![]() ![]() On The Luca Brasi Story, he mostly settles for ping pong, cordoning off its more contemplative fare from its tough talk and shifting radically in tone from one song to the next. Kevin Gates is a gifted, pliable songwriter figuring out how to reconcile the cold embrace of street life with a longing for companionship. 22 tracks is a few too many opportunities to flounder, and while The Luca Brasi Story’s misses are mercifully scant, there’s maybe just a little too much of it to go around. “Flex” finds Gates co-opting Gucci Mane’s smooth but subversively verbose flow when guest Terrance Hines isn’t hammering away at the song’s grating chorus. “Weight” proposes a clever nutrition metaphor, but Gates plainly approximates Young Jeezy’s asthmatic wheeze on the song’s guttural, multitracked chorus. “Weight” and “Flex” both overlay ominous hood gothic beats with vocal performances that are a touch derivative. The only real problems arrive when Gates gets more conventional trap sounds to work with. Gates is also at home on the moodier stuff: the twinkling keys and trance vibes of “Hold Ya Head” and “Twilight”, and the ethereal, pulsating bass of “Neon Lights” and the spectral keys of “Arms of a Stranger” all provide the perfect space for him to examine his shortcomings and insecurities. The Luca Brasi Story soars on upbeat productions like Swiff D’s “Paper Chasers” and Nard & B’s “Hero”, which apply Kevin Gates’ sing-song cadence to 808s and frenetic synth runs. He’s got his method down pat, so The Luca Brasi Story really lives or dies on the kinds of songs he chooses to apply it to. That might sound like a strange brew, but Luca Brasi’s portraits of lonesome lotharios and traphouse paper chasers all teeter over the same the brink of collapse, and the intensity and break in Gates’ voice make it the perfect vehicle for these stories of desperation. Street anthems like “Paper Chasers” and “Weight” hold court with tender tales of love under duress like “Arms of a Stranger” and “Twilight” (yes, that Twilight). Gates shares that devotion to matters of the heart and matters of the street, and The Luca Brasi Story oscillates wildly between the two poles. Gates openly plays off the complexity of his character in naming the mixtape after The Godfather’s Luca Brasi, a brutal but unerringly loyal contract killer whose first scene in the film adaptation shows him mulling over how best to present a gift to the don’s daughter at her wedding. Gates has been at it at least as long as either of them, and his new mixtape The Luca Brasi Story imbues trap’s claustrophobic bleakness with an emotional nakedness, capable lyricism, and melodic certitude many of its recent breakout stars have lacked. ![]() He’s more technically gifted at both than Future, whose acerbic croak is often cloaked in a mist of Auto-Tune, and he’s more weathered and streetwise than Drake, whose background in soap opera acting undercuts his talk of hardship of its relatability. His similarities to those artists starts and ends with the fact that he’s a capable rapper and singer. Gates’ mixtapes peruse an emotive, melodic style that often gets him incorrectly lumped into the same milieu as introspective lady-killers like Drake and Future. It’s a shame they couldn’t find a use for him. Gates got a taste of nationwide notoriety after inking a deal with Lil Wayne’s YMCMB imprint a year ago but spent most of his tenure there on ice with YMCMB’s well-populated roster of benchwarmers. As a result, 2018’s Stay sounded bolder and more accomplished, taking cues from the sinewy, pensive circa-2000 emo-which also influenced the band’s 2021 album Everything is Tenuous, which felt like nothing short of a well-crafted punk victory lap.Louisiana rapper Kevin Gates is a star on par with Lil Boosie around his stomping grounds in Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but he hasn’t had much luck in popping nationally. With the 2016 Jimmy Eat World-reminiscent release If This Is All We’re Going to Be and an introspective cover of Paul Kelly’s “How to Make Gravy,” the band showed off greater range, drawing even bigger audiences and sales. On early albums such as 2014’s By a Thread, Luca Brasi favored a rougher sound that touched on math rock’s frantic, textured rhythms. Formed in 2009 around the core of vocalist/bassist Tyler Richardson and guitarist Thomas Busby, the group favor heart-on-sleeve melodic punk songs that draw listeners in with relatable lyrics and pogoing tempos. Although Luca Brasi are named after an intimidating character in The Godfather, the Tasmania, Australia, band are anything but repellent. ![]()
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