Freebandz affiliated rapper Young Scooter’s Street Lottery has all the makings of a good 2013 Atlanta mixtape. It has features from veterans like Bun B, Gucci Mane, and Ma$e; heavily hyped artists like Chief Keef, Future, and Travis Porter; and talented up and comers like Trouble and Young Dolph; and a couple dudes that Young Scooter knows who are really hard to look up because their rap name is just Marco, but they are really good anyway. He has production from heavy hitters like Zaytoven and Mike Will Made It, a lead single that’s been tearing up the streets, and a management team (or dedicated fan base) that made a Wikipedia page with more citations than cosigner Future’s, or 25 year vet Bun B’s, or arguably better known Atlanta rapper’s like Waka Flocka Flame.
But there’s something about Street Lottery that makes it a great mixtape. Scooter’s delivery and lyricism can seem lazy, and he claims to never write any of his songs down, emulating Gucci Mane, but there’s something about Scooter that makes his freestyles consistently interesting. He has a French Montana-esque charisma that allows him to take a few relatively simple lines and turn them into a near perfect hook. “There’s nothing important than money, them Franklins, them hunneds, them hunneds/ There’s nothing important than money, so we hustlin and hustlin and hustlin.” he repeats, almost singing, on “Nothin Important Than Money” over Zaytoven’s light and dreamy chords.
On his Wikipedia, Scooter is quoted as saying “I don’t really care what I say on a beat as long as it’s about some money. When you try to think hard and write it out, that’s when it’s gonna be fucked up.” And it’s true, he never raps a line on this album that isn’t about money. Often he’s rapping about selling some drugs. Drugs and money doesn’t sound like original material for a rap song, but Scooter is unique. He could fall into classic whipping work cliches, but he doesn’t. “Every language spoke, I can speak it/If you don’t know your plug language they’ll try to cheat ya” he raps on the aforementioned “Nothin Important Than Money.”
Even though the subject of every line is getting money, Scooter gives us some deep insights to his life, subtly. “I made it through the struggle/ This a letter to my mother/ I never had a fucking father.” he raps on “Made it Threw the Struggle.” On “Work” he raps “Don’t ever let a n**** think you need him/Fuck a friend be about your business” and “When you call a n**** phone and he don’t answer for ya/ That mean that n**** never gave a fuck about ya”. Beneath the get-money narrative of the tape, there’s themes of betrayal and dealing with putting your trust in the wrong people.
Some rappers say a lot of things with a lot of words, linguistically dexterously. Others say a lot with a little.
That’s not to deprecate the featured artists. Trouble goes in, as expected, on “Before Rap”. Marco kills both of his tracks to the point that it’s really frustrating that he’s impossible to google. Youngen goes off on “Situation” as well. Hopefully Young Scooter’s hype gets someone to tell his buddies to change their rap names. And Gucci, Future and everyone else do good jobs too. It’s a great mixtape!
The production is a huge component of what makes this mixtape great too. Without Lil Lody’s beat on “Colombia”-which sounds like entering an arena filled with adoring fans, complete with giant horns, bells, and crowd noise-Scooter wouldn’t have had the great lead single to get everyone’s attention. The beats on this mixtape are excellent, varying from horn bursts to dreamy delayed synths, organ swells to sinister strings. Great work!
Maybe it’s just me, but it’s rare that a mixtape drops where I can look at every song and say, “Hmmm… I like that song. Let’s listen to that.” This is one of the few. Check it out, text doesn’t do it justice.
-CO
