Album Review: Curren$y & Jet Life Presents The Red Eye Mixtape
For not being extremely well known, New Orleans rapper, Curren$y, has built a very solid career for himself. His relentless work ethic and extensive touring has earned him a massive and steady growing fan base. Curren$y has found his niche in the hip hop world by utilizing a very do-it-yourself, direct from rapper to listener distribution style in which he has released a slew of mixtapes, as well as multiple studio albums. Now he’s taken it a step further. Curren$y’s label, Jet Life Recordings, has teamed up with online file distribution company, BitTorrent, to come up with a new and innovative way to release mixtapes in a bundle format.
The Red Eye Mixtape was released as a BitTorrent bundle, which in exchange for an email address offers fans lots of free content. Some of this includes interactive art, a short documentary, and a chance to win tickets or apparel. You can of course download just the mixtape for free, if you’re not into that sort of thing.
Red Eye starts off strong with two solid tracks. The opener, California Mornings, is a solo effort that features former No Limit emcee, Fiend, recounting a random encounter with an alluring female which gives rise to a casual affair. His intricate storytelling is wonderfully detailed, and his cool calm delivery flows perfectly to the hazy laidback production provided by Thelonius Martin. You can check out the video below.
On Grizzly, the mixtape’s second track, Curren$y and Young Roddy spit over a nice up-tempo instrumental compliments of AJ Beats. Young Roddy continues to improve as a rapper, and drops an impressive verse. Throughout this track, and the entire album, he is able to keep up with Curren$y, who is by far the most talented out of the bunch. On Role Models, Curren$y, Fiend, and Casso go rhyme for rhyme, delivering some of the slickest verses on the mixtape.
The remainder of the record consists of some good tracks, as well as some that are mediocre at best. For instance, Crawfish includes another lovely Thelonius Martin beat, along with a solid Fiend verse, but is bogged down by weak lyrics from Conerboy P. Label mate Deelow also makes some appearances which are uninspiring. Overall the Red Eye Mixtape is a better than average effort, with the most compelling aspect of it being its innovative release. Will it change the mixtape game? Probably not, but it does illustrate Curren$y’s business savvy, and provides a great example of how his commitment to fan interaction has allowed him to achieve success in the rap industry without being mainstream.
Fiend - California Mornings - off the Red Eye Mixtape [Official Music Video]
