Tee Grizzley is one of those rappers who I see and hear about but never take the time to listen to. Why? Who knows. He was always outside my scope. But since he dropped Still My Moment on November 9th, I figure why not?
If you, like me, know nothing of Tee Grizzley, the best way to learn about him is memes on the internet. Apparently, he robbed a bunch of college students after hitting his own broke point in college. It sounds vaguely funny, because “everyone’s broke in college,” until you find out it was $20,000 worth of stuff which is federal crime territory, so when he release “First Day Out”, he was really coming out of a state prison. So the man wasn’t really lying.
While the Detroit-repping artist released his mixtape on the 9th, it was preceded by “Pray for the Drip” with a feature from Offset, and “Wake Up” with a feature from Chance the Rapper. “pray for the Drip is definitely much more of a flex-on-you song, but “Wake Up” tackles some of the more serious issues rappers tend to tackle, specifically giving hope and consciousness to the people in the streets, going through it. It’s interesting to hear tracks like this from people you don’t really take to seriously. Not that he dives too deep into the rough things he’s been through, but more so, he acknowledges that people want to do stupid things when they get money because he does too, but that doesn’t stop him from advising others to do things like go to college, and no let the prison system get the best of them (supposedly because he took his own advise).
I won’t lie; my interest in the song was piqued because I saw that Chance the Rapper was a part of it. Not because I’m a heavy listener, but that it just seemed to be an interesting combination for me. The album also has features from Quavo, B. Ryan, and Offset, which I understand more, and Lil Pump which I don’t question, but Chance seemed to be in a different vein. Of course, there’s the church organ making up the main part of the instrumental, but that’s less a Chance influence and more a “this is something hood niggas do when they’re being serious”. But the verse is really what you expect: a little hope, a little “I bridge the gap”, and a mention of police brutality.
The album is definitely worth a listen or two, and is definitely something you can play in the car as you ride.