Key! “Mothers Are The Blame”

A handful of artists are responsible for my recent obsession with everything southern. Some of those artists roll with a circle of winners called Two-9. You’ve seen their name around these parts before. A founding member and an emcee who until now only had two lo-fi, fun releases in White Horse High and Le End is Key who recently dropped off his project Mothers Are The Blame.

Let’s start at first impressions from the title: how can you go wrong. Its anything you want it to be. It could be insulting, it could be high praise. It’s honesty and a catch all. It’s justification for anything you might hear and provides you with your own alibi – mama raised me. But let’s be honest, who needs justification to listen to some good music?

Keeping the project in house he produces a number of cuts, a group of tracks are also credited to Kye – not sure if this was a typo or just another man with funky tracks. Regardless the beats here vary from Trap-ish to smoothed out and soulful. They merge styles like a good southern gumbo, perhaps a played out analogy but you won’t hear anything this liquid coming out of Atlanta this year.

“Where The Party” features a killer saxophone loop in the background that might have been jacked from a cheesy smooth jazz album but when combined with some stuttering high hats, rolling steel drums and the assortment of voices present it’s all of a sudden its own party. Fellow Two-9ers Jace, Johnny and Bodega show up to keep it vibrant.

KEY “THE LIFE” from MCMXCIII on Vimeo.

With an attitude like any of the current trend setting youth crews getting ink all over the net, but with an ear for that crispy originality the South has long been about inspiring you can rest assured you won’t be skipping tracks or getting bored. They keep their bars varied, from the typical weed raps and swag rhymes to things of a bit more importance – growing up a young adolescent in 21st century America. “Grown Ass Man” preceded by an excellent Cedric The Entertainer stand up snippet is one of a few moments where you get to see the other side of Key.

Don’t let the idea of some serious and somber thoughts deter you – they aren’t that heavy or prevalent, rather just enough to show he is trying to move on from the territory previously covered. No, Key turned twenty one the day this dropped last week and as such you should be ready for an active journey through the mind of a young male. There is a song called “Hot Girls & Drugs.”

From bumping bass to perfectly executed flows Mothers Are The Blame will have you coming back all summer long.

Download here. Care of.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2012 at 12:15 pm. It is filed under Blog, Reviews and tagged with ATL Hiphop, Atlanta, Atlanta Hiphop, Curtis Williams, Free Downloads, Key!, Two-9. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.