Grant JonesReleasing their music in December or January, the Canadian pair formally known as the Dookie Bros have been a pleasant footnote to close out the last few years. Their brand of immature boasts over warm boom-bap is accompanied by familiar scratches that are laser-targeted at the part of the brain that tells your neck to move a certain way to DJ Premier beats. You know what I’m talking about – it’s not nodding – it’s SLAMMING. Franchise and Shylow the Grey pull no punches and are fully aware of what Hip-Hop they are creating – dumb fun that is hard to resist.
Claiming to be “The Best” while kicking verses like this feels defiantly tongue-in-cheek, even if the alliteration is on point:
“Temperatures fluctuating nose is dripping with snot
Sly and, slick as a fox, while they flip and they flop
I leave them in my dust, clutching, sniffing my jocks
See when it comes to spitting, you couldn’t fit in my socks
Any, spot on the floor, you know I’m shooting my shot
Even knocking down your doors, and quickly picking your locks
Then sticking this dick in your chick, like the chicken in pox
PIss in your pot, then dip from your crib
I was taught at an early age never to shit where you squat
Next I’m, grabbing some dinner at the spiffiest spot
Sip the, finest of liquors while you sit at the slots
Get to, kicking the rocks, tick to the tock
Ya time’s up, yo Shy hit that shit with the drop”
With a Torae quote and a crazy instrumental, this is one for the purists. Franchise has some particularly ignorant lines that are so unbelievable you can’t help but cackle at them. “Shameless” is another concrete-cracking number I’ve had on repeat for weeks – it’s nothing special lyrically, but the way their flows stop and start shows some improvements over their earlier work. I particularly enjoyed hearing Edo G scratched into “Winners”, another delusionary set of rhymes that suddenly shifts into Franchise talking about a friend he lost. This shift from the dumb boasts to serious themes is a facet of the Dookie brand that I don’t think they’ve nailed just yet, but on the track “Borrowed Time” I was pleasantly surprised by the execution, as they ponder their time remaining on Earth.
After slapping listeners over the head with relentless claims of their superiority, we get to know a bit about the reality behind the mic. Hearing Shy go into detail on how his addiction to Coca-Cola led to him losing his vision and diagnosed as a diabetic, is a message that I took to heart, as an avid Coke head myself. It’s a dangerous drink, that I have gradually weaned myself off of, but it really isn’t talked about enough.
“The Whole Truth” benefits from some Billy Danze on the hook, but is more throwaway, failing to live up to “being the illest shit you ever heard”. The duos’ flows are scruffier, becoming secondary to the thumping production. These flaws aside, I can’t help but fall for the charms of the Dookie Bros. Charm is probably the wrong word, but the music, the cuts, and the tomfoolery of it all, are difficult not to enjoy. Two middle-aged men acting goofy over some of the illest beats around, sometimes that’s all life calls for.
“This is just some regular rap shit
Straight spittin’ this ain’t no takin’ it back shit
There’s no age limits for great lyrics
If you ain’t feelin’ what they kickin’
Go ahead and stick with that wack shit“