TRACK REVIEW: Pusha T - Drug Dealers Anonymous

It' s Push season baby! One of the most underrated rappers in the game for some time, Pusha T, has released a track with none other than Jay Z! Hardly a surprise collaboration, but certainly a tantalising one. The track is slow and brooding, with an ear grabbing beat from DJ Dahi and both rappers spitting deliberately to the listeners. They sound like they have something to shift off their chests. This sounds like a track that is very much in the same ilk as Darkest Before Dawn, Pusha T's last project, released at the end of last year. Pusha's verse starts the track off in great fashion. People complain that he is one-dimensional and that he is "just a drug rapper". I think that is unfair. Sure, Pusha tends to stick to the confines of drug/coke rap, but he does it with such finesse and creativity that I hardly see it as a problem - in fact it might be a good thing. In this song he weaves some fantastic metaphors and imagery into the verse. "How many Madonna's can that Mazda fit? My brick talk is more than obvious, it's ominous" he raps, which is exactly how I feel about Pusha's place in hip hop. He may be predictable in terms of subject matter, but he never fails to sound hard-hitting and sincere. He forces your ears to stand to attention. He references the "He who casts the first stone" Bible verse and turns it into a glorious piece of braggadocio, before going on to cryptically note the time he anonymously sent truckloads of bottled water to Flint, Michigan after the water supply was contaminated with lead. Overall it's a great verse loaded with quotables and Pusha's delivery remains controlled but equally biting.

Jay's verse is of similar length, perhaps even slightly longer. I was fascinated to see how he well he would rap over this kind of minimal production as I felt that on his last project, Magna Carter Holy Grail, Hov hid a little bit too much behind overly indulgent production. On this track he proved that he's still got it in him to spit a whole verse of great bars. Almost every line felt miticulously crafted and well thought through. The context is set perfectly with a soundbite from TV host Tomi Lahren, who took a shot at Beyoncé during her halftime Super Bowl show, criticising the singer for being married to a 14 year drug dealer. From this point we know shit is about to get real. Hov starts by comparing himself to Federico Fellini and Sergio Tacchini, heavyweights in the film and fashion worlds. Worthy comparisons I think - after all he has released some of hip hop's greatest albums. He finds a really solid flow on the beat, rapping about his early days and how they shaped the mould for his current success. Jay has always held up his rags to riches story as something to constantly be celebrated and bragged about, like many rappers do. But with Hov's long history in the game and the limelight, a listener like myself can understand his story and come up much more deeply than other rappers. There are many memorable lines in this verse such as "Before Reasonable Doubt, the jury hung", a comment on the importance of that release and a nice play on words "jury hung' - "jewellery hung". I like how Hov avoided bragging too much about his current lifestyle and instead focussed more on his success-centered mindset that has been with him for several decades now. The balance of bragging, reminiscing on the past and clever pop culture references made it easily one of my favourite Jay Z verses in a long time.

This track has me really pumped for the release of King Push later this year. Pusha is riding the crest of a really big wave, and after King Kendrick I see him as being right up there as one of the best in the game right now. Hopefully the album can affirm this praise when it finally drops. I did have a Soundcloud link to post where you can listen to the track but unfortunately it has been taken down. For now it is only available to stream on Tidal. Damn exclusives!

Score: 85/100