Say it with me now: “Yo… Pierre…. You wanna…..” You know the rest.
It’s an odd era for hip-hop. With some hyperbole, it can be said that today’s hip-hop producers, more than ever, can (and often do) outshine the emcees rapping over their beats. I mean, sure, production has always been important, but before maybe 2008-ish, producers seldom enjoyed the household celebrity status they now commonly attain, and signature watermarks were hardly the norm.
When the start of a rapper’s verse is preceded by a producer watermark recognizable by even the most cursory hip-hop fan, it piques the listener’s interest tenfold, and that can be good or bad. Good, because the listener thinks: okay, this person has a cosign from a producer I fuck with, this could be a banger, etc. etc. Bad, because the emcee might not meet expectations, and the listener is left thinking, “what a waste of a great instrumental.”
Here, luckily enough, NC rapper Ron$oCold’s rhythmically uniform flow and near-constant ad-libs work perfectly in concert with Pierre’s characteristically woozy, effortlessly melodic, and bass-heavy production. It’s a good co-sign from one of the game’s best producers right now (although it’s hard to say if the two have even met, considering the whole email-me-a-beat thing that’s been the norm in hip-hop for years). In any case, Pierre Bourne tends to be discerning when it comes to who raps over his beats, and here, Ron$oCold lets neither Pierre nor the listener down. Stream below.
More about: Pierre Bourne, Ron$oCold
