POP OUT

Rappers who tell where they lived and how they’ve lived and what makes them create are my favorite writers. There’s a timelessness to Kanye West, the college dropout who spent three summers making fives beats a day. Same with early Eminem. The personal writing on songs like “Rock Bottom'' age with fewer wrinkles than all the rapid-fire punchlines he uses to express dominance over less technical rap. 

It’s how he articulates starving artistry on “Rock Bottom'' with a hunger that isn’t figurative, but three-dimensional that makes a difference. His conviction adds the touch, the taste, the scent of minimum wage, past due bills, eviction notices, and pink slips. A label would never tell a rapper to make music about trailer park poverty, and yet, those are the records people never forget. Because there isn’t a technique that is more impressive than candor.  

My favorite song right now is by late rapper MMG TB called “Pop Out.” It’s technically flawed in almost every way. The vocal quality is abysmal. His flow isn’t pristine. The lyrics aren’t clever. And there’s nothing particularly special about MMG’s voice. Then there’s the beat, a generic “Mask Off” knock off. To make matters worse, the production wasn’t purchased so you hear in the background all the tags from the website he ripped it from. These critiques are irrelevant when compared to how much heart there is in these verses. 

I can’t name a recent song like “Pop Out” where a rapper starts without any instrumental and goes for 30 seconds breathlessly. “I done took a lil break from da rappin now its time for a nigga to pop out, been to jail for a year and it fucked up my credit but I’m still refusin to drop out,” is how the Alabama rapper starts, a quick summary about not making music, being in jail, and how he’s determined to graduate even though his high school credits were affected by the time locked away. The lines keep coming as every few bars a voice exclaims, “Pop out!” 

When the drums slide beneath his vocals they give him a bounce that springboards.What he lacks in grace is made up in moxie. Lil Baby is an obvious influence, as well as NBA Youngboy, but MGM TB has an identity that isn’t borrowed so he doesn’t sound like these artists. The lyrics about hot boxes, lunch ladies, probation officers, even when he says, “Shoutout Lil Chris, he made me do this, he told me little bro you gonna set trends,”makes a distinct separation between him and rappers who rhyme cliché phrases with general images.

“Pop Out” takes me back to hearing Waka Flocka Flame confess, “I fucked my money up, now I can't re-up” or Bobby Shmurda’s classic, “Mitch caught a body about a week ago, week ago.” I like to think sharing memories is the only way to document moments that, if left unspoken, will vanish after death with the people who lived them. MGM TB was killed in a shooting, a tragic story I found out after discovering the song. He didn’t live his rap dream to its fullest, but we can all remember the time when they were waiting for him to pop out.

-Yoh