The B Side: Curren$y's Pilot Talk 2

I made one and a half errors in my Pilot Talk 2 review for HHDX:

Error #1: I miss quoted Curren$y on “Airborne Aquarium”, stating that he referred to his chick as the one calming his bad nerves so he calls her is Ritalin, when really it was his whip.

The actual line is “The car that that I’m sitting in / calms my bad nerves / I call her my Ritalin”.

Error #1.5: In the closing paragraph, I mentioned that Wiz Khalifa was on the original Pilot Talk, when technically he wasn’t. He was on bonus track “Scaling The Building”, but didn’t make the album because of clearance issues.

As minor as it seems, journalistic integrity is not only imperative, it’s what we pride ourselves on here at The-Quotable. It’s what we value first as the foundation of our reputation. So mistakes, however minuscule, must be rectified.

I’ll own that.

Regardless, Curren$y’s second solo endeavor is solid. More than solid, actually. Ski Beatz jazz club backdrop is the perfect soundscape for the New Orleans‘ Emcee’s lazy, off kilter flow, adding diversity to his smoked out ramblings.

It changes the paradigm. It makes Spitta sound different when he’s still rapping about the same three topics: whips, women and weed.

However redundant Curren$y seems after dropping twelve projects in two years triangulated around those same three subjects, he remains listenable because he’s unconventional in approach.

He found his market, honed in on his fan base and caters to them full Monty with no apologies. That’s why he retains ears despite continuously drawing the same picture. With Spitta, it’s expect the expected and sometimes that’s good enough.

What’s most impressive is how Curren$y avoids falling into the same trap that ensnares most rappers who rise through the mixtape circuit when time comes to release a proper studio project: maintaining that raw, underground appeal while reaching for commercial recognition.

Delivering the same edge to the fans who essentially put on for the movement while appeasing the boardroom blood suckers salivating over sales potential is often an impassable albatross. Ask Wale. He couldn’t deliver a Top 10 hit with Lady Gaga on the track, while his mixtapes are still revered.

Here’s the point: Spitta remains Spitta, but how much can Spitta spit the same ish before running stale? How long can he ride without diversifying? How many times can he make the same album?

Creatively, the stakes rise with every release and Pilot Talk 2 sounds like Pilot Talk’s complimentary leftovers -- complete with supbar guest appearances (excluding Dom Kennedy. “Real Estates” rocks any day of the week) and sometimes repetitive production.

Curren$y is clearly nice enough to pimp redundancy farther than the average Emcee. Unfortunately, redundancy, no matter who’s spitting, always equals an average album.

I may have made one and a half errors in the review, but the rating wasn't one.

Curren$y, Pilot Talk 2 Album Review

With a resume thrice as long as expected from an artist who so recently gained national attention -- No Limit Records signee until 2005, Young Money until 2007, dropping a jaw-dropping 10 mixtapes since 2008 earning him a spot on XXL’s vaunted Freshmen ‘10 cover -- N.O.’s Hot Spitta has cultivated his corner of the Rap-o-sphere so potently that the aroma defines expectations. His lazy flow and unconventional rhyme schemes and seemingly train-of-thought ramblings have always been the roots of his appeal. It’s what fans appreciate about him first. It’s half of what makes Pilot Talk 2 (his second album this year) engaging despite it’s consistently limited content.

Take album opener, “Airborne Aquarium” for example, where Curren$y meanders about his T-top ’87 Corvette, smashing under his new pool table, his chick who calms his “bad nerves” so he calls her “his Ritalin” and other contextual aimlessness. The track works because of the way lines like “Emotional luggage / Nothing of it / I don’t check bags / I just carry on leave that bullshit in the past” bounce all over the track’s hopping snares and lurking flutes. The same combination carries cooled out cut, “Michael Knight”. From the dope Paid In Full movie reference that opens the first verse to the second’s unflinching conclusion (“Survive rough land / Cactus plants growing in dessert sands / Alive I stand / Left for dead though a nigga didn’t die / I got highed up so I could autograph the sky”), Curren$y survives because he floats so erratically.

“Flight Briefing”’s triumphant high hats and bluesy intonations and the presence of arguably the album’s most introspective verse adds a quick hit of celebration to PT2. It’s nearly impossible not to feel a sense of inspiration when hearing Spitta earnestly dissect his atypical path to recognition:

“With these lazy eyes I’ve seen / More than you can see in seven lifetimes / Get you on track / Got the fresh scoop from inside / Give you insight on the situation cause I’ve done it twice / Done the dotted line tight rope walk / Where the suits want results they don’t talk / Dozens of songs locked away / and rotting in a vault / No one to blame it was solely my fault / No salt thrown”


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