Something else, by the way...I generally don't go for rappers who only do 2 verses and a hook.  It reminds me of 50 Cent, and I just feel like 3 verses is what a rapper should strive for. With 50, you knew he didn't really have bars, so 2 verses and a killer hook made his shit work.  For someone with bars, like an XV, doing only 2 verses really feels lazy...but he makes it work.  The first few songs have only had 2 verses, but that's perfect for my attention span right now.  So I don't know if this is progress or regression, but I can tolerate 2 verse tracks more now, hahaha - 4.5/5


5. Her Favorite Song (Ft. Raja) - Man.  Yea, I don't like this Raja guy.  You know how I said he kinda sounds like Lupe in some ways?  The terrible hooks by this Raja contribute to this in a negative way.  I'm cool with XV's raps, but I can do without these hooks.  This one in particular sounds like some pop shit, which....can work for some people, but it has a real L.A.S.E.R.S. feel to it, and I DEFINITELY didn't like that shit.  I listened to this a few times to see if I could bump the rating up for it, since I like this guy, but nah...FOH with this. - 2.5/5


6. The Kick - I don't know if you know who Hans Zimmer is, but the odds are he worked on the soundtrack to at least 1 film you liked (The Dark Knight and Inception come to mind for me).  This track samples "Time" from the Inception soundtrack.  This track is great for him...he's convinced me that his formula works for him; dark-sounding backgrounds with 2 longish verses.  A few Inception references on this track, including the final line "Tell my haters hit record on they remote controllers; until my totem falls over," and they work pretty seamlessly with the record.  Nice number punchlines here as well; "I'm a 2 3 5, always in my prime," "And it's 4:15, meaning it's my time." Dude is nice with it!  I'm kinda hyped that a younger dude is spitting bars like these...I get in arguments a lot about this generation not producing any talented hip-hoppers, and I'm glad to add XV to that list of good rappers under 30. - 4/5


7. Interlude - Nothing really special here, probably some movie sample that I should know but since I'm not a movie guy, I don't, smh


8. Go On Without Me - Oh shit, we get 3 verses on this track! *pops bottle* *realizes I'm not getting paid for this shit* *corks bottle* We get an introspective track here, a story about a friend of his who ended up hanging with the wrong crowd...the friend ended up killing himself, and XV regrets not recognizing the signs ("They said he showed signs that I didn't take directions from").  This is a pretty sad one for anyone who's had someone close to them commit suicide, or for anyone who's had friends get caught up in the street shit.  I remember multiple people from my high school dying while in high school off some dumb shit...fucked up.  Needless to say, this one continues the trend of dark tracks...but tracks like these are generally my favorite ones (a huge part of why I like Joe Budden) - 5/5


9. Wonkavator (Ft. Emilio Rojas) - Alright, so when I saw the feature, I figured that Rojas would be on the hook, since the other features thus far were on the hook.  For this track, we actually get a guest verse, and the dude is nice!  He's got a nice flow, and he follows the Willy Wonka theme of the track (there are also Wonka samples on this).  This one has a slightly different energy from the previous tracks; it's still dark, but there is more of an electronica feel on it.  Overall, I'm not terribly fond of the beat, but the verses make up for it quite well.  Also, I'm partial toward Wonka samples ever since "Exhibit A," so there's that. - 3.5/5


10. Mary Kate & Ashley (Ft. Freddy High and Sez Batters) - Despite the features, this is another 2 verse track.  Samples Full House, with Mary Kate & Ashley's "you got it dude" line.  Sounds kinda industrial, but the bump works.  This is a short track, with about as much hook as spitting...I could hear this poppin in the club, to be honest.  I feel like even the "you got it dude" sample would work in the club, hahaha...I like this one, it's a lot more fun than most of the tracks on here. - 4/5


11. Interlude - Something else I should probably know the origin of, yet don't.


12. Jedi Night - This is another one that sounds similar to a L.A.S.E.R.S. track, but at least there isn't a terrible hook.  Of course I approve of the Jay-Z sample, and we get 3 verses on this one, so I'm cool with it.  I'm going to come clean here; despite being a nerd, I haven't watched any of the Star Wars films, so I don't get all of the references...I'm sure that if I did, I'd be a bit more appreciative of this track, but as it stands, a lot of the references go over my head.  Overall, this one gets a - 3/5


13. Aaahh!  Real Monsters (Ft. Schoolboy Q & B.o.B.) - Yo.  I fucks with Schoolboy Q.  I fucks with chopped and screwed shit.  So the beginning of this track is fucking great for me.  I don't really fuck with B.o.B. much anymore...so I was anticipating him on the hook, pissin me off *Unforgivable voice*, so imagine my surprise when he rapped instead of sang!  Schoolboy doesn't have the bars that XV does, but it's fine, I've yet to hear a track that Schoolboy messed up, and he doesn't start here.  Now we get to B.o.B....yo, his verse is nice.  It pisses me off that he's been dropping pop bullshit, because the nigga can rap.  Ignoring my disappointment with dude, he ends the track with a snap, even throwing a bit of social commentary in his verse.  I fucks with this track. - 4.5/5


14. Hi, Life - Despite most of the tracks being dark-sounding, there really is an understated variety in the beats this guy is rapping over.  I don't always approve of rappers pseudo-singing for their hooks, but this one is OK.  I like the witty beginnings to the second and third verses; Konnichi wa and Bonjour are ways of saying "Hi" in Japanese and French (which I can't help thinking is another subtle reference to Lupe Fiasco; in this case, "Paris, Tokyo").  I fucks with this track, even if it does sound a little pop.  - 3.5/5


15. Zombieland Rule 32 (Ft. Irv Da Phenom) - I feel ashamed that I never played Donkey Kong Country 2.......I'm losing my nerd card here.  Fuck.  Anyway, XV's got some bars on this one, including a lengthy Wheel of Fortune metaphor.  I was expecting Irv to be a rapper, but he's a singer...and he does a good job on the hook.  When a hook is done properly, within the frame of the song, I can't hate on it.  This is a good example of a hook being done properly.  If you've watched Zombieland, then you get the track's name as well as its overall theme: "Enjoy the little things."  This album thus far has been one of those little things to enjoy, and this track is pretty good on its own.  Bonus points for the Curb Your Enthusiasm reference, I fucking love that show. - 4.5/5


16. Ending Credits - This sounds like something off of Thom Yorke's "The Eraser"....I have to see if he sampled it.  It leads in to the true end of the mixtape....


17. One of One - This is a great way to end the mixtape.  Lots of punchlines, some Batman references, and a nice, short rehash of his journey here for those of us who haven't been following him for long.  This guy has talent, and the depressed energy of this track fits perfectly with the rest of the tape.  - 5/5



Wow.  Not what I expected at all.  I thought that this would be jumbled and disjointed, full of obvious attempts at radio-friendly tracks and lacking any sort of vision.  I was completely wrong.  This is a young rapper who sounds like he knows what works for him and doesn't try too hard to stray from it.  He doesn't let the few features outshine him on his tracks, and really, outside of the couple of songs with Raja on them, this is an excellent mixtape.  Even though I didn't get every single reference he made on the tape, it was obvious that he intended to stay true to the mixtape's title, Popular Culture, and he did so very well.  I'm definitely going to go back and listen to Zero Heroes and The Yellow Brick Road to SXSW, this guy won me over.  Overall, I'm going to give this a 4/5...now when is this dude's debut album dropping?


Side note: I'll have to listen to the tape again, but I don't think I heard a Dragonball Z reference :-(