American rappers Cordae Dunston, Anderson .Paak, and J. Cole have achieved a threepeat with their latest song “Summer Drop”, an unofficial installment after the club-friendly “RNP” and the slow-flowing “Two Tens”. The song is Cordae’s second single off his forthcoming third studio album The Crossroads.
“Summer Drop”, much like “Two Tens” and “RNP”, is a J. Cole-produced hip-hop joint from the pair. However, for their third strike, the trio have opted for grittier production, a scant-layered arrangement with the treatment of weak bass thumps, rickety trumpets, and glitchy tempo, which coalesce to impart a rustic feel of retro rap to the track. Rooted in the recreation of nostalgic moments as the lyrical contents of the song also suggest, the sound mimics the affinity for the olden days, the retrospective nature of the music calls back the Hit-Boy and Nas collaborations on their Magic albums sandwiched between the King’s Disease era.
“Summer Drop” Single Art
Anchored on the kernel concept the track is named after, “Summer Drop” touches on themes of childhood and how the rappers used to spend their summers growing up, with the duo spitting vignettes ranging from activities they used to partake in to make extra money (“I saved up the whole summer, that’s how I got school clothes / I bought some Puma’s and some fake chains, that was fools gold”) and chains of events which encouraged them to go on to pursue music professionally (“When the summer dropped, I wanted to make beats and rap / My big brother said I need a MPC for that”).
Cordae and Anderson are a musical conjugate who not only understand each other sonically, but also from a songwriting perspective, and this is evident in the ease with which they can reconcile their worldviews despite being born in two different decades. Dunston has already secured his place as the heir to the throne in the kingdom of lyrical and, to some extent, of socially conscious rap thanks to his debut bid The Lost Boy, while .Paak already has the Grammys and the commercial success attached to his ability to craft pop and rap hits. “Summer Drop” is the middle ground where Cordae explores musicality more without leaning too much on the strength of being a dexterous wordsmith, and it just so happens to be the sweet spot for the Silk Sonic member to boost his storytelling attributes.
Watch “Summer Drop”:
The best part about the Cordae-Anderson .Paak synergy, tempered with Cole’s understanding of the dynamic between the pair, is that both artists understand their ambit and they feed off each other’s strengths enough to reach the climax of their respective abilities without straining their musical muscle.
“Summer Drop” is a choppier offering than “Two Tens” and “RNP” and it will be better understood by those that possess a mature taste in hip-hop, particularly snobbish purists who spend most of their times pining about the deplorable state of rap as an artform while looking back at the good ol’ days. The song, for the most part, caters to lovers of storytelling and those who have not been able to let go of the past and what the genre looked like back then.
