Trappin Hard Servin Fenes

Posted to MOVE Blog by Jordan Sargent at 4:36 p.m., March 2, 2009

Jordan Sargent/Photographer

In our past issue we wrote about two of our favorite rap blogs— trapsntrunks.com and muzikfene.com. Coincidentally, both posted exclusive mixtapes last week, featuring a bunch of our favorite underground Southern rappers— Lil Boosie, Gucci Mane and titanic Alabama-based heavyweights G-Side— and a bunch of guys we've never heard of (Betta Half, Young Wine, etc.).

Each site posted a slightly different tape, and both are uniformly great. The best shit on the more underground-centric trapsntrunks tape comes from the aforementioned G-Side and their Bama brethren Betta Half. G-Side's last album Starshipz & Rocketz was my second favorite rap album of last year (I reviewed it here), and their song on Trappin Hard Servin Fenes is in the same vein— contemplative and meditative trance-rap, courtesy of beat-murderers Block Beataz.

G-Side - "Let Me Grind"

muzikfene's edition of the tape features a bit more Southern heavyweights, and the best comes from Baton Rouge's Lil Boosie (for my money, the best rapper alive right now) with a chorus sampling Pimp C, the deceased Southern rap pioneer and UGK member whose throne Boosie soon might occupy. Their song "Life of Crime" isn't what the title would suggest. Instead it's a mournful rear-view look at growing up, with Boosie softly relaying sad stories with the voice of someone who's been there but wishes he hadn't. The beat, courtesy of Pimp, is exactly the type of soulful, funky country-rap that he minted with UGK. Thing sounds like a classic to me.

Lil Boosie - "Life of Crime" (prod. by Pimp C) courtesy of Noz.