Image credit: TMZ

You can read more about this at TMZ. Rap fans know this isn’t the only time Mystikal has legal troubles: he was released from a 6-year bid in 2010 for sexual battery, extortion and tax offenses, and did some additional time in 2012 for domestic abuse battery.

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The post Mystikal is (Also) Free on Bond appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Image Credit: Twitter/ @joynerlucas

Although Joyner Lucas‘ album 508-507-2209 dropped back in June, it’s still ahead of it’s league as far as lyricism goes.

The Massachusetts native not only delivers heavy bars on his major label debut but he also does some brilliant storytelling as well. Even though his style is reminiscent to that of rap legend Eminem, Lucas has a unique flow that many listeners have probably never heard before.

The 16-track project is executive produced by Boi-1da and features guest appearances from Mystikal, Snoh Aalegra and Stefflon Don.

June 16th.. I put my blood sweat and tears into this shit. ??? hope you ready..#5085072209 #joynerseason pic.twitter.com/cuYjLkRmCE

— Joyner Lucas (@JoynerLucas) June 10, 2017

The album does have some extremely personal tracks like “Forever” and “I’m Sorry” but Lucas made sure to include more up-tempo cuts like “FYM” (featuring Mystikal).

Be sure to stream Joyner Lucas’ album 508-507-2209 above and purchase it on iTunes here.

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The post Joyner Lucas’ Album ‘508-507-2209’ Is Raw Lyricism At It’s Finest appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

It has been almost three years since the first time I saw Rae Sremmurd. The party crashing duo hailing from Tupelo, Mississippi were performing a set at SXSW hosted by famed Atlanta producer Mike WiLL Made-It. The rappers, Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi, performed a couple of trap jumping bangers for the crowd; one of which, “No Flex Zone” would turn out to be Rae Sremmurd’s breakout single. Three years, a couple of last year’s hottest songs, “No Type” & “Throw Sum Mo,” and a critically acclaimed debut album later, and Rae Sremmurd has become one of Hip-Hop’s biggest surprises in recent memory.

While the group has always been known for their club bangers, the duo has always been more than just “party rappers.” One-half of the duo, Swae Lee has shown potential as one of the industries budding songwriters. Lee already has writing credits with the likes of Beyonce and Gucci Mane and recently revealed to MTV that he even wrote a song for the pop star Katy Perry.

On the flip side, Slim Jxmmi has started becoming a bigger personality in Hip-Hop. He’s like a mix of Juicy J, Mystikal ,8Ball and Lil Jon all rolled into one. Slim has definitely stepped up his lyrical content on this project. Not that Slim is done rapping about the party scene; he has just developed a better way of delivering the message, this time around.

Sremmlife 2 is like the first album- but on steroids. When it comes to club music, no one can really challenge the status that Mike Will is has created for himself over time and this LP definitely defends that argument.

I believe that this project features some of the best production that we have seen from the superstar producer. The track “Real Chill,” featuring Florida native Kodak Black, has a pulsing beat that makes Swae Lee’s vocals pop out during the hook. Then, on the record “Came A Long Way,” Mike Will stacks multiple chords on top of each other that it gives Slim Jxmmi’ verse a soulful feel.

It is not just the production that gives these records life, but the performances by the group and their long list of features that make this LP worthwhile. The standout moment from Sremmlife 2 is the infectious “Black Beetles” record. With gorgeous production provided by Mike Will, plus luxurious wordplay from Gucci Mane, and Swae Lee providing a hypnotic hook equals an audio masterpiece. We also can’t sleep on Slim Jxmmi as he lays down some memorable bars:

“D&G on me I got a lot of flavor/15 hundred on my feet, I’m tryna kill these haters”

“Black Beetles” follows the style of songs that are found on most of this album. Rae Sremmurd is from the deep south, and you can hear that culture influence their lyrics. To top that off, most of the features on this LP are from some OG southern club bangers. Juicy J makes a contribution on the track “Shake it Fast“, and Lil John lends his talents to the hook

Though Rae Sremmurd, is known as a “club artists” there is a sequence at the end of the album where the duo changes direction. On the tracks “Now That I know” and “Do Yoga“, both artists take a more melodic approach . Swae Lee ‘s vocals take center stage on these tracks.

“Quit tellin’ the world that I deal with you/ That’s what n*ggas do, that’s what n*ggas do/ So much for a dream come true/ So this is what we’ve come to?”

However, Slim takes the challenge of going on a record with a slower tempo and succeeds. Both rappers show in the last part of the LP, they are way more than meets the eye.

Overall, Sremmlife 2 is an LP full of growth for Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi. Backed by one of the hottest producers in the industry, Rae Sremmurd continues to prove their doubters wrong. Sremmlife 2 is the perfect record for the end of summer 16 and well into the fall.

For more news on Rae Sremmurd. Keep it locked on RESPECT.

