Last week, Lakim dropped I’m Rick James, Bitch​.​.​., one half of a shared single release with the homie BoomBaptist. This past Monday marked the official full release of the project, meaning that everyone who got a fix with I’m Rick James, Bitch​.​.​. finally got their follow-up dosage via Boom‘s contribution, the super infectious Jerry Mane. Much like Lakim, Boom takes the well known Rick James classic Mary Jane and not only chops it up to stack funk on funk, but he also follows the same structure of sample nods by including several hip-hop samples referencing or sampling the original. Definitely click the image above, because you can not only get access to the tracks via Bandcamp, but there are a world of shirts and multi-colored vinyl options available as well. Â
Motown legend Rick James certainly lived a full life comprised of many ups and downs, up to and including the final year of his life where his star rose to as high as it had ever risen thanks to assists from Dave Chappelle and Charlie Murphy. It’s been a minute since he’s been gone, but his impact and influence have certainly not been forgotten, so it’s no surprise that BoomBaptist and Lakim have taken two Rick James classics and given them their respective production special touches, resulting in a pair of singles that recontextualize songs we are deeply familiar with in wonderful ways. Currently you can listen to Lakim‘s effort, the head-nod inducing I’m Rick James, Bitch, with BoomBaptist‘s Jerry Mane releasing the day after Thanksgiving and finalizing the release of the dual single. All of the physical merch appears to be gone, but that shouldn’t stop you from copping the digital release if you can while streaming and sharing regardless.
As a longtime friend and fan of poolboi blu, I’ve enjoyed seeing his growth as a songwriter, recording artist and performer, but I’d be lying to you if I didn’t admit that the foundation of my fandom is his production. My earliest exposure to his work (outside of the stellar and slept on cloudy w/ a chance, which he sang on and produced) were his beat tapes like potpourri., fine dining… & breathing. and Chocolat, but as he bridged over into the aforementioned cloudy era that transitioned into ANTSY, DIXIE and MASON (not to mention Rain of the Squids and a recent single run), I was preparing for poolboi blu to go full evolution into his version of a traditional recording artist.  jubilee showed me he hadn’t lost his production chops, but the recent 318! drop is a remind to me (and everyone else) that poolboi blu is still dropping bangers that will work in your club and party mixes. Enough with my impromptu history lesson though… go check the single, run the numbers up, comment on the track for maximum engagement and share it around just because!
Chief and TheDoomsdayDevice 