Has a rapper ever cared much less than Larry June? For 15 years the San Francisco native has coasted on melodic G-funk beats—courtesy of both Cardo or one in all Cardo’s many imitators—adorning them with autopilot rhymes and essentially the most tedious ad-libs (“Oh my god!” “Goddamn!” “Good job, Larry!”) identified to man. June cruises alongside on intuition, his informal have an effect on reflecting his producers’ languid tempos. His penchant for luxuries nice and small, Supras and smoothies, lends him one thing of an everyman high quality, however even that’s contradicted by his insipid hustle-culture mantras. When he breaks into motivational platitudes (“Maintain going, Larry!”), you end up bracing for an Herbalife pitch.
Doing It for Me (who else would he be doing it for?) assembles the same old roster of A-list producers: Harry Fraud, Cookin Soul, and Jose Rios are all aboard. It’s a number of the greatest music June’s compiled to this point, additional exposing his lackadaisical tendencies. “Magnum P.I.” weaves a fuzzy guitar, winding bassline, and purring synth right into a lush, suggestive wash; June arrives in a Rolls-Royce sipping jasmine tea and clocks out in below two minutes. He’s right here solely to fill house: “I’m all on FaceTime wit’ her, I’m kinda feelin’ this bitch/I like how that bitch discuss, it’s so appealin’ and shit.” Anybody else would’ve thought of this a reference monitor.
Loads of rappers owe their success to proximity, to being within the room each time an awesome beat got here on: Mack 10, Le$, any variety of L.A. County weed-carriers who lucked into Battlecat tracks. (Jay Worthy can’t rap like Nas, however Nas doesn’t decide beats like Jay Worthy.) The job is to remain out of the best way, and June has a uncommon expertise for mucking issues up. “The place I’m Going” and “Actual Speak, Pt. 2” are aggravatingly simplistic, rhyming the identical phrases for verses at a time. “Cleansing My Spot (Interlude)” is a three-minute humblebrag, June cataloging all of the stuff in his home he has to mud. His bulleted diaries are static and repetitive, evoking uncanny solitude: He skims financial institution statements, sends a couple of texts, checks his oil gauge, and drinks orange juice. There isn’t a single visitor throughout Doing It for Me’s 15 tracks—June has a home filled with toys, and nobody to play with.
If he’s a lone wolf on report, June’s vacation-rap philosophy has been embraced by a rising cohort of rappers spanning the Gulf Coast by Texas and factors west. Layering ’80s soul samples with 808 drums and semi-improvised way of life bars, they’re vulnerable to inventory imagery: palm bushes, turn-of-the-century imports, and Diamond Assortment sportswear. Producers Tavaras Jordan and DJ Mr. Rogers are disciples of Houston legend DJ Screw, adapting the woozy tempos and verse-hook constructions of his ’90s work. However the motion’s origins date to 2004, when Lil Wayne boasted he was achieved writing rhymes—to listen to him inform it, every thing from Tha Carter on was a glorified freestyle. His protégé Curren$y seized the baton with an assembly-line strategy, churning out low-overhead initiatives credited to particular person producers, usually simply weeks aside.
