The King of the South has certainly been in the spotlight this month, heating up the streets with new joints and applying his attention to movie appearances. Most recently we witnessed the Grand Hustle representative dive in a new direction with Project Steps, taking his day one fans back to the flow from the hood.

It seems this was just a taste of what is to come, as Tip plans to get the Trap Back Jumpin’ with a new album, currently labelled Traps Open. We know the southern lyricist is one to switch up project titles nearer to their release date, so we await further details in the time ahead.

For now, we anticipate a quality and rich production with this upcoming LP; a follow up to Paperwork: The Motion Picture; part of a trilogy. Previously titled: ‘The Return’ it is clear why T.I. had a change of heart, reflected through his honest explanation:

“The next one is going to be unapologetic gangsta. It’s trap music and it’s called traps open.” –T.I.

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Master P is bringing us a new mixtape titled We All We Got tomorrow and today he releases his new track titled “Power.” Lil Wayne joins Master P on this uptempo record as well as Master P’s artists Gangsta & Ace B. Give it a listen here.

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ScHoolboy Q, the squawking goofball who hangs out with Mac Miller and calls himself “chubby” on records and “whack” in interviews is the Gangster Rapper of the moment. The genre has been home to rappers both self-deprecatingly funny (The Notorious B.I.G. called himself fat and ugly) and eccentric (Cam’ron and his affinity for pink) in the past, but no one has ever been as sloppy or self-deprecating as Q.

The hook to “Gangsta,” track one on Oxymoron and a vicious ode to the Crip life that Q was long a part of, is a brute, uninhibited force. “Gangsta, gangsta, gangsta” he chants, with frightening venom. While certainly hyper-masculine, there is a vulnerable tinge to Q’s unhinged, mad-eyed performance. Cave-mannish lyrics aside, “Gangsta” remains important because of how far it lands Q from the forced composure of his Gangster Rap predecessors. ScHoolboy himself has often pointed, in interviews, to the dead-eyed 50 Cent as a defining beacon of the genre. Q has referred to himself as the hollow money machine Puffy countless times on Twitter. Absent from Q’s persona is the steely reserve of 50 and Diddy before him; it is replaced with tangible, approachable emotion.

The content of Q’s lyrics, given the context of recent interviews, further challenges the typical notion of masculinity. On “Gangsta,” he chants, “They say they want that gangsta shit,” Track four, “What They Want,” echoes the sentiment: “This that shit that they want…This that shit they gon’ buy.” In claiming that he is only responding to a demand, Q ceases to endorse these individual representations of gang life as being the whole story.

“It’s embarrassing for me to even really be talking about it in detail. …Why would I go and do all that type of stuff, and take time away from my daughter,” Q asked recently, on Hot 97. The ex-gangbanger is more than aware of how sinful his past life was. While he regrets it, he remains thankfully far from parodying gang culture. Instead, he is helping to portray it in a more honest, grim manner.

 Oxymoron reaches its ugly, cautionary peak on the semi-title track, “Prescription/Oxymoron.” In the opening half, Q details his addiction to Oxycontin pills in painful detail: “Dinner on my shirt, my stomach hurts / I had a ball sellin’ 80s but yo, the karma’s worse / I cry when nothing’s wrong.” To add to the lyrics’ wrenching effect, Q’s own daughter is featured on the track, crying out to her father, “What’s wrong, daddy? Wake up!” It is hard to imagine anything further from the polished cool of 50 Cent’s “What Up Gangsta,” a song that begins with the image of Superman’s S on his chest. ScHoolboy is so much more flawed, damaged, and passionate than 50 Cent. ScHoolboy is concerned with consequences—on Oxymoron, no deed, good or “gangsta,” goes unpunished.

Once the sad, clicking beat of “Prescription” slips us into Q’s coma along with him, the eager menace of “Oxymoron” slaps to life. Q becomes a cocky dealer, selling the very same pills that nearly took his life in the song’s first half.  Astute listeners will note that “Oxymoron” actually covers events that took place before “Prescription.” Q calls our attention to the consequences of a reckless, unsympathetic way of life by first wrenching us with an addict’s tale, and then showing us the dealer gloating about his sales.

ScHoolboy Q’s gangsta world is a distinctly human, unpolished mess in progress. The efforts on the part of the Black Hippy spitter to produce valuable tales of street life that are musically enjoyable and realistic are valiant, and, further, his very existence is important. As one of the year’s headlines and the culture’s tastemakers-to-be, Q’s authentic, well-rounded, challenging version of the “gangsta” persona is not only a solid step for hip-hop culture but for gender politics. If artists as stereotyped as Gangster Rappers can continue to push their boundaries, we move toward a world where the definition of masculinity more comfortably accepts reflection, vulnerability, passion, pain, and, ultimately, well-rounded people and honest success.

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“Do ya’ll like gangsta shit?”, Schoolboy Q asked his audience last night in NY at the #WearYourAllegiance Boiler Room broadcast. The crowd didn’t know Quincy was literally talking about his previously unreleased track, obviously titled “Gangsta Shit”. Watch  Schoolboy Q perform the song below and watch the  full performance here.

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Epic Records’ Kat Dahlia has dropped off a taste of what’s to come from her Spring album. The Miami native expresses her distaste for fake gangstas on this one.

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