Oh snap! You're watching Rich TVX News Network! The source of raw, breaking news.

ST 2 Lettaz: The G… The Growth & Development

As recent breakups go, G-Sideโ€™s didnโ€™t register with the same magnitude as that of the Mars Volta or Das Racist, but the tributes their split did garner were well earned. Though the Huntsville, Ala., rap duo’s musical boldness pulled together various corners of the internet– The ONE… COHESIVEโ€™s โ€œHow Farโ€ sampled Beach Houseโ€™s โ€œ10 Mile Stereoโ€, while iSLANDโ€™s โ€œGettin Itโ€ sliced up Tame Impalaโ€™s winding โ€œWhy Wonโ€™t You Make Up Your Mind?โ€– ST 2 Lettaz and Yung Clova always had their feet cemented in the spongy, candy-coated stylings of early 8Ball & MJG and other Southern luminaries. It was an aesthetic that, if not exclusively theirs, no one else did better, and it provided the foundation of five satisfying (if commercially ineffectual) albums in barely four years, from 2007โ€™s Sumthin 2 Hate to 2011โ€™s iSLAND.

While Clova, as the head of Athens, Ala.-based collective Lambo Music, has continued to release new material since he and ST officially parted ways, the latter has worked faster. Less than a week after the breakup came his debut EP, R.E.B.E.L., which proved to be the most sonically daring release STโ€™d been involved in yet. Sampling the Beastie Boys, Bone Thugs, Empire of the Sun, and Skrillex, much of it was as kinetic as any of the party-rap by his Huntsville pal Jackie Chain (albeit in a much different way). Not only did it suggest ST would be just fine without his former partner, its best moments justified G-Sideโ€™s dissolution in that it exposed a singular vision that might never have been achieved by the pair as, well, a pair. ย 

Originally planned to be G-Sideโ€™s sixth LP, The G… The Growth & Development wound up as STโ€™s full-length solo debut. It marks the first release of the 27-year-oldโ€™s career that doesnโ€™t have much in the way of continuity. Three tracks approximate pure East Coast classicism– โ€œTrillmaticโ€โ€™s first half, for example, could hardly be more reminiscent of that Nas albumโ€™s โ€œMemory Lane (Sittinโ€™ in Da Park)โ€– and two more aim for the club nearly as overtly as G-Sideโ€™s โ€œCollege Chicksโ€ did in 2009. Of course, those make for two very distant poles, but given that ST has written both with unabashed hubris and of everyday struggles whose details wouldnโ€™t sound out of place on some meditative Rhymesayers single, we know the guy has range. And everything on The G falls within that range.

Besides those from the well-intentioned but occasionally goofy โ€œNot a Luv Songโ€, these verses donโ€™t show any sides of ST we havenโ€™t seen before. Fortunately, he has no problems finding inventive ways to tread his usual topics. Hereโ€™s a note on his dope-dealing history from โ€œGreen Light Districtโ€: โ€œHit that bitch with Pโ€™s and Oโ€™s/ She flip them letters like Vanna White.โ€ On โ€œFlashlightโ€, ST steps back for a survey of the Big Picture, growing as pensive as ever in the process: โ€œWhat good is having a voice if you only talk about yourself?/ What good is having a choice if you only choose to hurt somebody else?โ€ Later on that same track, he looks at his surroundings and concludes, โ€œThis ainโ€™t livinโ€™, thatโ€™s why Iโ€™m livid.โ€ Nothing worldview-shaking or stunningly pithy, maybe, but as per always, ST consistently gets the job done here.

A few obstacles preventย The G from reaching a serious peak or sustaining any real hot streak: some elements that were surely appended to give the album a more expansive feel– GManeโ€™s interstitial musings, the longish in- and outros, the instrumental โ€œLighthouseโ€– account for too much of the albumโ€™s 42-minute duration. (Those GMane interludes donโ€™t serve the same narrative purpose as, say, Kendrickโ€™s momโ€™s do on good kid, m.A.A.d city.) Itโ€™s also frustrating that ST insists on working with relative unknowns instead of collaborating with a heavyweight who might help draw him somewhere near the limelight of rap in a grand sense; Grilly and Bentley might sound a little like Big K.R.I.T. and a more restrained Gunplay, respectively, but they lack the intangibles those guys would bring if they were actually here. Barring the EP/pre-album teaser Prelude… To The G, The Growth & Development might be the feeblest release of STโ€™s career so far. Itโ€™s never bad, but it could have been more streamlined, and we should be hearing a little more ambition from a guy who, as he tells us on โ€œFlashlightโ€, is hoping to be a star at some point.

Ads

StoneBridge & Crystal Waters
Be Kind (StoneBridge & Lilโ€™ Joey VIP Mix)
Keep up to date on current Rich X Search news feed
Search Rich X Wiki Search directly
More than just the search engine
Find images related to what you typed
Entertain yourself watching Rich X Search Video
More about the Rich X Search metaverse plans
DaYeene โ€“ โ€œAnd It Hurts
StoneBridge ft Elsa Li Jones - Somebody
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Stream Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Stream Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Stream Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Stream Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Buy Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Stream Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)
Stream Superhit Rich X Search โ€“ Metaverse (StoneBridge VIP Mix)