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The post RESPECT. Review: Rae Sremmurd’s ‘Sremmlife 2’ – A Worthy Sequel appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Watch the new visuals for “Feel Right” by Mark Ronson and Mystikal below:

The post Mark Ronson & Mystikal Team Up for “Feel Right” Video appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Welcome to RESPECT.’s latest feature: “Don’t Sleep”  Throughout this series, we plan on introducing you to albums and mixtapes that we may have missed, but still want to write about. For the first edition, we’ll be reviewing Kevin Gates’ debut album Stranger Than Fiction.

Kevin Gates is a new name to many, but he’s not new to the game at all. The 27 year-old Baton Rouge native has been a regional star for the last few years, slowly building up his following with a steady stream of mixtapes that was capped earlier this year with The Luca Brasi Story. When Brasi dropped, Gates become something more than just another name in the large pool of  Southern rappers: he became a voice that needed to be heard. He’s now signed to Atlantic Records with Lil Wayne’s Young Money management team behind him. With those strong backings he dropped his strongest to date, his debut album, Stranger Than Fiction.

Fiction has all the makings of a southern hip-hop album: heart thumping 808’s meant to rattle trunks, tensely ticking trap hi hats, and references to seductive women, cooking drugs, the struggles of trapping, and having a good time. What’s impressive is  how Gates finds a way to make a redundant subject matter sound refreshing at nearly every turn.

The album opens with “4 Legs and a Biscuit”, a grimy street tale of the fight to survive, and finishes with “Angels”, where Gates sing you off into the night with the words “too many insecurities that won’t allow me to trust/ while I protect us from love if they’re Angels.” In between the former track and the latter, you get 43 minutes of raw and heavily-filtered emotional music.

If you’ve never heard of Kevin Gates, there’s some familiar faces for you. Juicy J and Migos both show up, along with Nashville’s Starlito, to add some other voices to the tracks, but it’s not completely necessary. Juicy J keeps the ratchet levels as high as ever on “Thinkin’ With My Dick,” and Starlito’s scene-stealing verse on “MYB” is one of the higher points of the entire album, but Migos come and go without much notice on “Snake Nigga.” The reason that the guests seem trite is because of Gates’ astonishing versatility. His vocal abilities fluctuate from a growling snarl, which he demonstrates on “MYB”, to a Futuresque (that should be a real word) auto-tuned assisted warble sing-song flow that he summons on ‘Don’t Know What to Call it.” Sometimes Gates will give you a traditional rap; he’ll be on the beat, rhyme for rhyme, bar for bar, but the next second he’s switching to a Mystikal-like snap that forgoes all syncopation and bends the beat to his will. There’s not a better example of this then on “Smiling Faces,” the standout track of the album’s latter half.

The album has it’s moments where things get stale and repetitive. He brings his crew members along for the ride on “Change On Me,” but the threat of his friends not staying  the same, which is a very real possibility with his increasing notoriety, gets old very fast. The chorus of calling names out to “not change” on him isn’t quite the thing you want to yell in the club. He has a phenomenal penchant for storytelling, with great details that can really draw in the listener, but every track feels like an individual story that, sadly, doesn’t connect to the next. With all the similar production – every track is full of woozy synths, hard hitting drums, and faders constantly taking those two elements in and out of focus – you would expect the album to have some continuity, but sadly there’s hardly any.

“4:30 AM” is the highlight of the album. The production, by REQ, doesn’t differ much from the rest of the album and Gates doesn’t bring anything particularly new to the table, neither in his vocals nor his lyrics, yet it contains the perfect mixture of everything that’s right about Gates. He uses those lush sounds behind to switch from a normal rap, to a sweet singing voice, and then all of a sudden he snaps into his Mystikal yelp and thunders off line after line of compelling rhymes. And his storytelling is beyond on-point. Both verses tell two separate stories, providing the continuity that you’d like to see in the rest of the album. It’s a very strong contender for rap song of the year.

There’s so much that Gates brings to a track that it’s no surprise that he’s been featured on tracks with the likes of Pusha T, and backed by the powerhouse that is Young Money. He’s reminiscent of so many other artists, but he packages it all together to create something completely unique. There’s room for improvement – and with the skill set Gates possesses, we expect it – but if you’re looking for an introduction into one of hip-hop’s most diversely talented upstarts, Stranger Than Fiction is a good place to start.

The post Don’t Sleep: Kevin Gates – Stranger Than Fiction appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Shot while Machine Gun Kelly was in Austin, TX for South By Southwest, the video also features cameos from Wale, Juicy J and Wiz Khalifa, as well as plenty of footage of the wild boy’s adventures down south.

The post New Video: Machine Gun Kelly ft. Steve-O, 2 Chainz, Meek Mill, Mystikal, French Montana and Yo Gotti – “Wild Boy (Remix)” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.

Mystikal and his video crew take us behind the scenes at the video shoot for MGK’s “Wild Boy” remix. Meek Mill, Wale and Travis Porter all make an appearance.

The post Video: Behind the Scenes of Machine Gun Kelly’s “Wild Boy” Remix appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.